# Michael Bervell

Michael Bervell co-founded TestParty, which uses AI to find and fix website accessibility problems in source code. LinkedIn posts by Bervell explain accessibility risks for ecommerce stores and how those fixes relate to shoppers and AI shopping agents.

- Profile: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/creators/michael-bervell/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelbervell
- LinkedIn followers: 13,952
- Topics: artificial-intelligence, ecommerce, agentic-commerce
- Based on 11 dated posts, latest 2026-10-08

## Summary

Michael Bervell is most useful for explaining ecommerce website accessibility risks and source-code fixes.

- Best for: A Shopify-focused ecommerce agency or direct-to-consumer brand planning an ADA compliance webinar.
- Not for: A consumer apparel brand seeking a paid lifestyle endorsement with guaranteed reach.
- Check first: Confirm the underlying data, audience breakdown, and commercial terms before contacting them.

### Takeaways

- A scan of 19,581 storefronts reported more failures on product and collection pages.
- An unlabeled cart icon in a shared theme can recur across a catalog.
- Accessible controls matter to screen-reader users and AI shopping agents.

## Main ideas

- **Fix the theme, not just the page**: Bervell argues that accessibility failures often stem from shared theme components, so one faulty control can recur across an entire catalog. That makes the theme a better place to look for fixes than treating each page as a separate problem.
- **A cosmetic overlay is not the same as fixing the underlying code**: Bervell contrasts overlay widgets with changes to a site's source code. An apparent compliance measure may not resolve the underlying barriers and could itself be cited in a demand letter. They frame accessibility as a question of both technology and the economics of responding to legal claims.
- **Accessible controls matter to AI shopping agents, too**: Bervell connects accessibility for people using assistive technology with AI agents' ability to navigate a store. They argue that both depend on the information exposed by a site's accessibility tree.

## Work to read

- [Storefront accessibility scan of 19,581 ecommerce sites](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelbervell_we-scanned-19581-ecommerce-storefronts-for-activity-7510718884413587456-hrzP)
- [$1,000 for a two-line introduction](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelbervell_im-going-to-pay-someone-1000-for-a-two-line-activity-7490017380966912000-58kF)
- [Honest Ecommerce episode with Jason Tan](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelbervell_thanks-chase-clymer-for-having-me-and-jason-activity-7498714728802824193-oHVn)
- [$4.4B in GMV flowing through TestParty customer sites](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelbervell_more-than-44-billion-in-gmv-flows-through-activity-7511383191086288896-QiUZ)
- [The two-minute TestParty explainer prompt, published in full](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelbervell_this-weekend-i-one-shotted-an-editorial-activity-7505237689512681472-03qu)

## Brand relationships

- **TestParty** (owned_business)
- **Harlem Capital** (employment)
- **Harlem Capital** (investment)
- **Urban Innovation Fund** (investment)
- **NSF SBIR** (investment)
- **Eddie Bauer** (client)
- **Magic Spoon** (client)
- **Levain Bakery** (client)
- **Claire's** (client)
- **OLIPOP** (client)
- **Hulken** (client)
- **OluKai** (client)
- **SUKOSHI** (client)
- **Shopify** (mention)
- **Honest Ecommerce** (mention)

## Partnerships

Michael Bervell's partnerships run through TestParty, the website accessibility company they co-founded, rather than through a personal creator sponsorship program. The five LinkedIn posts contain no media kit, rate card, or stated sponsorship policy, so brands should start with TestParty rather than a creator booking process. The posts show the shape of existing collaborations: Bervell and co-founder Jason Tan appeared together as guests on the Honest Ecommerce podcast; TestParty publishes original ecommerce accessibility research and markets with it directly; and TestParty runs an open referral incentive paying $1,000 for a two-line introduction that turns into a customer. A co-marketing webinar on ADA compliance and source-code fixes could take the form of a joint session built around TestParty's own scan data, with both founders available. Ask TestParty directly for commercial terms and the right partnership contact.

## Alternatives

- Claire Gatenby: Pick Gatenby when the webinar audience is Shopify merchants and the agency wants a practitioner who edits themes and comments publicly on Shopify product changes. Gatenby's post on the Shopify Canvas demo works through a concrete release: Canvas lays out a store in one workspace; a theme edited in Canvas stops receiving theme updates; and Sidekick checks that code works and looks right, but not whether it is accessible. Gatenby ties that to the European Accessibility Act, which has applied since June 2025 to many stores selling to EU customers, and to whether AI shopping tools can still read a store's content. A second post about taking on a Harrogate menswear client shows how Gatenby frames a merchant relationship around why customers buy. For a store-owner audience, that is closer to their daily decisions than a compliance scan.
- Sobia Irum: Choose Irum when the deliverable is a hands-on accessibility audit and remediation plan for WordPress-based sites, including law firms and professional services. Irum's post lists the services in detail: website accessibility audits, WCAG-focused improvements, WordPress accessibility remediation, keyboard navigation fixes, form, link, button and heading structure fixes, contrast and readability work, and manual testing. The post frames accessibility as a business problem as much as a legal one. A second post describes building a Fluent Forms to Clio Grow intake integration for law firms, pointing to a legal-sector client base. A webinar for a legal or professional-services audience that ends with an actual site review suits this evidence better than a merchant-scale compliance scan.
- Ayinde Rudolph, Ed.D.: Consider Rudolph when the campaign is about designing a new AI product with accessibility built in from the start, rather than retrofitted. Rudolph's posts describe Jean OS launching with WCAG 2.2 AA as a foundational design choice, detailing contrast and focus indicators, minimum target sizes, screen reader and Braille reading order, cognitive and dyslexia-friendly design, and reduced-motion and voice-control support. A second post sets out a pledged crisis response: staying present with someone in distress, logging only a category and timestamp, and never routing an adult's distress signal to an employer. For a session aimed at teams building assistive or educational AI, that mix of baseline specification and duty-of-care policy is the closer comparison.

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AI-assisted summary of public posts. Audience demographics are not available. Engagement appears only where we checked recent posts. Method: https://b2binfluencer.marketing/methodology/