diff --git a/src/hdmf_zarr/backend.py b/src/hdmf_zarr/backend.py
index fd3579a2..153b703b 100644
--- a/src/hdmf_zarr/backend.py
+++ b/src/hdmf_zarr/backend.py
@@ -75,8 +75,8 @@
 
 class ZarrIO(HDMFIO):
 
-    @classmethod
-    def can_read(cls, path):
+    @staticmethod
+    def can_read(path):
         try:
             zarr.open(path, mode="r")
             return True