How La Ligne Achieved Accessibility Compliance Without Compromising Their Design-Forward Brand

Company Overview

La Ligne is a New York-based fashion brand known for its elevated approach to the classic stripe. Founded by former Vogue editors and the former head of business development at Rag & Bone, the brand has built a devoted following for its timeless yet modern designs and commitment to quality craftsmanship.

The brand's visual identity is central to everything they do—from product photography to site experience. Operating on a headless Shopify architecture using Hydrogen, La Ligne does not have an internal development team, but rather works with a Shopify Plus agency partner for their development needs. 

The Challenge: Accessibility Without Sacrificing Aesthetics

As La Ligne pursued accessibility compliance, the team wanted clarity on what it would mean for the site’s visual identity. The question was simple: could the site become fully accessible without altering design choices?

"I was worried that the changes might have a real impact on the look and feel of our website," said Naomi Handal, who oversees La Ligne's e-commerce operations. "Once we received the assessment from Test Party, we wanted to move quickly and if the fixes required design changes, there would likely be multiple rounds of pitches and approvals before getting our developers working on it - which would extend the timeline and keep open to the risk we were now aware of for longer.”

This is a common concern. Many accessibility solutions present brands with difficult trade-offs—suggesting wholesale design changes that conflict with carefully developed brand identity. 

Beyond aesthetics, La Ligne faced a resource reality common to independent brands: every dollar and every hour of team focus had to be justified against direct business impact.

Previous quotes for accessibility work had been prohibitive, multi-month timelines at costs that didn't make sense for the business.

"In the past we’ve been told that implementing a solution was a three or four month process," explained Becky Moyes-Dresher (COO of La Ligne). "And then the recommendation for ongoing compliance requires quarterly assessments. But then what happens in the in-between as standards and site updates evolve? We wanted an evergreen solution that reduces risk continuously rather than reintroducing significant cost and exposure every quarter.”  

The Overlay Experiment

Like many brands seeking a solution, La Ligne had tried an accessibility overlay widget—a JavaScript tool that adds accessibility features on top of an existing site.

The experience was underwhelming.

"It comes up whenever it wants to," Naomi said of the widget's reliability. More fundamentally, she understood that the overlay wasn't actually solving the underlying problem.

This insight reflects the core limitation of overlay solutions: they attempt to patch accessibility on top of inaccessible code rather than fixing the code itself. For La Ligne, the overlay was a band-aid that wasn't even sticking properly.

Finding a Different Approach

When Becky met TestParty at Beanstalk, an e-commerce conference, the pitch seemed almost too good: comprehensive accessibility compliance, continuous monitoring, actual code fixes—at a price point that made sense.

"It felt too good to be true," she admitted. "And it turns out it wasn't."

Several factors aligned with La Ligne's specific needs:

Real-time compliance, not point-in-time audits. TestParty scans daily and delivers monthly reports, creating an ongoing compliance record rather than a snapshot that becomes outdated the moment a developer pushes new code.

Low lift for lean teams. For a team where the e-commerce lead is also managing countless other priorities, a hands-off solution wasn't a nice-to-have—it was a requirement.

GitHub-native workflow. With La Ligne's headless Hydrogen architecture connected to GitHub, TestParty's approach of pushing code changes directly fit their existing development process.

Transparent pricing. No premium charges for complex architecture, no scope creep, no "this is taking longer than expected" conversations.

Implementation: 95% Invisible Fixes

The moment of truth came with the initial accessibility audit, which provided the clarity La Ligne needed: the site could become compliant without disrupting design choices that define its look and feel. 

The answer was a relief: 95% of accessibility issues could be resolved through code changes alone.

"I was so happy to see there was none of that," Naomi said. "You were able to change 95% of things through code updates."

These code-level fixes addressed the technical accessibility requirements—proper ARIA attributes, semantic HTML structure, keyboard navigation support—without touching the visual design of the site. Screen reader users and keyboard navigators would benefit; the site's appearance remained unchanged.

For the small percentage of issues that did require decisions—such as third-party integrations with their own accessibility gaps—TestParty flagged them clearly and reached out to vendors directly on La Ligne's behalf. 

Agency Integration: Adding Value, Not Burden

La Ligne's development work flows through their Shopify Plus agency partner, so any new tool or process had to fit smoothly into an existing process. The team also wanted to avoid introducing unnecessary implementation overhead that could quietly add time and cost along the way. 

TestParty's GitHub-based workflow made that a non-issue, allowing fixes and recommendations to flow directly into their agency’s day-to-day development work. "It was very easy for me to share that with them and for them to just look at it in GitHub directly," Naomi explained. "It didn't create extra backlog for our agency, which really helped—because it meant we could address accessibility work efficiently and within the scope of our existing workflow."

La Ligne’s agency partner confirmed the smooth experience from the agency side.

"It's been very, very smooth—TestParty is very communicative. We’ve really appreciated that you worked with our dev team when we needed to make code changes to the theme."

The integration actually enhanced the existing workflow rather than disrupting it. The agency could review TestParty's accessibility fixes alongside their regular development work, merging changes at their own cadence.

Results: The Value of Not Thinking About It

For Becky, the most telling measure of success is how rarely she thinks about accessibility now.

"Since the day I signed the contract, I’ve heard very little about it," she reported. "Which is always a good sign, because if the team is coming to me about a new partner after that stage, it's usually because something's not going according to plan."

This invisibility isn't a lack of activity—TestParty scans La Ligne's site daily and delivers monthly compliance reports. It's that the solution works as promised, requiring minimal attention from a team that has limited attention to spare.

"I literally haven't thought about you guys except when I pay your invoices or when there's a call on my calendar," Becky said. "And that's pretty huge."

For a brand where every team member is juggling competing priorities, this freedom from ongoing management represents real value. Becky and Naomi both can focus on strategic priorities—site experience, conversion optimization, the work that directly drives revenue—rather than monitoring an accessibility tool.

"I think a lot of times when any business signs up with a partner, there's a lot of hidden stressors that you don't really realize until you’re ‘in it’," Becky reflected. "And that has not been the case with TestParty."

The Rare Vendor Experience: Promises Kept

When asked what advice she'd give other brands evaluating accessibility solutions, Becky’s response centered on something surprisingly simple: TestParty did what they said they would do.

"What you sold us—what you said you had—is what you had," she explained. "There was no upsell. There was no 'this actually took us longer than we thought because you're on Hydrogen, so we need to increase your price.”

In an e-commerce ecosystem where vendor relationships often involve expectation management and surprise costs, this reliability stood out.

"We got exactly what I thought we were going to get, and it eliminated unnecessary stress," Becky said. "So I would just tell people to go straight to you."

The Verdict: Compliance That Fits How Brands Actually Operate

For La Ligne, TestParty solved a problem that had seemed unsolvable: achieving comprehensive accessibility compliance without the prohibitive costs, design compromises, or ongoing management burden that other solutions demanded.

"It's one of those things where it really does stem from: you did what you said you were going to do, for the price you said you were going to do it."

For brands that keep a close eye on operating costs, for design-forward companies protective of their visual identity, and for teams with consistently competing priorities, La Ligne's experience demonstrates that accessibility compliance doesn't have to mean trade-offs—or require a high-touch solution.

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 works with brands of all sizes—from bootstrapped startups to enterprise operations—on both standard Shopify and headless architectures.

Ready to see what compliance looks like without compromises? Book a demo to learn how TestParty can work with your existing workflow.