ADA compliance by platform means meeting the same legal standard — WCAG 2.1 Level AA under ADA Title III — whether your site runs on Shopify, WordPress, Wix, or a custom build, while working within the access and limits each platform gives you. The standard never changes. What changes is how much of the code you can reach and which fixes are yours to make.
This hub links to a hands-on accessibility guide for every major platform we work on. Below, what every platform shares legally, why your theme and content — not the platform brand — decide whether you pass, and where to start.
The platform doesn’t make you compliant — your build does
It’s tempting to ask “is Shopify ADA compliant?” or “is Wix accessible?” But that’s the wrong question. Platforms ship a base framework; you add a theme, apps, images, copy, forms, and a checkout. Federal courts interpret ADA Title III to cover business websites, and the Department of Justice has affirmed the ADA applies to the web — and a plaintiff’s tester doesn’t care what you built on. They care whether a screen reader can complete your checkout and whether your buttons have names.
So a Shopify store and a WordPress site can each be fully compliant or badly broken. The deciding factors are the same everywhere: a working keyboard path, proper names, roles, and values for every control, sufficient color contrast, real alt text, accessible forms, and a logical heading and focus order — measured against WCAG 2.1 AA.
The platform gives you a starting point and a ceiling. Everything between — where lawsuits actually land — is your theme, your apps, and your content.
Where that ceiling sits varies more than the marketing suggests, and it changes what remediation actually costs you. A hosted builder controls markup you cannot reach, so GoDaddy ADA compliance is as much about knowing which failures are fixable inside the builder as about fixing them. An open-source CMS hands you the whole template layer, which is why Drupal accessibility remediation is mostly theme work that propagates to every node rendered through it. A large catalog platform sits in between — Magento accessibility remediation usually means correcting a handful of PHTML templates that render thousands of products. And a builder that emits clean markup by design, such as Webflow accessibility, pushes the responsibility back onto whoever assembled the page.
Find your platform’s accessibility guide
Each guide covers that platform’s specific failure patterns, what you can and can’t change, the role of apps and plugins, and the fastest path to conformance.
Ecommerce platforms
Online stores are the most-sued category in web accessibility because checkout is public, testable, and easy to break. If a shopper using assistive technology can’t complete a purchase, that’s a clear barrier.
- Shopify ADA Compliance — theme, app, and checkout remediation for the most popular store platform.
- BigCommerce Accessibility — compliant catalogs, filters, and checkout on BigCommerce.
- Magento / Adobe Commerce Accessibility — theme and checkout fixes for large, complex catalogs.
- WooCommerce Accessibility — the WordPress store plugin, where theme and plugin layers both matter.
Content management systems
CMS platforms give you deep control of the markup — which makes durable remediation very achievable when it’s done in the theme, not bolted on.
- WordPress Accessibility — the web’s most common CMS; theme, plugin, and editor fixes that hold up.
- Drupal Accessibility — going beyond Drupal’s strong built-in accessibility to true AA conformance.
Website builders
Hosted builders trade some code access for convenience. Most WCAG work is still possible; a few fixes depend on what the vendor exposes.
- Wix ADA Compliance — what you can fix on Wix, and how to handle its limits.
- Squarespace Accessibility — template, content, and commerce remediation on Squarespace.
- Webflow Accessibility — a developer-friendly builder where clean, accessible markup is well within reach.
- GoDaddy Website Builder Accessibility — the realistic scope of what’s fixable on GoDaddy.
What every platform owner should do (in order)
The path to real compliance is the same on every CMS and builder — and it is not an app you paste into your site.
- Audit against WCAG 2.1 AA. Automated scanners catch only an estimated 30–40% of real issues (WebAIM). A proper accessibility audit pairs automated tools with manual screen-reader and keyboard testing.
- Remediate in the theme and content. Fix the underlying HTML, ARIA, labels, contrast, focus order, and forms where they live — the theme, templates, and editor content — so the fixes survive updates. That’s manual remediation.
- Document conformance. A VPAT / Accessibility Conformance Report and a true accessibility statement show good-faith effort.
- Monitor over time. Themes update, apps change, and editors add content. Ongoing checks keep new barriers from creeping back in.
Why apps and overlays don’t solve this on any platform
Every platform has an app store full of “instant accessibility” widgets. They inject an overlay that doesn’t touch your real code — and businesses on every platform have been sued while running them. The honest answer is that overlays don’t ensure ADA compliance; fixing the theme and content does. If you’re weighing your options, see overlay vs. manual remediation.
Pick your platform, then find your barriers
Knowing your platform tells you how the work gets done; it doesn’t tell you whether you pass. Choose your guide above, learn the broader picture in the complete ADA website compliance guide, and when you’re ready to see exactly where your site stands, start with a free accessibility scan.
For neutral background, the ADA.gov guidance on website accessibility and the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative are excellent references.