Why ADA Compliance Is Critical For BigCommerce Stores Right Now

ADA compliance is no longer optional. For BigCommerce store owners, it is a real and growing concern. More customers rely on screen readers, voice navigation, and keyboard-only browsing every year. At the same time, lawsuits targeting non-compliant websites are on the rise.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires websites to be accessible to people with disabilities. That includes your BigCommerce storefront. If your site is not accessible, you could face demand letters, legal fees, and damage to your brand.

Most of the risk comes down to one overlooked issue: image alt text.

Why Alt Text Matters for ADA Compliance

Alt text, or alternative text, is the written description of an image. It allows screen readers to describe visual content to users who cannot see it. Without alt text, your product photos, banners, and graphics become invisible to customers with visual impairments.

For ecommerce stores, this is a problem. Product images carry key information, size, color, style, texture. If that content is not accessible, the shopping experience breaks down. Customers leave. Worse, you open yourself up to lawsuits under the ADA and similar laws like the Unruh Civil Rights Act and Section 508.

BigCommerce provides tools to edit image alt text manually. The issue is scale. A typical store has hundreds, sometimes thousands of images. Writing unique, meaningful alt text for each one takes hours. Doing it well takes training. Doing it consistently takes a dedicated team.

Most businesses do not have that kind of time or budget. So the job gets skipped, rushed, or outsourced to expensive agencies.

AltTextify Solves the Problem Automatically

That is where AltTextify comes in. AltTextify uses AI to scan your store and generate ADA-compliant alt text for every image, automatically.

It connects directly to your BigCommerce site through a simple integration. Once installed, it identifies images without alt text, writes human-readable descriptions, and fills the gaps. No coding. No uploading. No spreadsheets.

The AI is trained to understand ecommerce images. It knows how to describe fashion, furniture, electronics, beauty products, and more. The alt text it generates is not generic filler, it is tailored to the product and meets Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards.

You get full control over tone and length. Want short, clean descriptions? Done. Need more detail for screen readers? Easy. AltTextify adapts to your style.

Lower Cost, Higher Coverage

Manual alt text tagging is slow and expensive. Agencies charge by the hour or per image. Freelancers can introduce inconsistency. Internal teams get distracted or burned out.

AltTextify offers the same coverage at a fraction of the cost. Plans are usage-based, so you pay only for what you need. There are no hidden fees, no long-term contracts, and no delays. Once set up, it just works—24/7.

This is especially useful for stores that change inventory often. Add a new product, and AltTextify handles the alt text without you lifting a finger.

A Better Experience for All

ADA compliance is not just about lawsuits. It is about people. Accessibility means your store works for everyone. Customers with visual impairments, dyslexia, limited mobility, or temporary injuries all benefit from proper alt text.

It also helps with SEO. Search engines cannot see images, but they read alt text. Accurate descriptions improve indexing and ranking, especially for product pages.

In short, alt text helps more customers find your store, use your store, and trust your brand.

Get Compliant Without the Stress

No store owner wants to deal with an ADA lawsuit. No one wants to manually tag a thousand images. But every store wants to be inclusive, professional, and safe from legal risk.

AltTextify makes that possible.

Setup takes minutes. Results show up almost immediately. The platform keeps your store up to date as your product catalog changes. And your site becomes more accessible to every visitor.

Want to know what compliance looks like? See what ADA compliance for ecommerce really means—and how simple it can be with the right tools.

Make your BigCommerce storefront ADA compliant with AltTextify on the BigCommerce App Marketplace—no code, no hassle.