How to Choose an Accessible Website Template (Without Being a Developer)

You have decided to build a website for your business. You browse through hundreds of beautiful templates on WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, or Wix. You pick one that matches your brand colors and looks professional on your laptop screen. Six months later, you receive a demand letter claiming your website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

This scenario is not hypothetical. Website accessibility lawsuits in the United States exceeded 4,000 in 2025, and the European Accessibility Act requires compliance by June 2025. The template you choose is the foundation of your site’s accessibility. Pick a poor one, and you are building on a cracked foundation that no amount of content fixes can fully repair.

The good news: you do not need to be a developer to evaluate whether a template will set you up for success or failure. This guide gives you a practical checklist you can use before committing to any template.

Why Your Template Choice Matters So Much

Your website template controls the underlying HTML structure, navigation patterns, color schemes, and interactive components that determine whether people with disabilities can use your site. A template with poor accessibility bakes problems into every single page you create.

Here is what a bad template can do:

  • Break keyboard navigation: If menus, buttons, and forms cannot be operated without a mouse, wheelchair users and people with motor impairments cannot use your site.
  • Hide content from screen readers: If the template uses images for text, skips heading levels, or lacks proper labels, blind and low-vision users cannot navigate your content.
  • Create color contrast failures: If text colors do not have enough contrast against backgrounds, people with low vision cannot read your content.
  • Trap users in overlays and popups: If modal dialogs and popups do not manage focus correctly, keyboard users get stuck and cannot close them.

Fixing these structural issues after the fact often means hiring a developer or switching templates entirely. It is far cheaper and easier to choose well from the start.

The Five-Minute Template Accessibility Test

Before you buy or activate any template, run through these five checks. You do not need any special tools for the first three.

1. Keyboard Navigation Test (2 Minutes)

Open the template’s live demo in your browser. Put your mouse aside and press the Tab key repeatedly.

Watch for:

  • Can you see where the focus is? There should be a visible outline or highlight around each interactive element (links, buttons, form fields) as you tab through the page.
  • Can you reach everything? Tab through the entire page. Can you get to the navigation menu, all links, buttons, and form fields?
  • Can you operate menus? When you tab to a dropdown menu, can you open it with Enter or Space, navigate options with arrow keys, and close it with Escape?
  • Can you skip to main content? Press Tab once from the top of the page. A “Skip to content” link should appear, letting you bypass the navigation.

If the template fails any of these checks, move on to the next one. Keyboard accessibility is non-negotiable.

2. Heading Structure Check (1 Minute)

Install the free HeadingsMap browser extension (available for Chrome and Firefox). Open the template demo and click the extension icon.

Look for:

  • One H1 heading on the page (usually the page title or main heading).
  • Logical heading order: H1, then H2 for major sections, H3 for subsections within those. There should be no skipped levels (jumping from H2 to H4).
  • Meaningful heading text: Headings should describe the content below them, not just say “Section 1” or be purely decorative.

Screen reader users navigate pages by jumping between headings. A broken heading structure is like a book with randomly numbered chapters.

3. Color Contrast Spot Check (1 Minute)

Look at the template’s text and background color combinations. Pay special attention to:

  • Light gray text on white backgrounds (very common and usually fails)
  • Text overlaid on images or gradients (almost always fails without a solid overlay)
  • Placeholder text in form fields (often too light)
  • Link text that is the same color as regular text (hard to distinguish)

For a precise check, use the free WebAIM Contrast Checker. Enter the text color and background color to see if they meet the WCAG AA minimum ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.

4. Check the Template’s Accessibility Documentation (30 Seconds)

Search the template’s documentation or product page for the word “accessibility” or “WCAG.”

Good signs:

  • The template explicitly states WCAG 2.1 AA compliance
  • There is documentation about accessibility features
  • The developer mentions testing with screen readers

Warning signs:

  • No mention of accessibility anywhere
  • The template relies on an accessibility overlay widget as its compliance strategy
  • “Accessibility” is listed as a feature but with no details or testing evidence

5. Run a Quick Automated Scan (30 Seconds)

Install the free WAVE browser extension. Open the template demo and click the WAVE icon. Look at the summary:

  • Zero errors is ideal. A few alerts are normal (they require human judgment), but errors indicate real violations.
  • Pay attention to: missing alt text, empty links, empty buttons, missing form labels, and contrast errors.
  • A demo page with 10 or more errors suggests the template developer did not prioritize accessibility.

