Cornerstone theme: automated accessibility test

On September 29, 2026 the AccessifyAI scanner tested the official demo store of Cornerstone 4.3.2 by Fluorescent Design Inc. on 4 pages. It found 10 issue types (526 occurrences in total). For 7 of the 12 WCAG 2.2 criteria this index evaluates it found nothing.

Is Cornerstone accessible?

An automated test cannot answer that on its own. What this one shows is 10 types of issues on the Cornerstone demo store within the 12 criteria this index evaluates, listed below. The content, apps and settings of your store decide much of the result. Of the 55 WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA criteria, the scanner tests 15, this index reports 12, and the other 40 need a person to check them.

This is not a certification and not a legal assessment.

Test details

Developer: Fluorescent Design Inc.
Price: $360 USD
Version tested: 4.3.2, released September 1, 2026
Style: Cornerstone
Scan date: September 29, 2026
Demo store: cornerstone-theme-flair.myshopify.com
Theme Store: Theme Store page
Pages: Home page: tested, 75 findings
Collection page: tested, 295 findings
Product page: tested, 88 findings
Cart page: tested, 68 findings

What the test found

Form field without a label

WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A

225 occurrences, found on: Collection page

Why it matters for shoppers: Without a label a screen reader only says “edit text”, so the shopper cannot tell whether the field is for an e-mail address, a quantity or a discount code.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Newsletter sign-up in the footer, the search field in the header, quantity fields in the cart, price range filters on collections.
Direction for a fix: Connect every field to a label element with for and id (it may be visually hidden) or give it an aria-label. A placeholder is not a label.
Examples from the demo store: input.filter-item__checkbox (type="checkbox")
input.input (type="number")
input.filter-item__radio (type="radio")

Dropdown without a label

WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A

17 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page, Cart page

Why it matters for shoppers: A shopper who cannot see the page does not know whether the dropdown chooses a size, a colour, a sort order or a country.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Variant pickers on the product page, the sort menu on collections, country and language selectors.
Direction for a fix: Name each dropdown with a label element (for and id) or an aria-label such as “Size” or “Sort by”.
Examples from the demo store: select.quick-search__type-select
select#variant-selector-template--26660740301081__main

Link without a name

WCAG 2.2 2.4.4 Link purpose (in context), Level A

2 occurrences, found on: Product page

Why it matters for shoppers: A screen reader announces “link” and nothing else, so the shopper cannot tell where it leads.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Icon links in the header (account, cart), social media icons in the footer, image-only links on product cards and collection tiles.
Direction for a fix: Add visually hidden text or an aria-label to icon links, for example “Cart” or “Instagram”. For an image link, give the image an alt text.
Examples from the demo store: a.product__color-swatch

The same id is used more than once

WCAG 2.2 4.1.2 Name, role, value, Level A

216 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page, Cart page

Why it matters for shoppers: Labels, error messages and aria references can point at the wrong element, so a field or control may lose its name.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Sections rendered twice on one page, such as desktop and mobile headers, cart drawer and cart page, or country and language selectors in both header and footer.
Direction for a fix: Make generated ids unique, for example by adding the section id to them.
Examples from the demo store: "baby-detergent", 4×
"bags", 4×
"baskets", 4×

Empty heading

WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A

9 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page

Why it matters for shoppers: A screen reader announces a heading with nothing in it.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Heading blocks left blank in the theme editor, or heading tags that wrap only an icon.
Direction for a fix: Do not output the heading tag when its setting is empty.
Examples from the demo store: h1.header__logo
h2.ff-body

Positive tabindex changes the tab order

WCAG 2.2 2.4.3 Focus order, Level A

4 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page, Cart page

Why it matters for shoppers: The keyboard focus jumps to these elements first, out of reading order.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Sliders, pop-ups, newsletter modals and custom widgets.
Direction for a fix: Remove positive tabindex values. Use tabindex="0" where needed and order elements in the markup.
Examples from the demo store: tabindex=1

