Reviewed October 10, 2026

Should your Shopify store publish an accessibility statement?

An accessibility statement tells visitors and plaintiffs where you stand. What a good one includes, what it cannot do for you legally, and how to write one that is honest instead of boilerplate.

What the statement is for

An accessibility statement is a public page where your store describes its commitment to accessibility, the standard it aims for, known limitations, and how visitors can report barriers or request help. For shoppers who use assistive technology, it is a signal that the store takes access seriously and a practical resource when something does not work. For the business, it is evidence of good faith: documented effort matters in how accessibility complaints are evaluated, even though no statement provides immunity.

It is worth being clear about what the statement cannot do. It does not make an inaccessible store compliant, and plaintiffs' firms know the difference between a statement backed by remediation and one pasted from a template generator. A statement with no testing behind it can actually hurt, because it creates a written record of claims your store does not meet. Publish one only alongside real work, not instead of it.

What a good one includes

Start with the standard you are working toward, typically WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 at level AA, and say so plainly. Name the scope: the storefront, checkout, and account pages, for example. Then be honest about known limitations. If your product videos lack captions or a third-party review widget has issues you cannot fully control, say so and describe the workaround. Honesty about gaps reads as credibility; silence about them reads as ignorance.

The most important section is the contact path. Give visitors a real way to report a barrier: an email address monitored by someone who can act, not a general contact form that goes nowhere. Commit to a response time and keep it. A statement that invites feedback and then ignores it is worse than no statement at all.

Where it lives on a Shopify store

Put the statement where people can find it: linked from the footer on every page, near your privacy policy and terms. One page is enough; it does not need to be long. A few hundred words of specifics beat pages of legal boilerplate. Date it, and update the date when you make accessibility improvements, so the page reads as a living document rather than a one-time checkbox.

Keep the language plain. Accessibility statements written in dense legal prose fail their primary audience: the shoppers they are meant to help. Write it the way you would explain it to a customer on the phone. If your store serves multiple languages, translate the statement too; an English-only accessibility page on a multilingual store undermines its own point.

The honest version

The stores that benefit most from accessibility statements are the ones doing the underlying work: testing with keyboards and screen readers, fixing what they find, and repeating the cycle. For those stores, the statement is the public face of a real program, and it genuinely helps both shoppers and the business. For stores that are not doing the work, the statement is a liability dressed as protection.

So the real question is not whether to publish the page. It is whether the page would be true. If you can write one honestly today, publish it. If you cannot, let that be the prompt to start the remediation work, and publish the statement when the claims on it are real.

Frequently asked questions

What should an accessibility statement include?

A statement of commitment, the standard you aim for such as WCAG 2.1 AA, known limitations with alternatives for affected content, and contact information for reporting barriers. It should describe your actual state honestly, not claim perfection.

Does an accessibility statement protect against lawsuits?

No, not by itself. A statement shows good faith and gives users a path to report issues, which can help, but it does not shield a store with real barriers. It is a complement to actual remediation, never a substitute for it.

Where should the accessibility statement live on a Shopify store?

Linked from the footer of every page, alongside your privacy policy and terms. A statement nobody can find does not serve users or demonstrate commitment. One click from anywhere on the store is the standard.