Does Your Candle Website Need to Be ADA Compliant?

Short answer: your candle website probably is not legally required to be ADA compliant in the strict sense, but you still want it to be accessible, and here is why. The Americans with Disabilities Act was written for physical places, and courts have gone back and forth on whether a small online shop counts. What is very real, though, is the wave of demand letters and lawsuits sent to Shopify and other ecommerce stores claiming their site is not usable by people with disabilities. We run our own Shopify stores for Garsnett Beacon, and this question comes up a lot, so let me walk you through it like a maker, not a lawyer.

Quick and honest disclaimer first: I am not an attorney, and nothing here is legal advice. If you get an actual demand letter, talk to a real lawyer. What I can give you is the practical, plain English version of what accessibility means for a candle shop and the simple changes that cover most of it.

What ADA compliance actually means for a candle website

When people say a website should be "ADA compliant," what they really mean is that it should follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, usually called WCAG. The level most lawyers and courts point to is WCAG 2.1 AA. That is just a checklist of things that make a site usable for someone who is blind, has low vision, is colorblind, or navigates with a keyboard instead of a mouse.

None of it is candle specific. It is the same stuff that makes a website better for everyone: readable text, images that describe themselves, buttons you can actually find, and forms that are clearly labeled. The good news for us is that a clean, fast candle site is already most of the way there. If you want the full rundown on building a site that converts, we broke that down in our guide to a high converting candle website and its 10 must-haves, and accessibility fits right on top of those same fundamentals.

Why candle makers are getting these demand letters

Here is the part that catches people off guard. There is a small industry of law firms that scan thousands of ecommerce sites with automated tools, flag the ones that fail a few accessibility checks, and mail the owner a letter demanding money to settle. They are not usually targeting you because you sell candles. They are targeting you because you are a small Shopify store that looks easy to settle with.

Most of these letters hit a handful of the same problems over and over: images with no alt text, low contrast between text and background, pop ups that a screen reader cannot close, and checkout buttons that are not labeled. The frustrating truth is that you can get one of these letters even if your site is mostly fine. That is exactly why it is worth spending an afternoon tightening things up before anyone comes looking.

The simple fixes that cover most of it

You do not need to hire a developer or rebuild your store. Walk through this list on your own site and you will knock out the majority of the common complaints.

1. Add alt text to every product photo. Alt text is the short description a screen reader reads out loud. In Shopify you add it right in the image editor. Describe the candle plainly: "amber glass soy candle with a black lid and kraft label." Bonus, this also helps you show up on Google, which we cover in our post on SEO basics for candle makers.
2. Check your color contrast. That trendy light gray text on a white background is pretty, and it is also one of the top things flagged. Dark text on a light background, or light text on a dark background, is the safe move. Free contrast checkers online will tell you in seconds if your combo passes.
3. Make sure pop ups can be closed. Your email signup pop up needs a close button that is easy to find and that works with a keyboard. If someone cannot get past it, that is a problem.
4. Label your buttons and forms. "Add to cart" should say "add to cart," not just show a cart icon with no text. Your contact and newsletter forms should have visible labels on each field.
5. Test it with your keyboard. Put your mouse down and try to move through your whole site using only the Tab key and Enter. If you can browse products, add to cart, and check out, you are in good shape.

Skip the accessibility overlay widgets

You are going to see ads for little widgets and apps that promise to make your site "ADA compliant" overnight with one line of code. Think of the floating accessibility icon in the corner of some sites. I want to be straight with you: a lot of accessibility advocates and even some of the law firms consider these overlays to be more marketing than fix, and there have been lawsuits against sites that were using them. They can give you a false sense of safety while the real issues sit underneath.

You are better off spending your time on the actual fixes in the list above. A clean theme from Shopify, good alt text, solid contrast, and a checkout that works with a keyboard will do more for you than any overlay, and it costs you nothing but an afternoon.

A few related questions we get

Does a plain Shopify store start out accessible?

The modern Shopify themes are built with a lot of accessibility baked in, which is a big reason we like the platform. Where makers get into trouble is the stuff they add on top: custom fonts in light colors, aggressive pop ups, and apps that inject messy code. Start with a solid theme and be careful what you bolt on.

Do I need a website at all, or is this only an online store thing?

Accessibility applies to any site where people land, including a simple one page site. The more you sell directly through it, the more attention it deserves. If you are still figuring out your overall setup, our free 10 step guide to starting a candle business is a good place to get the foundation right.

How does this connect to my other store policies?

Accessibility is one piece of running a legitimate shop, right alongside your refund and shipping policies and your business paperwork. We walk through the policy side of customer service in our post on handling complaints, returns, and refunds, and the legal basics like your LLC, EIN, and sales tax in setting up your candle business the right way.

The bottom line

Do not lose sleep over this, but do not ignore it either. You most likely are not going to get sued out of nowhere, and you definitely do not need to spend hundreds of dollars on a special widget. Spend one focused afternoon adding alt text, fixing your contrast, labeling your buttons, and testing with your keyboard. That makes your candle shop friendlier for every single customer who lands on it, and it quietly takes you off the easy target list at the same time.

If you want a second set of eyes on your site, come share it in our free candle business Facebook group. We and a whole room of other makers are happy to click around and tell you what we see.