Heading levels skip a step

WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A

2 occurrences, found on: Product page, Cart page

Why it matters for shoppers: People who move through a page by headings expect the levels to nest. A jump from h2 to h4 suggests a missing part.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Section headings, product card titles and footer column headings, where the level is chosen for its font size.
Direction for a fix: Choose heading levels from the structure of the page and set the size with a class.
Examples from the demo store: h1 → h5
h1 → h3

Page without an h1 heading

WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A

1 occurrence, found on: Collection page

Why it matters for shoppers: Screen reader users often jump to the first-level heading to learn what a page is about.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: The main title of a template: collection banner, product title in the main product section, cart title. Some templates style the title as a heading without using an h1.
Direction for a fix: Render the main title of every template as one h1.

Icon without a text alternative or a decorative mark

WCAG 2.2 1.1.1 Non-text content, Level A

49 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page, Cart page

Why it matters for shoppers: If the icon carries meaning, such as a payment method or “free shipping”, a screen reader user misses it. If it is decoration, it should be hidden from screen readers.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: Icon snippets, payment icons in the footer, trust and feature icons.
Direction for a fix: Hide decorative icons with aria-hidden="true". Give meaningful icons role="img" and an aria-label or a title element.
What the test can see: The test cannot tell a decorative icon from a meaningful one, so each of these needs a quick look.
Examples from the demo store: svg
svg.placeholder-svg

More than one h1 heading on the page

WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A

1 occurrence, found on: Home page

Why it matters for shoppers: With two or more first-level headings it is harder to tell which one names the page.
Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme: A logo wrapped in an h1 on every page, or section headings that can be set to h1 in the theme editor.
Direction for a fix: Keep h1 for the main title of the page. Wrap the logo in an h1 only on the home page and let sections start at h2.

Evaluated criteria without findings: 7 of 12

Without findings means the automated test found nothing for the criterion on these pages. Several of these criteria can only be tested in part by a machine.

1.4.2 Audio control (Level A)
1.4.4 Resize text (Level AA)
2.4.1 Bypass blocks (Level A)
2.4.2 Page titled (Level A)
3.1.1 Language of page (Level A)
3.2.1 On focus (Level A)
3.3.8 Accessible authentication (minimum) (Level AA)

Not evaluated in this index

1.4.3 Contrast (minimum) (Level AA): needs the rendered page with its stylesheets
2.4.11 Focus not obscured (minimum) (Level AA): needs the rendered page with its stylesheets
2.5.8 Target size (minimum) (Level AA): needs the rendered page with its stylesheets

Also noted, Level AAA

Level AAA goes beyond what EN 301 549, the standard behind the EAA and the BFSG, asks for. These points are listed for completeness and are not counted above.

Link opens a new tab without saying so (3.2.5 Change on request): 24
Link text such as “Read more” on its own (2.4.9 Link purpose (link only)): 3

What this result does not tell you

The scanner checks 15 of the 55 WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criteria, some of them only in part, and this index reports 12 of them. Keyboard use, focus visibility, captions, error messages and most of what makes a checkout usable need a person to check.
Contrast (minimum), focus not obscured and target size are not evaluated here: they need the rendered page with its stylesheets, and this test does not load stylesheets. Their findings are left out of every count on this page.
It tests the demo store as it was on the scan date: demo content, settings and apps included. A store built on the same theme can have more or fewer findings.
The scanner reads the HTML the server sends, without running scripts or loading external stylesheets. Content that scripts add after the page loads is not part of this test.
It is not a certification and not a legal assessment of the theme or of any store that uses it.

How we test

Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Attribution: AccessifyAI Shopify theme accessibility index, accessifyai.de

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For the developer of Cornerstone

If you have released a fix for any of these findings, or you think a result is wrong, write to support@accessifyai.de with “Cornerstone” and the version number. We scan the demo store again and update this page with the new date.

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