ADA compliance for fashion and apparel stores on Shopify

Fashion stores are among the most-sued e-commerce categories, and their risk concentrates in the components apparel shopping depends on: variant selectors for size and color, size charts in modals, image-heavy lookbooks without alt text, and quick-view drawers. Each is a known failure pattern, and each is where plaintiff firms look first on an apparel site.

Where apparel stores fail

Size and color swatches built as unlabeled divs, so screen reader users hear nothing meaningful when choosing a variant. Size charts opening in modals that trap keyboard focus. Lookbooks and campaign imagery carrying the merchandising story with no text alternative. Countdown and promo banners with contrast failures. These patterns repeat across the category because the same apps and themes power most of it.

Why the category gets targeted

Apparel is high-volume, visual-first, and app-heavy, which produces exactly the detectable failures filers scan for. The purchase path depends on interactive pickers that are frequently broken for keyboard and screen reader users. A blocked variant selection is a clean harm narrative: the customer literally cannot buy the product.

The fix pattern

Audit the variant picker, quick view, size chart modal, and cart drawer first, because that is where the lawsuits cite. Convert swatches to labeled controls, fix focus management in every modal, and give merchandising images real descriptions. Then monitor daily, because apparel stores ship content and app changes constantly and regressions arrive with them. The free accessibility audit starts on your purchase path.