Accessibility fixes on Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce and Magento

Validiscan works on Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce and Magento shops with a theme-based storefront. On every platform it fixes failures in the theme’s own files and delivers the changes as a pull request or a patch bundle, and on Shopify also as an unpublished copy of the theme.

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Which platforms does Validiscan work on?

Validiscan works on Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce and Magento shops whose storefront is built from a theme: a set of template, style and script files that render the shop’s pages. Other platforms and headless storefronts are on request: Validiscan’s fix engine has no recipes for them.

Details: headless storefronts, and what one project covers

Validiscan works on Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce and Magento shops whose storefront is built from a theme: a set of template, style and script files that render the shop’s pages. Those files are where Validiscan makes its changes.

Other platforms and headless storefronts, where the pages are built by a separate frontend application, are on request: the fix engine has no recipes for them. A project covers one shop on one of the four platforms, with one domain and one theme.

How do the fixes reach the shop on each platform?

Validiscan delivers the fixes as a pull request or a patch bundle on all four platforms, and on Shopify also as an unpublished copy of the theme. None of the three ways changes the live shop: you, or your developer, merge, publish or apply the changes.

Delivery of fixes per platform
Platform	Pull request on GitHub	Unpublished theme copy	Patch bundle
Shopify	Yes, when the theme is kept in a GitHub repository	Yes, with a Theme Access password for the store	Yes, prepared on a theme file downloaded from the Shopify admin
Shopware	Yes, on the repository of the theme plugin	No (Shopify only)	Yes, prepared on a ZIP of the theme plugin
WooCommerce	Yes, on the repository of the theme or child theme	No (Shopify only)	Yes, prepared on a ZIP of the theme folder
Magento	Yes, on the repository that holds the theme	No (Shopify only)	Yes, prepared on a ZIP of the theme folder

Details: when the way is chosen, and what a patch bundle needs

Validiscan delivers changes in three ways. A pull request and a patch bundle work on all four platforms; an unpublished copy of the theme exists only on Shopify. Which way is used is decided per shop, before the work starts. None of them changes the live shop: you, or your developer, merge, publish or apply the changes.

A patch bundle needs no access to the shop itself. Instead, an export of the current theme is uploaded in the customer portal, by an admin of your organization, who can be your developer. Validiscan prepares the changes on that copy, so each one points at the exact file and line. The three ways of delivery, in detail

How accessibility fixes reach a Shopify, Shopware, WooCommerce or Magento theme

Which files do the fixes change on each platform?

Validiscan’s fixes change only the theme’s own files: on Shopify the Liquid theme, on Shopware the theme plugin of a Shopware 6 storefront, on WooCommerce the WordPress theme or its child theme, and on Magento a Magento 2 theme under app/design/frontend.

Shopify

Validiscan works on the Liquid theme of a Shopify store.

Ways in: The GitHub repository the theme is kept in, a Theme Access password, or a theme file you download in the Shopify admin and upload in the customer portal

File types the recipes change in the application’s tests: .css.liquid
.js
.json
.liquid
Recipes: 20

Details: how Validiscan reaches a Shopify theme, how the changes arrive, and what the recipes change

Validiscan works on the Liquid theme of a Shopify store. It reaches the theme through the GitHub repository the theme is kept in, through a Theme Access password with which it downloads the live theme, or through a theme file that you download in the Shopify admin and upload in the customer portal.

The changes arrive as a pull request, as a patch bundle, or as an unpublished copy of the live theme named Validiscan A11y <date>, which you preview and publish yourself. The recipes change Liquid files in the theme’s layout, templates, sections, snippets and blocks folders, the theme’s stylesheets and scripts in assets, and the storefront text in locales. A colour fix can also change a colour setting in config/settings_data.json.

Accessibility fixes for Shopify themes

Shopware

Validiscan works on the theme plugin of a Shopware 6 storefront.

Ways in: The plugin’s GitHub repository, or a ZIP of the plugin’s folder under custom/plugins, uploaded in the customer portal

File types the recipes change in the application’s tests: .html.twig
.js
.json
.scss
Recipes: 20

Details: how Validiscan reaches a Shopware theme plugin, how the changes arrive, and what the recipes change

Validiscan works on the theme plugin of a Shopware 6 storefront. It reaches the theme through the GitHub repository of the plugin, or through a ZIP of the plugin’s folder under custom/plugins that is uploaded in the customer portal.

The changes arrive as a pull request or as a patch bundle. The recipes change Twig templates under Resources/views, SCSS and JavaScript under Resources/app/storefront/src, and the snippet files that hold the storefront text. A colour fix can also change a value in the theme’s theme.json.

