How Awe Inspired Achieved Shopify ADA Compliance Without Slowing Down Their Fast-Moving Team

Company Overview

Awe Inspired is a fast-growing direct-to-consumer jewelry brand known for its meaningful, empowerment-focused designs. Operating on Shopify, the brand has built a loyal following through its distinctive mythology-inspired goddess jewelry collections and has been featured in publications including Forbes and Oprah Daily.

Like many scaling e-commerce companies, Awe Inspired moves fast—sometimes launching initiatives within days rather than weeks. This speed-first culture meant they needed partners who could keep pace without creating bottlenecks.

The Challenge: Shopify ADA Compliance Without the Bandwidth

Awe Inspired knew their site had accessibility gaps but lacked the headcount and bandwidth to address them proactively. As a growing Shopify brand with limited resources, accessibility had fallen into the category of "important but not urgent"—until it became urgent.

"It's difficult to build a growing Shopify brand," explained Alison Noda, who leads site operations at Awe Inspired. "There's a lot of things in the beginning that just get missed, including accessibility."

This is a common story among Shopify merchants. According to TestParty's research on why businesses get sued for website accessibility, the majority of ADA demand letters target small and mid-sized e-commerce brands—often catching them completely off guard.

The team needed a Shopify accessibility solution that could move as fast as they did—without requiring significant internal resources or ongoing maintenance.

Why Awe Inspired Rejected Accessibility Overlays

When evaluating options for Shopify ADA compliance, Alison quickly ruled out overlay widgets like AccessiBe and UserWay. Her background in site development gave her insight into why these solutions fall short.

"The overlays are just expensive for what they are," Alison said. "And it doesn't solve the problem. It's kind of just a band-aid approach."

This assessment aligns with industry research on why overlays fail. Overlay widgets attempt to fix accessibility issues through a JavaScript layer that sits on top of a website, but they don't address the underlying code problems that cause accessibility barriers in the first place.

"A lot of e-commerce leaders don't have the knowledge in site and they focus more on growth and retention," Alison explained. "They just don't know what can happen if you don't take accessibility seriously."

Awe Inspired needed a UserWay alternative that addressed root-cause accessibility issues through actual code remediation—not a widget that papers over problems.

The Solution: Fast, Painless Shopify Accessibility Remediation

TestParty's approach aligned perfectly with Awe Inspired's need for speed. The partnership moved from initial outreach to implementation in record time.

"I sent an email or scheduled a call at noon on a Friday, and we were on a call by 4pm," Alison recalled. "The next week, we were live. I have never worked at a brand that moves so quickly—but it's been really nice that you guys are also fast to execute."

The onboarding process was structured with clear timelines, regular check-ins, and a dedicated Slack channel for real-time communication. Jason Tan, TestParty's CTO, became known for his responsiveness.

"Jason is so responsive on Slack. If we have a question, he responds quickly," Alison said. "I never had to worry about you guys."

This stands in stark contrast to Alison's experience with other accessibility platforms at previous brands. She recounted working with CrownPeak:

"It was just the worst platform to find accessibility issues. It looked like it was from 1999—totally clunky. Going into the platform was the most painful thing ever."

Results: Accessibility Without the Headache

The impact on Awe Inspired's operations has been significant. Their internal development team no longer needs to allocate time to accessibility fixes.

"Our development lead is knowledgeable about accessibility, so he's been really happy that he hasn't had to do much work and just is able to apply his knowledge."

One of Alison's original goals was to reach a state where "no one really has to think about accessibility anymore." TestParty delivered on that vision.

"I didn't have to micromanage and I didn't have to really check in because you guys were able to do the accessibility work in the background," she said. "It all just kind of worked out really well."

This hands-off experience stands in contrast to audit-only accessibility approaches that hand brands a PDF of issues and leave them to figure out remediation on their own.

Future-Proofing: Accessibility Baked Into Their Site Rebuild

Awe Inspired is currently undergoing a complete site rebuild and retheme. Rather than treating accessibility as an afterthought, they now have it established as a baseline.

"It's helpful knowing that our site is already accessible, so there's a baseline," Alison said. "We don't have to think about the accessibility part because it's already baked in with TestParty."

This proactive approach means the new site will launch with accessibility built into its foundation—avoiding the common Shopify accessibility issues that plague most theme implementations.

Budget Season Validation

Perhaps the strongest testament to TestParty's value came during Awe Inspired's 2026 budget planning. When leadership asked where to rank tools, TestParty was immediately placed in the "non-negotiable" category.

"TestParty came up and I was like, 'Well, we can't get rid of TestParty. That's not an option,'" Alison said.

As Alison noted from her experience across multiple brands: "Every single brand anyone works at always happens. No one is immune to these lawsuits."

The Verdict: Making Accessibility Fun

When asked to describe the partnership in three words, Alison's response captured the essence of working with TestParty:

"You guys are really making accessibility fun. Fun as in fast and painless."

For Awe Inspired, that means no more clunky legacy platforms, no more manual remediation projects, and no more worrying about Shopify ADA compliance. Just a site that works for everyone.

About TestParty

TestParty is an AI-powered digital accessibility compliance platform that helps e-commerce brands achieve and maintain WCAG 2.2 AA compliance. Unlike overlay solutions that mask accessibility issues, TestParty provides source code remediation that fixes problems at their root.

Serving 45+ brands generating over $2 billion in combined revenue, TestParty specializes in Shopify accessibility and works with fast-moving teams that need compliance without the overhead.

Ready to make your Shopify store accessible? Book a demo to see how TestParty can help.