Torie and Howard Accessibility Audit
Web Accessibility Remediation for Torie and Howard website to make it conforms with the WCAG technical standards and comply with the ADA.
This Torie and Howard accessibility audit and WCAG 2.1 AA remediation covered the BigCommerce store of an organic-candy brand built on clean, responsibly sourced ingredients — chewy fruit candies and hard candies sold direct to health-minded shoppers across the United States.
An organic brand lives and dies on its ingredient story, and it sells through product pages, a cart and a checkout. For a shopper using a screen reader or a keyboard, the accessibility of that ingredient detail and those buying controls is what decides whether they can read what is in the candy and order it.
Table of Contents
Why accessibility is critical for an online store
E-commerce is one of the most active areas of United States web-accessibility law. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III, an online store is treated as a place of public accommodation, and courts and settlements have repeatedly pointed to WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the working standard for an accessible shop. For an ingredient-led organic brand the detail is the point: certifications and allergen information stuck inside images, or product pages a screen reader cannot read, or a checkout that traps keyboard focus, quietly turn away a customer who simply wanted to order.
Scope and standard
Our Torie and Howard accessibility audit assessed the BigCommerce store against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, mapped to ADA Title III, across the journeys that matter for an organic food brand: the product pages, ingredient and certification detail, the cart and checkout, the account area, and search and filtering.
How we ran the Torie and Howard accessibility audit
- Screen-reader testing with JAWS and NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, and TalkBack on Android
- Automated audits with Deque axe, Google Lighthouse and WAVE
- Keyboard-only operation of every step, with attention to focus order and a clearly visible focus indicator
- Colour-contrast analysis, plus 400% zoom and reflow testing for low-vision users
What accessibility means on each part of the store
Because Torie and Howard sells on its ingredient story, our Torie and Howard accessibility audit focused on the parts a shopper relies on:
- Product and flavour pages need names, sizes and prices in text, with clearly labelled “add to cart” controls, so a screen-reader user can choose with confidence.
- Ingredient, certification and allergen detail must be real text rather than an image, so health-minded shoppers and assistive technology can read it.
- Product images need meaningful alternative text, since flavour and packaging cues are otherwise unavailable without sight.
- The cart and checkout need labelled fields, announced errors and a focus order that never traps the keyboard, because this is where the order is completed.
- Search, filtering and navigation need operable controls, visible focus, sufficient contrast and clean reflow at high zoom.
Outcome
This Torie and Howard accessibility audit, combining manual and automated testing with remediation, brought the store’s product pages, ingredient detail and checkout into line with WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA Title III expectations, so a shopper using a screen reader or a keyboard can read what is in the candy and order without barriers. Because the ingredient story and the checkout matter, every fix was verified with assistive technology rather than assumed from an automated pass.