Scanning in a real browser
Every planYour storefront is opened the way a shopper opens it and left to settle before anything is checked, so the result reflects what your theme and your other apps actually produced.
Accessibility scanning for Shopify
Find accessibility issues and know when they return
AccessIQ opens your storefront in a real browser and checks the pages a shopper actually sees against WCAG 2.1 AA. You get every issue it finds, where each one happens, and what changed since the last time you looked.
- No Shopify Admin API scopes
- Your theme is never changed
- Nothing about your customers is read
your-store.myshopify.comScan running
- Preparing store
- Scanning homepage
- Checking navigation
- Checking content
- Reviewing accessibility
- Finalising results
One scan covers your homepage plus up to three pages discovered from it.
Why it matters
A storefront does not stay still
Accessibility is not a job you finish. The markup a shopper meets is produced fresh on every visit by your theme, your content and your other apps, and any of the three can change without anyone deciding to change it.
Themes change
A theme update, a new section or a swapped template can change the markup behind a page that looked fine the last time somebody checked.
Content changes
Products, images and pages are added every week. An image with no alternative text, or a heading level out of order, arrives quietly.
Apps change
Other apps put their own markup into your storefront. Reading the template would never show it. Rendering the page does.
Which is why an issue you put right in March can be back in June. AccessIQ is built to tell you when that happens.
How it works
Five steps, and you own every one of them
AccessIQ reports and explains. The changes stay yours to make, in your own Shopify admin, which is where they belong.
Find it
A scan opens your homepage and up to three pages linked from it in a real browser, then checks what rendered.
Understand it
Each issue comes with what it means for a shopper, the WCAG criterion, and the pages and elements affected.
Fix itPro
The ordered steps for putting it right in your Shopify admin. Some findings need a person to look instead.
Check againPro
Scan after a change, and see what was resolved, what is new and what is unchanged.
Know when it returnsPro+
A weekly check on a day you choose tells you which issues have come back.
The product
What AccessIQ gives you
Every plan shows you where you stand. What the paid tiers add is the work that comes after finding an issue.
Every issue, grouped by priority
Every planFindings are ordered by how much they get in a shopper's way, with the pages each one appears on and the number of elements it affects.
Live progress you can stop
Every planA scan reports the stage it has reached while it runs, and you can cancel it at any point.
Ordered remediation steps
ProThe steps for putting an issue right in your Shopify admin, in the order to do them. Where a finding needs human judgement rather than a fixed answer, AccessIQ says so instead of inventing one.
Comparison with your last scan
ProScan after a change and see what was resolved, what is new and what is unchanged, rather than reading the whole list again.
Weekly monitoring
Pro+A scheduled check once a week, on a day and hour you pick, using your allowance rather than a separate one.
Issues that have returned
Pro+Issues are tracked by what they are and where they happen, so an issue you resolved and that has come back is named as one rather than lost in a total.
Accessibility Record
Pro+Export a record of the scans you have run and what they found, for your own files or to hand to whoever does the work.
Inside a finding
What a scan actually returns
No score and no grade. AccessIQ counts issues, occurrences and pages, and anything beyond that would be a number we invented.
Automated checks cover only part of WCAG. A scan that finds nothing means no failures a machine can detect were found on the pages it checked. It is not a statement that your storefront is fully accessible.
Every issue AccessIQ reports
- The issue
- What is wrong, in a sentence someone who does not write code can act on.
- Why it matters
- What it does to a shopper using a screen reader, a keyboard or magnification.
- The WCAG criterion
- The success criterion in WCAG 2.1 Level AA that the check maps to.
- Where it happens
- Which of the scanned pages the issue was found on.
- How much of it there is
- The number of elements affected, so one stray image is not read as a crisis.
- The failing markup
- A sample of the elements that failed, where the scan was able to capture one.
- The steps to fix it
- On Pro, the ordered steps for your Shopify admin. Some findings need review instead.
Pricing
Three plans, and the difference is not only how many scans
Free shows you where you stand. Pro adds the steps and the comparison. Pro+ adds the weekly check, the issues that have returned and the Accessibility Record.
Free
See where your storefront stands.
$0
5 scans in total
Five scans for as long as you have the app, not five each month. The allowance does not reset.
- Every issue found, grouped by priority
- Where each issue happens, and how many elements it affects
- Why each issue matters for a shopper
- The failing markup, where it could be captured
- Live scan progress you can cancel
Pro adds the ordered steps for each fix, and the comparison with your previous scan.
