Most of you should already be aware of the website requirements for accessibility. If not, you should take the time to read Accessibility in the docs to get up to speed on current requirements.

The Zen Cart development team has done a great job in making Zen Cart meet the majority of requirements for compliance with A, AA, AAA, and suggested modifications to basic code.

However, just adding an image in you define_main_page.php without an alt text in the link, you've automatically created an A violation. If you changed a link color incorrrectly, you've probably created at least a AA violation for color contrast.

Why should you care? Just recently, a woman in Florida has sued 49 different companies for A and AA violations of ADA/WCAG standards. Only one is capable (has the funds) to fight the suit. Others who settled mentioned losing six months or more of revenue to the suit even after negotiating.

And, due mostly in part to the one website owner's legal team, the US DOJ will be publishing new guidelines in April of 2026.

Are you liable if Zen Cart or one of the mods embeds a non-compliant item in your site? Yes. The defense of "It was there when I downloaded it" will not work although some have managed to negogtiate a lower monetary amount.

Does the law really affect you?

Specifically, the rule states that any digital content that a public entity “provides or makes available” to users must meet accessibility standards, whether this content is provided directly by the public entity (e.g., published to a government’s own website) or by a third-party organization as part of a contractual, licensing, or other agreement. For example, if a city government contracts with a third-party mobile app provider to collect parking payments, the mobile app must conform with WCAG 2.1 A and AA.

Those of you reading to disagree will note the use of the term "public entity" in the first line. "I'm not a public entity" is probably immediately on your lips.

The kicker addition to the new ADA Title II compliance contains this sentence:

If you want to sell into this market, following these web accessibility standards is a requirement.

Unless you are selling items that will NEVER be bought by > state, local, and other special or district governments, encompassing all government agencies, services, and organizations, as well as organizations they’ve contracted to run programs on their behalf or

• Public schools, community colleges, and public universities
• Public hospitals and public healthcare clinics
• State and local courts
• Public libraries
  you ***WILL ***be subject to the new rules.

There is no magic wand to make this go away. There ae some excellent tools listed in the Zen Cart docs that can be used to examine your site. Alhough listed on the page, Widgets are NOT tools that will identify accessibility errors. Some claim to "fix compliance" on the fly but that is easily disproven.

And speaking of tools, none of them listed in the docs can look into a site and see color contrast when a link, button, background, image, etc. is hovered over.

Well, today I think I've found a valuable extension for those of you using Chrome.

Site Contrast - Full Page WCAG 2.2 & APCA Contrast Checker

It is a Chrome-specific extension designed for full-page scanning of contrast issues, supporting both WCAG 2.2 and APCA standards, including complex cases like image backgrounds, gradients, and transparencies!

I know of no other tool that can do that at the present time. It's been an eye-opener for me in finding those little spots often missed that result in a previously hidden A or AA non-compliance.

When I'm more familiar with the extension (it's not very good at pointing to the actual problem) I'll be adding it to the tool list in the docs.

Meanwhile, if you're a user of chrome, give it a try and let us know if it helped in your situation.