ADA Website Compliance: What the Law Says, and a Checklist You Can Run Yourself

If your business is open to the public, assume your website needs to work for people with disabilities. The Justice Department says the ADA applies to what businesses offer online, and it points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as helpful guidance. There is no official federal checklist for business websites, so the practical measure is WCAG Level AA, and you can check a good part of it yourself this afternoon.

Does my website need to be ADA compliant?

Title III covers businesses open to the public: restaurants, shops, medical offices and most places that serve customers. The Justice Department's guidance on web accessibility says it "has consistently taken the position that the ADA's requirements apply to all the goods, services, privileges, or activities offered by public accommodations, including those offered on the web."

Title II covers state and local governments. In 2024 the Justice Department adopted a web rule for them that uses WCAG 2.1 Level AA. On April 20, 2026 it extended the compliance dates to April 26, 2027 for governments with a total population of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller ones and special district governments. Those "ADA deadline extended" headlines are about this rule, which covers governments, not private businesses.

What "compliant" means without a rule for businesses

ADA.gov is plain about it: "The Department of Justice does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards." Businesses "can currently choose how they will ensure" their online offerings are accessible, and the page names WCAG and the federal Section 508 Standards as "helpful guidance."

WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is published by the W3C, the organization that writes web standards. Its requirements come in three levels: A, AA and AAA. Under WCAG's conformance rules, a page meets Level AA when it "satisfies all the Level A and Level AA success criteria." Nobody issues an "ADA compliant" certificate; in practice it means your site works for people with disabilities, measured against WCAG AA.

Three myths you will see in forums

"The Supreme Court ruled that websites must comply." It did not. In 2019 the Ninth Circuit, the federal appeals court that covers California, held in Robles v. Domino's that the ADA reached Domino's website and app because their alleged inaccessibility "impedes access to the goods and services of its physical pizza franchises." On October 7, 2019 the Supreme Court denied Domino's petition, which means it declined to hear the case. That is not a ruling about websites, and the Ninth Circuit itself expressed "no opinion about whether Domino's website or app comply with the ADA."

"Small businesses are exempt." ADA.gov's Title III primer says nearly all types of businesses that serve the public are covered "regardless of the size of the business or the age of their buildings."

"An overlay widget makes you compliant." No tool can promise that. More below.

The California part: the Unruh Act

California adds a state law on top. The Unruh Civil Rights Act, in Civil Code section 51(f), says: "A violation of the right of any individual under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (Public Law 101-336) shall also constitute a violation of this section." Section 52(a) sets damages for each offense, "but in no case less than four thousand dollars ($4,000)," plus attorney's fees the court determines.

That is why the same defect tends to cost more here. By Seyfarth Shaw's count, 8,667 ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in federal courts in 2025, and "California retained its top spot with 3,252 lawsuits." That count includes every kind of Title III claim, not only websites.

You may read that California passed a website accessibility law. AB 2190, a 2026 website accessibility bill, was ordered to the inactive file on May 21, 2026 at its author's request, and its record shows no action since.

We are not attorneys and this is not legal advice. If a demand letter or a lawsuit arrives, talk to a lawyer.

The checklist: test it yourself in about 20 minutes

Use the pages customers use most: home, contact or booking, and your menu, services or prices. Each item says what to check, how to check it without special tools, and why it matters.

Getting around the site

1. Keyboard only

• Check: every link, menu, button and form works without a mouse, and you can see where you are.
• How: click in the address bar, then press Tab to move forward and Shift+Tab to move back. Enter, Space and the arrow keys should work controls, Escape should close pop-ups, and each item should show a visible outline.
• Why: people who cannot use a mouse depend on this, and "mouse-only navigation" is on ADA.gov's list of barriers.

2. Headings and link text

• Check: section titles read like an outline, and every link says where it goes.
• How: read only the section titles, top to bottom, then only the links. "Click here" and five links that all say "learn more" mean nothing on their own.
• Why: screen reader users often jump between headings, or pull up a list of links, to skim a page.

3. Tap targets on a phone

• Check: buttons and links are big enough, and far enough apart, to hit.
• How: use your site with one thumb. If you keep hitting the wrong link, so do your customers.
• Why: people with tremors or limited dexterity miss small targets. WCAG 2.2 added a Level AA minimum of 24 by 24 CSS pixels, with some exceptions.

Reading your menu, prices and hours

4. Real text, not pictures of text

• Check: your menu, prices, hours, phone number and address are real text on the page, not only an image or a PDF.
• How: try to highlight the words, or press and hold on your phone. If nothing highlights, it is a picture.
• Why: a screen reader cannot read a picture of words, and real text can be zoomed, tapped to call and copied into maps. For restaurants, the menu problem has its own article.

5. Images

• Check: images that carry information have alt text, and decorative ones stay out of the way.
• How: in your site editor, open an image's settings and look for alt text or an image description. If losing the image would cost a customer information, describe what it shows ("Carne asada plate with rice and beans"). If it is decoration, leave it empty so screen readers skip it.
• Why: missing alt text is on ADA.gov's list of common barriers, and it says the text "should be short and descriptive."

