Is Your Website ADA Compliant? What Every Business Owner Needs to Know

You probably haven’t thought much about website accessibility. Most business owners haven’t. It’s not taught in business school. It’s not in your operations manual. And if your website works fine for you, you might assume it works fine for everyone.

Here’s the problem: accessibility lawsuits against businesses have increased 300% over the past five years. And they’re not all going away. Companies like Domino’s, Nike, and Target have all settled accessibility lawsuits for millions of dollars.

This isn’t just about legal risk. It’s also about leaving money on the table. Approximately 1 in 4 adults in the US live with some type of disability. That’s a significant portion of your potential customer base you might be inadvertently locking out of your website.

If you’re wondering whether your site is accessible, the answer is probably no—unless you’ve specifically designed it to be. And that’s a problem you need to fix.

What is the ADA and How Does It Apply to Websites?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law in 1990. Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination in public accommodations. For decades, this applied to physical spaces: buildings, stores, offices. But in 2016, the Department of Justice issued guidance stating that Title III applies to websites too.

Why? Because a website is a public accommodation. If your business serves the public and has a website, that website must be accessible to people with disabilities. It’s not optional. It’s the law.

The legal standard for accessibility is WCAG 2.1 at the AA level (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the gold standard created by the World Wide Web Consortium). Meeting this standard means your site is accessible to people who are:

• Blind or low vision: Using screen readers to have content read aloud, or using magnification software
• Deaf or hard of hearing: Relying on captions and transcripts for video and audio content
• Motor impaired: Using keyboard-only navigation, voice control, or switch access instead of a mouse
• Cognitively impaired: Needing clear, simple language and logical page structure

The Most Common Violations (And Why They Matter)

Most websites have the same accessibility problems. Here are the big ones:

1. Missing Alt Text on Images

Alt text is the written description of an image. A person using a screen reader can’t see images, so they rely on alt text to understand what’s there. Without it, they hit an image and hear nothing. The context is lost.

Bad alt text: “Image” or blank

Good alt text: “Woman smiling while using a laptop at a café”

Approximately 25% of websites fail this basic requirement. It’s an easy fix, but it requires discipline to implement everywhere.

2. Poor Color Contrast

If your text color is too close to your background color, people with low vision or color blindness can’t read it. The WCAG standard requires a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text (18px or larger). For a deeper look, read our guide on how color choices affect visitor behavior.

Many modern designs use light gray text on white backgrounds or dark gray on black—looks sleek, fails the standard.

3. Keyboard Navigation Doesn’t Work

Some people can’t use a mouse. They navigate using only a keyboard (Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, Arrow keys). If your website requires a mouse—hidden menus that only appear on hover, buttons that only work with a click and not keyboard activation—it’s inaccessible.

Every interactive element should be reachable by keyboard and should have a visible focus indicator (usually a border or highlight showing which element is currently selected).

4. Form Labels Are Missing or Hidden

A form field without a visible label is confusing to everyone, but it’s impossible for someone using a screen reader. They have no way to know what each field is supposed to be.

Placeholder text does not count as a label. “Email address” in a field doesn’t help someone using a screen reader—they need an actual HTML label element.

5. No Captions on Video

If you have video on your site (testimonials, product demos, educational content), and it doesn’t have captions, you’re locking out deaf and hard-of-hearing users. You’re also losing SEO value—search engines can’t understand video content without captions or transcripts.

6. Poor Heading Structure

A page should have a logical hierarchy of headings (H1, H2, H3, etc.). Someone using a screen reader can navigate by headings, jumping from section to section. If you have random heading sizes just for design, or if you skip heading levels (H1 to H3, skipping H2), the structure breaks. For a deeper look, read our guide on why accessibility is a legal and business priority.

7. PDF Documents Aren’t Tagged

If you have PDF downloads, they need to be accessible too. Most PDFs are just scans or unstructured text. An accessible PDF has proper tagging, bookmarks, and readable text order. Many businesses miss this completely.

The Legal Risk: It’s Real and Growing

Accessibility lawsuits have increased dramatically. Here’s what’s happening:

• In 2020, there were approximately 1,000 ADA Title III website accessibility lawsuits filed. In 2023, that number exceeded 3,000.
• The median settlement or judgment is between $20,000 and $80,000, not including legal fees.
• Some larger settlements have exceeded $5 million.
• Defendants aren’t just large corporations—lawsuits target small and mid-size businesses too.

The trend is clear: people with disabilities (and their advocates) are using lawsuits to force accessibility compliance. Your website is a potential liability if you haven’t addressed these issues.

This isn’t to scare you. It’s to make the business case clear: accessibility compliance is no longer optional. It’s cheaper to fix now than to pay a settlement later.

How to Audit Your Website for Accessibility

Start with free tools. You don’t need to hire an expert just to identify problems.

Step 1: Run Automated Checks

Tools like WAVE (webaim.org/articles/wave), Axe DevTools, or Lighthouse (built into Chrome) scan your pages and identify obvious violations. They catch about 30% of accessibility issues—the easy ones. They won’t catch everything, but they’ll show you where to start., and the team at Studio Aurora can help you get both the design and the messaging right.

Step 2: Manual Keyboard Testing

Open your site in a browser. Put your mouse away. Navigate using only the Tab key. Can you reach every interactive element? Can you see which element is currently selected (the focus indicator)? Try activating buttons using the Enter key. Does everything work?

This takes 15 minutes per page and often reveals issues automated tools miss.

Step 3: Check Color Contrast

Use a free tool like WebAIM’s contrast checker. Pick any text color and background color from your site. If the ratio is below 4.5:1, it fails.

Step 4: Test with a Screen Reader

If you want to understand what your site is like for blind users, try NVDA (free screen reader for Windows) or VoiceOver (built into Mac). Listen to how your site sounds. Is it clear? Does the structure make sense when you can’t see it? For a deeper look, read our guide on why your website is your most important sales tool.

This is time-intensive and probably something you’ll want professional help with, but even 10 minutes with a screen reader is eye-opening.

Quick Wins: What You Can Fix Immediately

Some accessibility fixes are easy and don’t require a developer:

• Add alt text to all images: If you can update your site’s backend, go through every page and add descriptive alt text to images. This is the lowest-hanging fruit.
• Ensure your color contrast is sufficient: If your design uses low-contrast colors, change them. This might require designer input, but it’s not a big technical lift.
• Add captions to video: YouTube has automatic captioning. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing. For professional video, hire a captioner.
• Fix heading structure: Make sure pages have a logical hierarchy of headings. This requires someone understanding your content, but it’s not technically complex.

These fixes won’t make your site fully compliant, but they’ll address the most common violations.

Comprehensive Fixes: When You Need a Professional

If your site has widespread accessibility issues, you probably need help. This includes:

• Implementing keyboard navigation throughout the site
• Adding ARIA labels and attributes (code that helps screen readers understand dynamic content)
• Auditing form structure and labels
• Fixing PDF accessibility
• Comprehensive testing with screen readers and keyboard-only navigation

A full accessibility audit and remediation might take 2-8 weeks depending on the size and complexity of your site. Budget $5,000-$25,000 for a mid-size business website. That sounds expensive until you compare it to the cost of a lawsuit.

Don’t Ignore This

Accessibility isn’t a feature. It’s a fundamental requirement of a professional website in 2026. Beyond the legal risk, it’s the right thing to do—it opens your website to customers you might otherwise exclude.

Start with an audit. Identify the biggest issues. Fix them. Test again. Make accessibility an ongoing priority, not a one-time project.

The internet is for everyone. Your website should be too.