Is the Refresh Shopify theme accessible?
1 different failure in Refresh's own code (1 occurrence across three pages), checked against WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA.
Rank 13 of 49 in our Shopify theme accessibility ranking. Refresh is a free theme.
Every shop that runs Refresh without changes to its code has the same failures, so the theme is the cheapest place to fix them.
What fails in Refresh's own code
No main heading on the page
The page has no level-1 heading, so screen reader users have no quick way to the start of the main content or to confirm which page they are on.
What the check found: No <h1> element found on the page.
How to fix it: Make the page's main title a level-1 heading: the product name on a product page, the collection name on a collection page.
Found in the demo's content, which yours replaces
These come from the images and words the theme's developer put in the demo store, not from the theme's code, so they do not count against Refresh. They are worth knowing because the same mistakes are easy to make when you add your own content.
- Links that do not say where they go (collection page (1×)). "Shop now" and "Read more" mean nothing when a screen reader lists the links on a page. In the section settings, write link text that names the destination ("Shop the linen range").
Checked, not counted
- Duplicate ids (collection page (2×)). Two elements share an id. WCAG 2.2 removed this criterion, and it only harms when a label or an ARIA reference points at the duplicated id, so it is not counted. Most come from hidden copies of menus and drawers.
What this does not tell you
- Automated checks find roughly a third of accessibility barriers. A clean result here still needs a keyboard and screen-reader test of your checkout. A failure here is certain.
- We tested what loads first. Menus, the cart drawer and pop-ups that open on a click were not opened, so the real totals can only be higher.
- Your shop is not the demo. Apps, sections, settings and your own content change the result, in both directions.
- Themes get updated. These results are for the version the demo store ran on 10 October 2026.
Check your own shop
Run the free check on your shop's pages. It needs no account and lists every confirmed failure with its WCAG criterion, including the ones your apps and content add. If you want every occurrence with the exact Shopify code to fix it, that is what the Fix Pack is for: $99, once.
How Refresh compares
4 other free themes had no confirmed failure in its own code: Craft, Crave, Ride, Taste.
Next to it in the ranking: Publisher (rank 12, 1 failure) · Sense (rank 14, 1 failure).
All 49 themes, ranked, with the method and its limits.
How we tested
We opened three pages of the official Refresh demo store in Chromium and let its scripts run. Anything the browser did not show was removed, so the theme is never marked down for something no visitor meets. Then each page went through the same engine as our free check. The pages tested:
This is the developer's own demo store; no merchant's shop was measured. If you make Refresh and have fixed something here, write to hello@limen.ae and we will re-test it.