Accessibility problems anywhere in your store are worth fixing. Accessibility problems in your checkout are costing you sales right now. A disabled customer who cannot complete the checkout process cannot buy from you. That is a lost sale and, increasingly, a legal exposure.
I audit and fix Accessibility issues for Shopify stores including their checkout flows. If you want to understand where your checkout stands, my work page has details on how I work.
What Shopify controls and what you control
This is important to understand before anything else. Shopify’s core checkout is managed by Shopify, not by you. On standard plans, your ability to customise it is limited. On Shopify Plus, you have more control through checkout extensibility.
This matters because some checkout accessibility problems are yours to fix, and some depend on Shopify improving their own platform. Knowing which is which saves you time and sets appropriate expectations.
What Shopify has improved
Shopify has put real effort into the checkout in recent years. The current checkout uses appropriate heading structure, labels form fields correctly, and handles most error states in a way screen readers can follow. This is meaningfully better than it was several years ago.
That said, it is not perfect. The pace of improvement has not matched the pace of feature additions.
Common checkout accessibility problems
Cart page issues before checkout. The cart page is part of your theme, so you have full control. Common problems here include: quantity input fields with no accessible label, remove item buttons with no screen reader text (just a small “x” icon), and cart updates that happen silently with no announcement to assistive technologies.
Shipping and payment step errors. When a customer submits a step with missing or invalid information, the error messages need to be programmatically linked to the fields they relate to. On Shopify’s standard checkout this is mostly handled well, but customisations and apps can disrupt it.
Order confirmation page. Often overlooked. The order confirmation needs to convey all the essential information to someone using a screen reader: order number, items ordered, delivery address, estimated delivery. Check that nothing important is conveyed only through visual layout.
Checkout apps and upsells. If you have installed any apps that add content to the checkout, such as post-purchase upsells, warranty offers, or custom fields, these are often the worst offenders for accessibility. They inject their own markup outside Shopify’s control and are rarely built with accessibility in mind.
Shopify Plus checkout extensibility
If you are on Shopify Plus and have used checkout extensibility to add custom UI blocks, those blocks are your responsibility. The extensibility framework gives you flexibility, and with that comes the responsibility to build accessibly. Custom blocks need keyboard access, appropriate labels, and correct ARIA usage just like any other interface.
What to test
Work through the full checkout journey without a mouse. Add a product to the cart. Navigate to cart. Proceed to checkout. Fill in shipping details. Select a shipping method. Enter payment details. Submit the order.
At each step: can you tab to every field? Is the focus order logical? Are error messages associated with the fields they describe? Does the page title change when you move between checkout steps?
Also check with a screen reader. The spoken experience of checkout is often significantly different from the visual one. Silent cart updates, unlabelled fields, and ambiguous button text are common.
The legal dimension
The European Accessibility Act, which became enforceable in June 2025, covers e-commerce services. ADA and Equality Act cases in the UK and US increasingly involve checkout flows specifically, because that is where the clearest commercial harm to disabled customers can be demonstrated. A checkout that a keyboard-only user or a person with a visual impairment cannot complete is not a minor oversight.
If you want help to fix Shopify checkout for accessibility, or you are building a custom checkout experience and want it reviewed before launch, get in touch via my contact from .