What is a screen reader?

A screen reader is assistive software that reads a website aloud and lets blind and low-vision users navigate by keyboard through headings, landmarks, links, and form fields. Common ones include JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver. For a Shopify store, screen reader compatibility means the entire purchase path works when experienced as spoken structure instead of visual layout.

How screen reader users shop

They navigate by structure: jump between headings, list the links, move form field to form field, and hear labels, button names, and announcements. A product page becomes a spoken outline. If the markup is clean, shopping is efficient. If it is not, the user hears 'button, button, graphic' with no way to know what anything does.

What breaks the experience

Unlabeled buttons and fields, images without alt text, dynamic changes like cart updates that never get announced, keyboard traps in modals and drawers, and heading structures that jump randomly. Each failure is a markup issue in the theme or an app, which means each is findable and fixable.

How stores test for it

Full screen reader testing needs human judgment for nuance, but the structural failures behind most complaints are detectable automatically: labels, roles, announcements, focus order, and alt text. Continuous scanning catches those on every template, and the ones needing human ears get queued as documented manual review items.