Accessibility fixes for Shopware themes

WooCommerce

Validiscan works on the WordPress theme of a WooCommerce shop, or on its child theme; the recipes are written for classic WordPress themes, built from PHP templates.

Ways in: The theme’s GitHub repository, or a ZIP of the theme folder under wp-content/themes, including the child theme if there is one

File types the recipes change in the application’s tests: .css
.js
.php
Recipes: 20

Details: how Validiscan reaches a WooCommerce theme, how the changes arrive, and what the recipes change

Validiscan works on the WordPress theme of a WooCommerce shop, or on its child theme. The recipes are written for classic WordPress themes, built from PHP templates. Validiscan reaches the theme through its GitHub repository, or through a ZIP of the theme folder under wp-content/themes, including the child theme if there is one.

The changes arrive as a pull request or as a patch bundle. The recipes change the theme’s PHP templates, including the WooCommerce template overrides in the theme and functions.php, and the stylesheets and scripts the theme loads.

Accessibility fixes for WooCommerce themes

Magento

Validiscan works on a Magento 2 theme under app/design/frontend.

Ways in: The GitHub repository that holds the theme, or a ZIP of the theme folder, uploaded in the customer portal

File types the recipes change in the application’s tests: .css
.html
.less
.phtml
.xml
Recipes: 20

Details: how Validiscan reaches a Magento theme, how the changes arrive, and what the recipes change

Validiscan works on a Magento 2 theme under app/design/frontend. It reaches the theme through the GitHub repository that holds it, or through a ZIP of the theme folder that is uploaded in the customer portal.

The changes arrive as a pull request or as a patch bundle. The recipes change .phtml and .html templates, layout XML files, the theme’s LESS source and, where the theme ships one, its compiled stylesheet, scripts under web/js, and the German translation file in i18n.

Accessibility fixes for Magento themes

What is the same on all four platforms?

Validiscan’s method is the same on all four platforms; only the files differ. Each platform has the same 20 recipes, written for its own files, and the same fix tier per rule. A recipe that cannot tell the right change makes none, and every change stays in the theme’s own files.

The same recipes. The fix engine has 20 recipes on each platform, the same set on all four, each written for that platform’s templates, stylesheets and text files. A recipe is a deterministic change for one kind of failure: the same code always gets the same change.
The same tiers. A rule in Validiscan’s catalogue has the same fix tier on all four platforms: AUTO, ASSISTED or MANUAL. Each platform page lists the rules every recipe serves, with their tier.
No guessing. When a recipe cannot locate the code behind a failure with enough confidence, or the code does not show what the right change is, it makes no change. The finding then takes the ASSISTED way instead of getting a guessed fix.
Only the theme’s own files. A change may touch only the theme’s own files: a change to build output, dependencies, the platform’s core files or CI configuration is rejected. Changed templates, stylesheets, scripts, JSON and XML files are also checked with a parser for their file type before Validiscan reviews the change.
No overlay. Every fix is an edit to the theme’s source. A few fixes add lines to the theme’s own scripts, for example to connect a pause button to a slideshow, but nothing is injected that corrects the shop’s pages in the visitor’s browser.

Details: the method in one line, and the text a recipe adds

The method is the same everywhere; only the files differ.

New text that a recipe adds, such as the words of a skip link or the name of an icon button, comes in English on all four platforms. On Shopify, Shopware and Magento it also comes in German where the theme has German translation files. On WooCommerce the English text is added as translatable WordPress text.

What stays MANUAL on every platform?

Rules whose failures need a decision about content or behaviour that only you or your developer can make, such as captions for your product videos, have the tier MANUAL on all four platforms. For a MANUAL finding, Validiscan gives guidance on how to fix it, not a change to your code.

Not part of a project

The work on MANUAL findings that need your own content decisions
Third-party embeds such as payment or chat widgets
PDFs

Details: what a project leaves out, and what it covers

Some failures need a decision about content or behaviour that only you or your developer can make, for example captions for your product videos or another way to use a control that only works by dragging. Rules like these have the tier MANUAL on all four platforms, and each platform page lists them. For a MANUAL finding, Validiscan gives guidance on how to fix it, not a change to your code. The work on MANUAL findings that need your own content decisions is not part of a project, and neither are third-party embeds such as payment or chat widgets, or PDFs.

A project covers one shop on any of the four platforms: one domain and one theme.

Start with a free check of your shop.

Send your shop’s address. Validiscan scans it and replies with every failure the scan can prove, with the page and the code.

Request a free check

Or write to info@validiscan.com.

What the free check covers, and what it leaves out

You send: your shop’s address
Pages scanned: up to 15
You get: every failure the scan can prove, with the page and the code
On your shop: public pages only; no login, nothing bought, no forms sent
What it is not: a full audit