ADA compliance for websites, without the scare tactics.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed in July 1990, four years before the first commercial browser. Title III of the Act requires “places of public accommodation”, which means businesses open to the public, to be accessible to people with disabilities. The text talks about buildings, counters and parking. It says nothing about websites.

Since then, the US Department of Justice, which enforces the ADA, has repeatedly said that the Act applies to the websites of public accommodations. Its 2022 guidance on web accessibility says so plainly, and courts have taken the same view in most cases, though not all. The guidance cites WCAG as a helpful reference but lets each business choose how it gets there.

Who is covered

Title III covers businesses that serve the public: shops, restaurants, hotels, clinics, banks, gyms, schools, and so on. The open question has been whether a website on its own is a “place” of public accommodation. Some federal appeals courts, including the Ninth Circuit in the case against Domino's, have said the ADA applies to a website when it connects to a physical place the business runs. Other courts have treated websites as covered in their own right. The practical result is that if your business has customers in the US, the safe assumption is that your website is covered.

Title II covers state and local governments: cities, counties, public schools and universities, transit agencies, courts. In April 2024 the Department of Justice published a rule that sets WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for their websites and mobile apps. In April 2026 it moved the compliance dates back a year. Entities with a population of 50,000 or more now have until April 26, 2027, and smaller entities and special districts until April 26, 2028. The rule and its fact sheet are on ada.gov, and that is the place to check for any later changes. If you build or host sites for a public entity, those dates are yours too. Our ADA Title II guide covers the rule, its exceptions and where to start.

What “compliant” means in practice

For private businesses there is no technical regulation that says what an accessible website looks like. The Department of Justice started one in 2010 and withdrew it in 2017. In its place, WCAG 2.1 Level AA has become the benchmark. It is the standard in the Title II rule, in recent DOJ settlements with businesses, and in most consent decrees that end private lawsuits. Our WCAG guide explains what that level asks for, criterion by criterion.

When people call a website “ADA compliant”, they usually mean it meets WCAG 2.1 AA and keeps meeting it. No badge or certificate makes a site compliant. What counts is whether people with disabilities can actually use it.

The barriers most often cited

Web accessibility complaints tend to name the same handful of barriers, because they are the ones a visitor hits in the first minute. Here they are, with the part of Accessora that helps and where a developer has to step in.

Scroll sideways to see every column

Audits flag the barriers a scan can detect, with their WCAG criterion and the elements involved. On Enterprise, automated fixes repair the common forms of missing labels, accessible names and link text when the page loads. On Growth and Enterprise, AI alt text writes English descriptions for images that have none, and you can edit them in the dashboard. The widget lets a visitor raise contrast or text size themselves. Keyboard flows and captions need a person, every time.

A practical order of work

1. Audit. Add your main pages and run a scan. You get a score per page and a list of issues you can filter by severity. Start with the errors.
2. Fix the errors. On Enterprise, turn on automated fixes for the issues they cover. Send the rest to whoever maintains your theme or code, then re-scan to confirm each one is gone.
3. Publish a statement. Say what standard you aim for, what you know is still open, and how to reach you. The statement generator takes five minutes.
4. Keep re-auditing. Set a weekly or monthly schedule so new content and theme updates do not quietly undo the work.

Illustration of the audit results screen: a page scored 84 out of 100 with five errors, four warnings and one notice, each listed with its WCAG criterion.

Quill & Kiln/quillandkiln.comQK

OverviewInstallationAuditsAlt TagsSettings

Audits › /checkout

Audit results5 errors4 warnings1 notice

Re-scan

IssueWCAGSeverityElements

Images must have alternative text1.1.1 · AError3

Form elements must have labels4.1.2 · AError2

Elements must meet minimum color contrast1.4.3 · AAWarning4

Links must have discernible text2.4.4 · ANotice1

Keep a dated record of each scan and each fix as you go. If a complaint ever arrives, that history shows you took the issue seriously and acted on it. It is worth more than any badge.

Related laws

Outside North America, the European Accessibility Act covers online shops and services sold to EU consumers, and the UK Equality Act 2010 covers services in the UK. Most of them point to WCAG, so work done for one carries over to the others.

Your accessibility statement

An accessibility statement is not required by the ADA, but it is one of the first things a lawyer or a frustrated visitor looks for. It shows you have a standard, that you know where you stand, and that there is a person to contact. Write one with the free generator, link it from your footer, and keep the date current.