ADA Ready · Shopify
US courts apply WCAG 2.1 AA to business websites under ADA Title III — thousands of demand letters land each year. Check the basics, and don't rely on an accessibility overlay.
Shopify gives you the storefront and checkout, but legal compliance is on you, the merchant — Shopify's own terms make that explicit. The platform ships some tools (a cookie-banner and customer-privacy API, a hosted PCI-compliant checkout), but switching them on and configuring them correctly is your job, not Shopify's.
📦 On Shopify: Shopify merchants write their own policies, flows and disclosures, so US federal and state rules land directly on you, not on Shopify. What Shopify handles: Shopify themes vary widely on accessibility; picking one from the store doesn't guarantee your storefront is ADA/WCAG-conformant.
This rule applies to Shopify sellers who run a website serving customers in the US. US website? Check the basics that drive ADA accessibility lawsuits — and avoid overlay-only fixes. Not sure? The free checker tells you in about a minute — no signup.
Whatever the platform handles, you still need to be able to answer "yes" to each of these — these are the points Shopify sellers most often get caught on:
⚠️ Exposure: DOJ up to $118,225 (1st violation) + private-suit costs · Status: In force. On Shopify, that's on top of any account suspension for breaking platform policy.
Compare the penalty for every rule →
Shopify themes vary widely on accessibility; picking one from the store doesn't guarantee your storefront is ADA/WCAG-conformant.
US courts widely treat business websites as places of public accommodation under ADA Title III and apply WCAG 2.1 level AA. If you serve US customers, you're exposed to demand letters.
No. Overlay/widget tools don't ensure conformance and are themselves frequent lawsuit targets. Fix accessibility in the actual site.
Meet WCAG 2.1 AA basics (alt text, keyboard, contrast, labeled forms), test with assistive tech, and publish an accessibility statement with a contact to report barriers.
RuleGoose checks this against the ADA Title III (42 U.S.C. 12181) — courts apply WCAG 2.1 AA. Read it yourself: ADA.gov — web accessibility guidance →
or get one RuleGoose Score across every rule your Shopify store has to meet.
ADA web accessibility (US) is one of several rules a Shopify store has to meet. See the full Shopify compliance checklist →, or read the platform-neutral ADA web accessibility (US) guide.
Informational only, not legal advice, and not affiliated with the DOJ or Shopify. Last reviewed 2026-06-30.