How to fix aria tooltip name on Shopify
Add a visible, descriptive text label to every element that has role="tooltip" so screen readers can announce its purpose.
Steps for Shopify
- In your Shopify Admin, go to Online Store → Themes → click the three-dot menu next to your active theme → Edit code.
- Use the search box (top of the file tree) to search for 'role="tooltip"' across all Liquid template and snippet files.
- Open each file where a tooltip is found (common locations: snippets/product-card.liquid, snippets/icon-wishlist.liquid, sections/header.liquid).
- Ensure the tooltip's HTML element contains descriptive plain text, OR add an aria-label attribute with a descriptive string, e.g.: <div role="tooltip" aria-label="Add to wishlist">Add to wishlist</div>.
- If tooltips are injected by a Shopify app (e.g., a wishlist or product review app), open the app's settings in Admin → Apps and look for a 'Label' or 'Tooltip text' field; if none exists, contact the app developer.
- Save changes and verify with a screen reader or the axe browser extension.
<div role="tooltip" id="wishlist-tip" aria-label="Add to wishlist">
Add to wishlist
</div>
<!-- OR using aria-labelledby -->
<div role="tooltip" id="shipping-tip" aria-labelledby="shipping-tip-text">
<span id="shipping-tip-text">Free shipping on orders over $50</span>
</div>What is aria tooltip name?
A tooltip is a small pop-up element that appears when a user hovers over or focuses on something — think of the little "Add to wishlist" bubble that appears when you hover over a heart icon. In HTML, these are built using `role="tooltip"`. The problem flagged here (WCAG 4.1.2) is that your tooltip element has no accessible name — in other words, the tooltip contains no text (or the text is hidden from assistive technology), so a screen reader has nothing to read aloud. An accessible name is simply the label a screen reader announces when it reaches that element.
Screen-reader users — who may be blind, have low vision, or rely on keyboard-only navigation — depend entirely on accessible names to understand what a tooltip communicates. Without one, the tooltip is completely silent: the user either hears nothing or hears a meaningless "tooltip" announcement with no content. This is a direct failure of WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value), which is a Level AA requirement that governs legal accessibility compliance in the US (ADA), EU (EAA), UK (PSBAR), and many other jurisdictions. Inaccessible tooltips create real legal exposure for your business and exclude a significant portion of potential customers. Fixing them improves trust, usability, and demonstrates commitment to inclusive commerce.
See the complete Aria tooltip name guide for every platform and the full background.
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