How to fix error not associated on BigCommerce

Steps for BigCommerce

1. In your BigCommerce control panel, go to Storefront → My Themes → click 'Edit Theme' (Stencil) or use the Theme Files editor.
2. Locate the relevant Handlebars templates: templates/components/common/forms/ contains reusable form partials; checkout fields live in templates/pages/checkout/ or are handled by the Optimized One-Page Checkout.
3. In each form partial, add id="FIELDNAME-error" error span elements adjacent to inputs, and add aria-describedby="FIELDNAME-error" to the input tags.
4. In your theme's JavaScript (assets/js/theme/ directory), extend the validation logic (often in utils/form-utils.js or a page-specific file) to set aria-invalid and toggle the error span's hidden state.
5. For the Optimized One-Page Checkout (which is a React app BigCommerce controls), use the Checkout SDK or Checkout Customization scripts injected via Script Manager (Storefront → Script Manager) to patch ARIA attributes after React renders the fields.
6. Save, push your Stencil theme, and test with a screen reader.

What is error not associated?

When a customer fills out a form on your site (checkout, contact, newsletter sign-up) and submits it with a mistake, your site needs to tell them two things: (1) that the field is in an error state, and (2) what the error actually is. Sighted users see this visually — a red border, an error message below the field. But screen reader users rely on invisible HTML attributes called `aria-invalid` and `aria-describedby` to receive the same information. Without these attributes, a screen reader user hits Submit, nothing seems to happen, and they have no idea which field failed or why. WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 3.3.1 (Error Identification) requires that input errors be identified and described to the user in text.

Roughly 7–8 million people in the US use screen readers, and many more use other assistive technologies. If your checkout or contact form is inaccessible, these customers simply cannot complete a purchase or inquiry — which is lost revenue you may not even know about. Beyond conversions, the ADA and similar laws in many countries treat web accessibility failures as discrimination, creating legal exposure including demand letters and lawsuits that have cost retailers thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to resolve. Fixing form error accessibility is also a direct ranking signal for Google's Core Web Vitals and overall page-experience scores, meaning it can influence organic search visibility. This is a quick, targeted fix with an outsized impact on inclusivity, revenue, and legal risk.

See the complete Error not associated guide for every platform and the full background.