ADA · By industry
ADA compliance for ecommerce stores
ADA compliance for an online store means the whole buying path, product pages, search, cart, and checkout, works for people using a screen reader or keyboard, in line with the WCAG criteria courts and the Justice Department reference. Online retail is one of the most-sued categories in ADA website litigation, because a store that can't be operated without a mouse is both easy to prove and expensive to ignore. Complidar runs the same accessibility sweep a plaintiff's firm would, across up to 120 pages, and shows you what they'd find first.
Why online stores are a top target
Two things make ecommerce the leading sector in ADA web filings (the annual counts from Seyfarth Shaw and UsableNet both track this): almost every store has the same handful of barriers, and almost every store is small enough to settle rather than litigate. Product images without alternative text, a cart a keyboard can't reach, unlabeled quantity and address fields, and a checkout that traps focus in a modal are the recurring citations, and they repeat on every product page, so one template defect becomes hundreds of provable instances.
The legal footing is settled. In Robles v. Domino's Pizza the Ninth Circuit held the ADA reaches a retailer's website and app where they connect to goods and services, the Supreme Court declined to disturb it, and the matter resolved around $325,000 plus fees. Demand letters now arrive citing that theory, priced deliberately below what it costs to answer one.
Where ecommerce sites actually fail
The failures cluster in the conversion path, which is exactly where they cost you customers as well as lawsuits. The most common, and most citable, are mechanical and detectable from the outside:
- Product and gallery images with no alt text, so a screen reader announces 'image' instead of the product
- Add-to-cart, quantity steppers, and filters that only respond to a mouse, not the keyboard or Enter key
- Checkout and address forms whose inputs have no programmatic label, so the user can't tell which field is which
- Sale prices and error messages in low-contrast text that fails the WCAG contrast ratio
- Pop-ups, size guides, and cookie banners that trap keyboard focus or can't be dismissed without a mouse
What it actually costs
The headline ADA verdicts (a $19M and a $16M among them) are mega-retailer outliers, not your number. The realistic figure for a small or mid-sized store is the volume-suit band: cases like Mendizabal v. Nordstrom and Diaz v. Kroger resolved in the low five figures (roughly $12,000 to $22,000) plus plaintiff's fees, often without a single court appearance. The expensive part is that the same firm can send the same letter to a hundred stores a month, because the barriers are identical and the scan to find them takes minutes.
What the scan checks here
- Full WCAG / axe-core accessibility pass across product, collection, cart, and checkout pages
- Product and gallery images checked for meaningful alternative text
- Keyboard operability of add-to-cart, filters, quantity controls, and the checkout flow
- Form-field labeling on cart, shipping, and payment inputs
- Color-contrast on prices, sale badges, and validation messages
- Focus handling in modals, size guides, and consent banners
Honest limits: A scan verifies what is mechanically detectable: missing labels, unreachable controls, contrast failures, broken focus. It can't judge whether your alt text is actually descriptive, or whether a complex custom widget is usable in practice; those need human review, and the report says so rather than implying a clean automated pass equals full conformance.
Common questions
Does the ADA really apply to my online store if I have no physical shop?
In most of the country courts have applied Title III to retail websites that sell goods and services, and the Domino's case is the anchor. A handful of circuits read it more narrowly, which is a counsel question for your jurisdiction. What isn't in question is whether your store has the barriers plaintiffs cite, and that's what a scan answers.
I use Shopify / WooCommerce. Doesn't the platform handle accessibility?
The platform gives you an accessible starting theme at best; your product images, apps, custom sections, and checkout edits are where the barriers creep in, and the demand letter names your store, not the platform. Complidar scans the pages your customers actually use, third-party widgets included.
What does an ecommerce accessibility scan cost?
The preview is free: violation count, severity, and an estimated liability range across up to 120 pages, no account or card. The full report with per-finding evidence and fixes is a one-time unlock, and monitoring re-scans on a schedule because stores change constantly (new products, new apps, theme updates).
All 22 checks · up to 120 pages · no card
Last updated 2026-06-28 · Informational, not legal advice: how to read this