Link without a name
WCAG 2.2 2.4.4 Link purpose (in context), Level A
8 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page, Cart 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.secondary-nav__linka.cart-empty__image-link
Zoom blocked in the viewport tag
WCAG 2.2 1.4.4 Resize text, Level AA
4 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page, Cart page
- Why it matters for shoppers
- People with low vision cannot pinch to zoom on a phone.
- Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme
- The viewport meta tag in layout/theme.liquid.
- Direction for a fix
- Remove maximum-scale values below 2 and user-scalable=no.
- Examples from the demo store
Form field without a label
WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A
1 occurrence, found on: Product 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#product-form-template--17656556617982__main--quantity (type="number")
Heading levels skip a step
WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A
6 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, 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
The same id is used more than once
WCAG 2.2 4.1.2 Name, role, value, Level A
5 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
"visual", 71×"visual", 49×"ProductJson-", 17×
No main landmark
WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A
4 occurrences, found on: Home page, Collection page, Product page, Cart page
- Why it matters for shoppers
- Screen reader users jump to the main landmark to skip the header on every page.
- Where it usually lives in a Shopify theme
- The layout file (layout/theme.liquid), around the page content.
- Direction for a fix
- Wrap the page content in a main element with an id, for example id="MainContent".
Empty heading
WCAG 2.2 1.3.1 Info and relationships, Level A
1 occurrence, found on: 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
Icon without a text alternative or a decorative mark
WCAG 2.2 1.1.1 Non-text content, Level A
26 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