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ADA compliance

ADA website compliance,
without the panic.

Website accessibility lawsuits are filed against US businesses by the thousands every year, and most targets are small and mid-size companies. Here is what the law actually says, what the technical standard requires, and what to do — written by developers, not lawyers, so check the legal side with your counsel.

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Mockup of an ADA compliance guide card: first steps, where the effort goes and who does what
Illustrative mockup: practical steps toward an accessible website.
The legal picture

What the ADA
says about websites

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses open to the public to be accessible to people with disabilities. The Department of Justice has stated that this applies to websites, while not writing a specific technical rule for private businesses.

In practice, courts and settlements refer to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA. For state and local governments, the Department of Justice adopted WCAG 2.1 AA as the formal standard under Title II in 2024.

Claims are concentrated in a few places — New York and Florida federal courts, and California, where the Unruh Act adds statutory damages — and target retail, restaurants, hospitality, healthcare and professional services above all. Many start with a demand letter rather than a lawsuit.

The technical side

What WCAG 2.1 AA
checks in practice

01

Text alternatives

Meaningful alt text for images that carry information; decorative images marked as such. Menus and prices as text, not images.

02

Keyboard navigation

Everything usable without a mouse, with a visible focus indicator and a logical order.

03

Color contrast

Text contrast of at least 4.5:1 against its background (3:1 for large text).

04

Forms

Every field labeled, errors explained in text, no information conveyed by color alone.

05

Structure

Real headings, landmarks and link text that makes sense out of context, so screen readers can navigate.

06

Media and motion

Captions on videos, no auto-playing audio, and a way to pause animations.

A warning

Accessibility overlays
are not a fix.

Widgets that promise one-line ADA compliance are widely criticized by accessibility experts and disability advocates, and sites using them have been sued anyway. In 2025 the Federal Trade Commission took action against one overlay vendor over its compliance claims.

Accessibility is a property of the code: headings, labels, contrast, keyboard behavior. A script layered on top cannot reliably fix markup underneath.

The durable fix is to build or remediate the site to WCAG 2.1 AA and test it with keyboard and screen readers. Every site we build is made that way.

What to do

Five practical
steps

  1. Run an automated scanFree tools catch roughly a third of issues — contrast, missing alt text, missing labels. A start, not an answer.
  2. Test by handNavigate the key journeys with only a keyboard, then with a screen reader. This is where most real problems show up.
  3. Fix the templates firstMost issues live in shared templates: fixing the header, menu and product template fixes hundreds of pages.
  4. Publish an accessibility statementSay what standard you follow and how to report a problem — and answer when someone does.
  5. Keep it accessibleNew content and features need the same checks. Build it into the publishing process.
FAQ

Quick answers.

Is my small business website required to be ADA compliant?

If you serve the public, courts have generally applied the ADA to websites, and small businesses are frequent targets. Your counsel can confirm how it applies to you.

What is the standard for ADA website compliance?

WCAG 2.1 level AA is the standard referenced in most settlements and in the DOJ's 2024 rule for public entities.

Do accessibility widgets make my site compliant?

No. They do not reliably fix the underlying code, and sites using them have still been sued.

Can you make our existing site accessible?

Yes. We audit it against WCAG 2.1 AA, fix the templates first, and test with keyboard and screen readers. Sometimes rebuilding is cheaper; we will tell you which.

Want a real number for your project?

Thirty minutes on a call: we look at what you need and give you a fixed price in writing, with no obligation.

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