ADA and website accessibility: what the law and WCAG say

This is general information, not legal advice. If you’ve received a demand letter or complaint, talk to a lawyer.

What the ADA says about websites

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was written before most businesses had websites, and its text doesn’t mention them. The Justice Department, which enforces the law, has published guidance on how it applies online.

For businesses open to the public, which the ADA calls “public accommodations” and covers under Title III, the Justice Department says the law’s requirements apply to all the goods, services, privileges, or activities they offer, “including those offered on the web” (ADA.gov web guidance). If customers can book, buy, read about your services, or contact you online, people with disabilities should be able to do those things too.

The guidance stops short of a checklist. It says the Department “does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards,” that businesses “have flexibility in how they comply,” and that existing technical standards “provide helpful guidance.” It names two of them: the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the federal government’s Section 508 Standards.

The separate rule for state and local governments

One federal rule does set a specific technical standard, and it applies to government. Under Title II, the Justice Department adopted a rule requiring state and local governments’ websites and mobile apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA (ADA.gov fact sheet). The deadlines depend on the population a government serves and have been extended before, so check the fact sheet for current dates.

A private business falls under that rule only when it provides web content or an app on a government’s behalf, such as a company that runs a city’s parking-payment app. Most local businesses fall under the Title III guidance instead. The government rule still tells you something: when the Justice Department picked a technical standard, it picked WCAG at Level AA.

What WCAG is

WCAG is the international standard for accessible web content. The Accessibility Guidelines Working Group at the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative writes it, with input from people and organizations around the world (W3C WCAG overview).

It’s built on four principles:

• Perceivable: people can see or hear the content in some form, so images have text alternatives and videos have captions.
• Operable: people can use the page with a keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, or assistive technology.
• Understandable: text is readable, pages behave predictably, and forms explain errors.
• Robust: the page works with the browsers and assistive technologies people use.

WCAG 2.2 has 13 guidelines under those principles, and each guideline has testable success criteria at one of three levels. Level A covers the basics, Level AA is the level the government rule uses, and Level AAA is the strictest. The standard itself says Level AAA shouldn’t be required as a general policy for entire sites, because some content can’t meet all of it (WCAG 2.2).

Each version adds to the one before. WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 are backwards compatible, so content that meets 2.2 also meets 2.1 and 2.0, and the W3C encourages people to use the most recent version.

What WCAG 2.2 added

WCAG 2.2 added nine success criteria. These are the ones at Levels A and AA (W3C: What’s new in WCAG 2.2):

• Focus Not Obscured (Minimum): when someone moves through a page with the keyboard, the highlighted item can’t be completely hidden behind something like a sticky header or cookie banner.
• Dragging Movements: anything that needs dragging, like a slider, also has to work with a single click or tap.
• Target Size (Minimum): buttons and links are at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels, or spaced far enough apart to avoid mis-taps.
• Consistent Help: if a phone number or chat link appears on several pages, it stays in the same place on each.
• Redundant Entry: people don’t have to type the same information twice in one process.
• Accessible Authentication (Minimum): logging in can’t depend on memorizing, solving puzzles, or retyping codes, unless another method is offered.

One older criterion, 4.1.1 Parsing, was removed as obsolete.

Why it matters to your business

Start with who it’s for. The W3C describes web accessibility as covering auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, and visual disabilities. It also points out who else benefits: older people, people with a broken arm or lost glasses, people in bright sunlight or somewhere they can’t play audio, and people on slow connections or small screens (W3C introduction).

There’s also legal exposure. Because the ADA applies to what a business offers online, a site that keeps people with disabilities from getting information or services can lead to a complaint. Building to a recognized standard is a concrete way to show you’ve taken the obligation seriously.

The problems themselves are widespread. Each year, WebAIM scans the home pages of the top million websites, and most have failures that software can detect. The most common in its report are low-contrast text, images without alternative text, form fields without labels, and links or buttons with no text (WebAIM Million). The Justice Department’s list of common barriers overlaps heavily: poor color contrast, using color alone to convey information, missing text alternatives on images, videos without captions, forms without proper labels or error messages, and pages that only work with a mouse.

Checkers, overlays, and “compliance” badges

Plenty of products promise to scan a site, or to fix it by adding a script. The Justice Department’s guidance says automated checkers and overlays “can be helpful tools,” but “they need to be used carefully,” and “a ‘clean’ report does not necessarily mean everything is accessible.” It recommends pairing automated tools with a manual check.

The W3C puts it this way: “Web accessibility evaluation tools can not determine accessibility, they can only assist in doing so,” and “some accessibility checks just cannot be automated” (W3C on evaluation tools). A checker can find an image with no alternative text. Whether the alternative text on another image describes it well takes a person to judge.

The Justice Department’s guidance describes no certification for website accessibility. Treat any promise of “guaranteed” or “certified” ADA compliance with suspicion.

Accessibility statements

An accessibility statement is a short page that explains what you do about accessibility and how to reach you when something doesn’t work. The Justice Department recommends giving the public a way to report accessibility problems. The W3C says a statement should include, at minimum, a statement that you’re committed to accessibility, the standard you aim for (such as WCAG 2.2), and contact information. It can also list known limitations and the steps you take to keep the site accessible (W3C on statements).

Describe only what you can stand behind. “We aim to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA” is accurate and useful to a reader, while “fully ADA compliant” is a claim no one can verify.

Check your own site

The W3C publishes “Easy Checks,” a first review that doesn’t need special skills (W3C Easy Checks). The steps below draw on it and on the Justice Department’s tips.

1. Put the mouse aside and use only Tab, Shift+Tab, and Enter to reach your main menu, your contact form, and your booking button. You should always be able to see which item is selected.
2. Zoom your browser to 200%. Text should get twice as large without being cut off or overlapping.
3. Look for text that’s hard to read against its background, such as light gray on white or white text over a photo.
4. Run a free checker like WAVE to list images with no alternative text. Then read the alternative text that is there and ask whether it describes what matters about each image.
5. Submit your contact form with a required field left empty. The error message should explain the problem in words rather than only turning a box red.
6. Play any videos with the sound off. They need accurate captions.
7. Look for a way to report an accessibility problem, such as a statement page or a contact option.

Finding problems is normal; WebAIM’s numbers show most sites have them. Fix what you find, and build new pages to the standard from the start.

A checklist

• Your site aims for a stated standard: WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
• Every page works with a keyboard alone, with a visible focus indicator.
• Text meets WCAG contrast minimums, and color is never the only signal.
• Meaningful images have accurate alternative text; decorative images are hidden from screen readers.
• Form fields have visible labels and clear error messages.
• Videos have accurate captions.
• Headings describe each section and follow a logical order.
• Buttons and links are big enough to tap.
• An accessibility statement explains your approach and how to report a problem.
• Automated scan results are a starting point, followed by a check by hand.

How we handle it

We design every site to WCAG 2.2 Level AA, planning keyboard navigation, color contrast, and clear page structure from the first layout. Every site also includes an accessibility statement page that tells visitors how to report a problem; ours is an example.

We don’t sell certificates or promise “compliance.” We build to the standard and explain what that covers. For a site that’s already live, accessibility fixes are part of our Website Improvements work, starting with what the free site check finds.