WCAG 2.2 Checklist for Online Store Owners

Key Facts for a Store WCAG 2.2 Checklist

Use these when you need a short, sourced summary. The longer checklist is below.

• WCAG 2.2 added nine success criteria and removed 4.1.1 Parsing. The W3C published it as a Recommendation on 5 October 2023.
• Six of the nine apply at Level A or AA: 2.4.11, 2.5.7, 2.5.8, 3.2.6, 3.3.7, and 3.3.8. The other three are Level AAA.
• 2.5.8 asks for a pointer target of at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with exceptions for spacing, an equivalent control, inline text, user-agent controls, and essential presentation.
• 42 U.S.C. § 12181(7)(E) lists a bakery, grocery store, clothing store, hardware store, shopping center, or other sales or rental establishment as a public accommodation.
• In the WebAIM Million 2025, the average home page had 51 detected errors. Shopify home pages averaged 69.6 (28,181 pages), WooCommerce 75.6 (26,349), and Magento 85.4 (8,623). WebAIM says a higher count next to a technology is not always caused by that technology.

WCAG 2.2 was published as a “W3C Recommendation” web standard on 5 October 2023.

For these reasons, the Department has consistently taken the position that the ADA’s requirements apply to all the goods, services, privileges, or activities offered by public accommodations, including those offered on the web.

The Nine Criteria on This WCAG 2.2 Checklist

The W3C’s What’s New in WCAG 2.2 page says WCAG 2.2 provides 9 additional success criteria since WCAG 2.1. The “what to do” lines in the table are the W3C’s brief wording. The store column is where that wording shows up on a catalog, a cart, or checkout. It is not a claim that every store fails these checks. The full text of each criterion is in the WCAG 2.2 Recommendation and in the WCAG library.

Success criterion 4.1.1 Parsing is obsolete and removed from WCAG 2.2. The W3C says the 2.0 and 2.1 criteria are otherwise essentially the same. A store that meets WCAG 2.2 at a level also meets WCAG 2.1 and 2.0 at that level. The general list, including older criteria such as alt text and contrast, is the WCAG 2.2 checklist.

Why a Store Is on This WCAG 2.2 Checklist

The statute’s list of public accommodations includes “a bakery, grocery store, clothing store, hardware store, shopping center, or other sales or rental establishment” (42 U.S.C. § 12181(7)(E)). ADA.gov’s web guidance uses the same idea in plainer words: retail stores and other sales or retail establishments are businesses open to the public, and the Department’s position is that the ADA applies to the goods and services those businesses offer on the web.

The same ADA.gov page says the Department of Justice does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards. Businesses can currently choose how they will make online goods and services accessible, and the page names WCAG and the Section 508 standards as helpful guidance. Read that limit next to the Title II note: the March 18, 2022 page does not reflect the state-and-local rule published on April 24, 2024. A private store is not a Title II public entity. This page is not legal advice. See the disclaimer.

Home-page error counts are a separate fact, and they are not a lawsuit count. The WebAIM Million 2025 found 50,960,288 distinct accessibility errors across one million home pages, an average of 51 per page. In its technology tables, Shopify averaged 69.6 errors (28,181 home pages), WooCommerce 75.6 (26,349), and Magento 85.4 (8,623). WebAIM says correspondence of additional errors with a technology cannot always be attributed to that technology, and that absence of detected errors does not mean a page is accessible or conformant. Those home pages are not product pages or checkouts. A scan of the pages you actually sell on is the useful next step. Platform starting points are the Shopify accessibility checker and the WooCommerce accessibility checker, and the industry page is the e-commerce accessibility checker.

A WCAG 2.2 Checklist You Can Tick

Tick the Level A and AA items while you move through a product page, the cart, and checkout. The three AAA criteria stay in the table above. They are not in this list, because most stores target AA. The ticks stay in this browser. Nothing is sent to AccessBell. This is a planning aid. It is not a conformance claim.

What This WCAG 2.2 Checklist Still Needs a Person to Judge

The W3C’s evaluating web accessibility overview says no tool alone can determine if a site meets accessibility standards, and that knowledgeable human evaluation is required. The Department of Justice says a clean automated report does not necessarily mean everything is accessible. Open each criterion in the library to see whether AccessBell runs an automated rule for it. A rule can flag a failure. It cannot decide that the store meets the criterion.

• A person checks 2.4.11. Look at the focused control with the sticky bar, banner, and chat in their real positions. The W3C text is “not entirely hidden due to author-created content.”
• A person checks 2.5.7. Complete the drag action with one click or tap and no dragging, unless dragging is essential.
• A tool can measure some 2.5.8 targets. A person still checks the exceptions: spacing, an equivalent control on the same page, inline text, a user-agent control, or an essential presentation.
• A person checks 3.2.6 and 3.3.7. Compare the order of help across pages, and see whether checkout repeats a value the shopper already entered in the same process.
• A person checks 3.3.8. Try a password manager and paste. The W3C lists both as mechanisms that satisfy the criterion. Confirm a puzzle is not the only way in.

Guided fix suggestions in AccessBell cover changes such as alt text, a button name, and the page language. You approve the text, and AccessBellFix can apply that change. Nothing is applied until you approve it. Those suggestions do not by themselves satisfy focus-not-obscured, dragging, target size, consistent help, redundant entry, or accessible authentication. Read how approved fixes work and how AccessBell tests.

After the WCAG 2.2 Checklist, Monitor the Store

A catalog changes. A new product photo, a new app, or a theme update can hide focus or shrink a button after this list was ticked. The free scan checks one public page and needs no account. It does not watch the store tomorrow.

Pro monitors up to 500 URLs per domain, rescans on a schedule, and emails owners and admins when a new critical or serious issue appears. That is continuous monitoring, plus the guided fixes you approve. Pro is a 3-day free trial, then $29 per domain per month or $199 per year. You add a card at checkout and are not charged until the trial ends. Cancel before then and you will not be charged. Prices are on the pricing page.

If you do not want a subscription, a Page Report is $19 for one page, with the full issue detail and a PDF. A Domain Audit is $79 for up to 500 pages. Neither one renews, and neither one is a promise that the store conforms to WCAG or the ADA. A longer view of what a monitoring tool can and cannot decide is the website accessibility monitoring tool guide.