6. Contrast and zoom

• Check: text is easy to read, and the page still works with text twice as large.
• How: press Ctrl and + (Command and + on a Mac) until the browser shows 200%. Nothing should overlap, get cut off or disappear. Look hard at light gray text and text over photos; measuring contrast needs a checker, and Level AA asks for at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text.
• Why: people with low vision or color blindness cannot read faint text.

7. Video and sound

• Check: videos have captions, and nothing plays sound on its own.
• How: play each video muted. Can you follow it? Reload the page: if audio plays by itself for more than three seconds, WCAG requires a way to pause or stop it, or to control its volume separately.
• Why: captions serve people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and sound that starts on its own can drown out a screen reader.

8. Page language

• Check: each page tells browsers its language. This matters most on a bilingual site.
• How: on a computer, right-click the page and choose View Page Source. Near the top, look for something like lang="en" on English pages and lang="es" on Spanish ones.
• Why: screen readers use it to pick a voice. A Spanish page marked as English gets read with English pronunciation, which is hard to follow.

Booking, ordering or getting in touch

9. Form labels and error messages

• Check: every field has a label that stays visible, and mistakes are explained in words.
• How: type into each field. If the only label was gray text that vanished, it needs a real one. Then submit the form empty: the page should say, in text, what is wrong and where. Required fields should say "required," not just turn red.
• Why: ADA.gov names labels screen readers can convey, clear instructions and error alerts as what makes a form usable.

Telling you about a problem

10. An accessibility statement and a way to report a barrier

• Check: a page that says what standard you are working toward and how to reach you about a problem.
• How: look in your footer. If there is no such page, write one; the W3C has a guide to accessibility statements, and ours shows how we hold this site to the same standard.
• Why: in ADA.gov's words, "Websites that provide a way for the public to report accessibility problems allow website owners to fix accessibility issues."

What a free scan can and can't tell you

Scanners catch what a machine can measure, like missing alt text, contrast ratios and unlabeled fields. They cannot judge whether alt text describes the photo or whether a form makes sense by keyboard.

In a 2017 test by the UK Government Digital Service, on a page built full of deliberate barriers, the best single tool found 41% of them, counting its prompts for manual checks, and all the tools combined found 71%. ADA.gov puts it simply: a "clean" report "does not necessarily mean everything is accessible."

So run access)lens, our free accessibility check, first. It gives you a score and a plain-English summary in about a minute. Then do the manual checks above. A clean scan is a good sign, not proof of compliance.

Why an overlay widget isn't the fix

An overlay is a script, usually shown as a small accessibility icon in a corner, sold as a way to make a site accessible without changing it. We do not install them. An overlay sits on top of the page and has to guess: it cannot know what an unlabeled button does, what your photo shows, or how your booking form should work. Those answers live in your site's own code and content, and that is where the fix belongs.

To be fair, ADA.gov does not tell businesses to avoid overlays; it says automated checkers and overlays "can be helpful tools" that "need to be used carefully." But no overlay, person or company can guarantee your site meets the ADA.

What to do next

Fix it yourself. On builders like Wix, Squarespace or WordPress, several fixes on this list (alt text, section titles, link wording, a menu in real text) are content changes you can usually make in the editor. Contrast, focus outlines and menu behavior tend to come from the template, so check your platform's help pages.

Get help. If the list turned up more than you want to take on, that is what our accessibility review and fixes are for: we review your real pages by keyboard and screen reader, report what fails in plain English, fix it in your site's own code, and re-test to verify. If a site fights every fix, a rebuild can be faster, and we will say so.

Got a demand letter? Talk to a lawyer. Do not install an overlay in a panic.

Questions owners ask about ADA website compliance

Does a small business website need to be ADA compliant? If your business is open to the public, the Justice Department's position is that the ADA applies to what you offer online, and ADA.gov's Title III primer says coverage does not depend on the size of the business. With no federal technical rule for business websites, WCAG Level AA is the practical measure.

Is there an official ADA website checklist? Not for private businesses. The Justice Department has no regulation setting out detailed web standards. Its guidance lists practices to consider, such as contrast, alt text, captions, form labels and keyboard access, and points to WCAG. The checklist above covers the same ground.

Is WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 required? No federal rule names either for private businesses. The Justice Department's rule for state and local governments uses WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The W3C encourages using the latest version, and content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to 2.1, so aiming for 2.2 AA covers both.

Will an accessibility plugin or overlay make my site compliant? No tool can promise that. ADA.gov says overlays can be helpful but need to be used carefully, and a clean report does not necessarily mean everything is accessible. Lasting fixes happen in the site's own code and content.

How do I check if my website is ADA compliant for free? Run a free scan such as access)lens at access.brenro.com, then do the manual checks in this guide. The scan measures what a machine can; the manual checks cover what it cannot judge. Neither is a legal guarantee.

Does the ADA apply if I only have a Google Business Profile or social media pages? The sources in this guide do not settle that; the Domino's decision was about a business's own website and app. For your situation, ask a lawyer. Either way, describe your images, caption your videos and keep your hours in text.

Where to start

Run the free access)lens check, then work through the ten items above. If you would rather have a person look, see our accessibility review and fixes or contact Ernie.