Platform-Specific Guidance

WordPress

WordPress has an official “accessibility-ready” tag in its theme directory. Themes with this tag have been reviewed by the WordPress Accessibility Team against a set of baseline requirements including keyboard navigation, proper heading structure, skip links, and form labels.

Best approach: Start your search by filtering for accessibility-ready themes. The official Twenty Twenty-Five theme is fully accessible and makes a solid starting point. If you need a commercial theme, look for developers who explicitly document WCAG compliance testing.

Watch out for: Page builders like Elementor, Divi, and WPBakery often generate non-semantic HTML that overrides your theme’s accessible structure. If you use a page builder, test every page you create with the keyboard and WAVE.

Shopify

Shopify’s free themes (Dawn, Taste, Sense, Craft, and others in the free collection) are built and tested by Shopify’s internal team to meet WCAG 2.1 AA. They are the safest starting point for an accessible Shopify store.

Best approach: Use one of Shopify’s free themes as your starting point. Customize colors and fonts within the theme settings, but be careful when adding custom sections or third-party apps that inject their own HTML.

Watch out for: Third-party Shopify themes from the Theme Store vary widely in accessibility quality. Ask the theme developer for specific accessibility testing documentation before purchasing.

Squarespace

Squarespace has improved its accessibility significantly in recent years. The platform handles many structural requirements automatically, including skip navigation, heading structure, and form labels.

Best approach: Choose a template from Squarespace 7.1, which uses a more modern, accessible framework. Test the demo with keyboard navigation before committing. Use Squarespace’s built-in alt text fields for every image.

Watch out for: Custom CSS injections and heavily animated templates can break keyboard focus and screen reader navigation. Avoid templates that rely heavily on animations, parallax scrolling, or unconventional navigation patterns.

Wix

Wix has an Accessibility Wizard built into its editor that flags common issues. The platform automatically adds semantic HTML and ARIA attributes to many components.

Best approach: Use the Accessibility Wizard during site setup. Choose templates that use standard navigation patterns and avoid overly creative layouts that sacrifice usability.

Watch out for: Custom Wix apps and third-party integrations may not follow the same accessibility standards as the core platform. Test any app you add with keyboard navigation.

Red Flags That Should Make You Walk Away

No matter how beautiful a template looks, avoid it if you see any of these:

  1. No visible focus indicator anywhere on the page when you tab through it
  2. Navigation that only works with mouse hover and cannot be opened with keyboard
  3. Text embedded in images instead of real HTML text (common in hero sections)
  4. Autoplaying video or audio with no way to pause or stop it
  5. The developer recommends an accessibility overlay (like AccessiBe, UserWay, or AudioEye) as the accessibility solution
  6. Infinite scroll with no alternative for navigating to footer links or pagination
  7. Carousel or slider as the primary content display with no keyboard controls or pause button

What to Do After Choosing a Template

Even the best template requires accessible content. After selecting your template:

  1. Write descriptive alt text for every image you add
  2. Use headings in order when creating pages (H2 for sections, H3 for subsections)
  3. Make link text descriptive (“Read our pricing guide” instead of “Click here”)
  4. Ensure form fields have visible labels (not just placeholder text)
  5. Add captions to videos you embed on your site
  6. Test with keyboard navigation after making significant changes

The Bottom Line

Choosing an accessible template is the single most impactful decision you can make for your website’s accessibility. It takes five minutes to test a template before you commit, but it can save you hundreds of hours of remediation work later. Start with platform-recommended accessible templates, run the five checks in this guide, and walk away from any template that fails the keyboard navigation test.

Your website’s accessibility is not just about avoiding lawsuits. One in four adults in the United States has a disability. An accessible website reaches more customers, ranks better in search engines, and provides a better experience for everyone.

We’re building a simple accessibility checker for non-developers — no DevTools, no jargon. Join our waitlist to get early access.