Pro
Most chosenWork through what is failing, and see what changed.
$49a month
$488a year
60 scans a month
The allowance refreshes on the same day each month.
- Everything in Free
- The exact steps to fix each issue in your Shopify admin
- What changed since your previous scan
- Resolved, new and unchanged, separated
Pro+ adds the weekly check, the issues that have returned and the Accessibility Record.
Pro+
Catch it when it breaks again.
$75a month
$800a year
150 scans a month
The allowance refreshes on the same day each month.
- Everything in Pro
- Weekly scheduled scans on a day you choose
- New issues, and issues that have returned
- Accessibility Record you can export
- A longer scan history
Billed once a year. Each paid plan costs $100 less than twelve monthly payments.
- A scan covers your homepage plus up to three pages discovered from it.
- A scan that fails does not use your allowance.
- A scan you cancel does use it, and so does running a scan again.
Why AccessIQ
Built around what a Shopify storefront actually is
A storefront is rendered, not written. It changes without being edited. And it belongs to the merchant, not to the app checking it.
The page, not the template
AccessIQ renders your storefront and checks the result, so what it reports is what a shopper meets, including whatever your theme and your other apps put on the page.
Change over time, not a single verdict
Scans are kept and compared. You can see what a change did rather than reading a fresh list and guessing.
Issues that come back are named
Findings are tracked by what they are and where they happen, not by counting totals, so an issue returning is reported as a returning issue rather than hidden inside a number that went up.
A Shopify workflow, end to end
AccessIQ runs inside your Shopify admin, and the steps it gives you name the screens in that admin where the work is done.
Your theme stays yours
AccessIQ writes nothing to your theme. Nothing is applied on your behalf, and no change appears that you did not make.
No Admin API access
AccessIQ requests no Admin API scopes. It cannot read your products, your orders or your customers, because it never asks to.
Questions
Asked before installing
What does AccessIQ do?
It opens your public Shopify storefront in a real browser and checks the rendered pages against WCAG 2.1 Level AA. It reports what it found, where, and what it means for a shopper. On the paid tiers it also gives you the steps for fixing each issue and compares one scan with the last.
How does scanning work?
AccessIQ loads your storefront in a real browser, waits for the page to finish settling rather than for a fixed number of seconds, and then runs the checks against the page as rendered. You watch the stage it has reached while it runs, and you can stop it at any point.
What does one scan cover?
Your homepage, plus up to three more pages discovered from the links on it. That keeps a scan quick enough to run after a change, and it is why a scan is a sample of your storefront rather than all of it.
How many scans does the Free plan include?
Five in total, for as long as you have the app. It is not five a month and it does not reset. Free is there so you can see what AccessIQ finds on your own storefront before deciding anything.
How many scans do Pro and Pro+ include?
Pro is 60 scans a month and Pro+ is 150 scans a month, refreshing on the same day each month. A scan that fails does not use your allowance. A scan you cancel does, and so does running a scan again.
What is weekly monitoring?
On Pro+ you can have AccessIQ run a scan once a week, on a day and hour you choose. It uses your monthly allowance like any other scan. It runs weekly, and nothing about it runs more often than that.
How do you know an issue has returned?
Findings are identified by what the issue is and where it occurs, rather than by counting how many there were. So a scan can say that a specific issue you had resolved is present again, which a total moving up and down could never tell you. This is part of Pro+.
Does AccessIQ change my theme?
No. AccessIQ writes nothing to your theme and applies nothing on your behalf. It requests no Shopify Admin API scopes at all, so it has no ability to alter your store even if it were asked to. Every change is one you make yourself.
Does AccessIQ tell me my store meets the law?
No, and no automated tool can. AccessIQ reports what its checks found on the pages it scanned. Automated checks cover only part of WCAG, so a scan that finds nothing means no machine detectable failures were found on those pages, not that your storefront is fully accessible. AccessIQ gives no legal advice and issues no document of standing.
What happens if my storefront is password protected?
Shopify serves its own lock screen instead of your theme, so a scan would describe Shopify's markup rather than yours. AccessIQ detects this and stops with an explanation rather than reporting a misleading result. Turn the password off under Online Store then Preferences, run the scan, and switch it back afterwards if you need to.
See what your storefront is doing today
Run a scan on your own store, read what comes back, and decide from there. Five scans on Free, and nothing to configure first.
Installs into your Shopify admin. No Admin API scopes requested.