Make your BigCommerce store ADA compliant — for real
BigCommerce accessibility means your store conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, so customers using screen readers, keyboards, and other assistive technology can browse products, apply filters, and complete checkout without barriers. BigCommerce is a robust, developer-friendly platform — but it does not make your store compliant on its own. Compliance lives in your Stencil theme, the apps you install, and the content you publish. Curbcut remediates all three by hand, the way the Department of Justice frames obligations under ADA Title III.
BigCommerce itself is direct about this. Its developer documentation states that the default Cornerstone theme conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level A in several areas — keyboard access, readability — but Level A sits below the Level AA bar that courts and settlements reference, and BigCommerce makes clear that stores “are not inherently compliant” and that merchants must audit and remediate themselves (BigCommerce accessibility docs).
What you can and can’t control on BigCommerce
BigCommerce’s storefront runs on Stencil, a theme framework built with Handlebars templates, SCSS, and a CLI for local development. That architecture gives you real control over most of the store — and almost none over one critical screen.
- Stencil theme (full control). The Handlebars markup, SCSS, and JavaScript for your home, category, product, cart, and content pages are yours to edit. This is where most WCAG 2.1 AA failures live, and where the durable fixes go.
- Faceted search and Page Builder (partial control). BigCommerce’s built-in product filtering and the drag-and-drop Page Builder generate their own markup. You can style and influence it, but you don’t author every element, so accessible behavior has to be enforced in the theme around it.
- Apps and widgets (limited control). Anything from the App Marketplace injects third-party markup at runtime that you didn’t write and can’t always edit — a recurring source of new barriers after launch.
- Optimized One-Page Checkout (almost no control). The default checkout is a hosted React single-page application. You cannot edit its underlying code, and BigCommerce explicitly warns developers not to rename or nest its CSS class names, because each class maps to checkout internals and edits break future updates (checkout customization guide).
That last point matters more for an ecommerce store than anything else: the screen where the sale happens is the screen you can change the least.
Common BigCommerce accessibility issues
Stencil themes are tuned for conversion and merchandising first; accessibility is uneven, and it degrades the moment you customize a theme or install apps. WCAG groups requirements under the POUR principles — Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust (W3C WAI) — and BigCommerce stores fail them in predictable, platform-specific places.
| Area | Typical BigCommerce problem | WCAG 2.1 AA principle |
|---|---|---|
| Default theme | Cornerstone’s primary nav hidden from VoiceOver by an aria-hidden="true" left on for mobile | Operable / Robust |
| Product images | Missing or auto-generated alt text on product and gallery images | Perceivable |
| Faceted search | Filter checkboxes and “refine by” controls without accessible labels | Understandable |
| Sale badges & buttons | Low color contrast on sale prices, “Add to Cart,” and promo banners | Perceivable |
| Mega menus & drawers | Keyboard traps or skipped items in navigation and the cart drawer | Operable |
| Quick view & modals | Quick-view and review modals that don’t trap or restore focus | Operable |
| Checkout | Constrained React app where label and focus fixes can’t be made in theme code | Robust |
The Cornerstone navigation bug is not hypothetical: it was reported on BigCommerce’s own GitHub, where the navPages-container element carried aria-hidden="true" to support the mobile layout and, as a side effect, hid the entire desktop menu from Safari + VoiceOver users (Cornerstone issue #1558). These are exactly the failures a screen reader like NVDA, JAWS, or VoiceOver surfaces immediately — and exactly what serial plaintiffs test for.
Why BigCommerce accessibility apps and overlays aren’t enough
Browse the BigCommerce App Marketplace and you’ll find widgets promising instant ADA compliance. They don’t deliver it. An overlay loads a script on top of your storefront and tries to patch problems at runtime — but it never changes the Stencil theme code, the app-injected markup, or the checkout that assistive technology actually reads.
The evidence is consistent:
- Overlays don’t fix the code. The contrast failure, the unlabeled filter, the
aria-hiddennav trap — all still there underneath the widget. - Widget users still get sued. Litigation against businesses running overlay tools has not meaningfully slowed; monitors continue to see steady lawsuit volume against widget users (UsableNet).
- Assistive-technology users often disable them. Many screen-reader users turn overlays off because they interfere with the tools they already rely on.
That’s why Curbcut is anti-overlay. Compare the approaches in overlay vs manual remediation, or read why overlays don’t work if you’re currently paying for one.
The ecommerce lawsuit risk is real
Online retail is the single most-targeted sector for ADA website lawsuits. Ecommerce accounted for roughly 70% of digital accessibility lawsuits in recent filings, and the cumulative count tracked since 2017 now exceeds 5,000 cases (UsableNet lawsuit tracker). Stores draw extra attention because a plaintiff or their attorney can test the entire purchase flow remotely — a blocked checkout or an unlabeled “Add to Cart” button is easy to document — and most defendants are smaller businesses, not enterprises.
The good news: these barriers are fixable, and a remediated store with a documented conformance trail is a far harder target. Start with ADA compliance for ecommerce for the sector picture, and review how to avoid an ADA lawsuit for practical steps. This page is educational and not legal advice — if you’ve received a demand letter, consult a qualified attorney about your specific situation.
How Curbcut remediates a BigCommerce store
We work inside your Stencil stack — no widget, no rebuild required.
- Audit. A combined automated and manual test of your storefront against WCAG 2.1 AA: home, category, product, cart, and the path through checkout, with real screen-reader and keyboard navigation passes.
- Stencil theme remediation. We fix issues in your Handlebars templates and SCSS — semantic headings and landmarks, accessible faceted-search filters, proper form labels, focus management for mega menus, quick view, and cart drawers, the
aria-hiddennavigation fix, and compliant color contrast. - App and Page Builder review. We identify which installed apps and Page Builder widgets inject inaccessible markup, then remediate or recommend accessible replacements.
- Checkout. We fix everything editable in the Optimized One-Page Checkout, document the React app’s hard limits in your VPAT, and — when a store needs full control — rebuild it on BigCommerce’s open-source Checkout SDK.
- Content fixes. Alt text on product imagery, descriptive link text, and accessible PDFs for size charts and guides.
- Documentation. A VPAT / Accessibility Conformance Report and an accessibility statement so your conformance is on record.
The result conforms to WCAG 2.1 AA — the same Level AA bar referenced in most settlements — works with assistive technology, and stands up to scrutiny. Want it handled end to end? See our ADA compliance services, built for BigCommerce merchants and small-business budgets, or run a free accessibility scan of your store first.