ADA Website Compliance: What Businesses Need to Know

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed in 1990, before most businesses had websites. It does not mention the internet. Yet thousands of website accessibility lawsuits are filed in U.S. courts every year, and federal regulators now set explicit technical standards for some organizations.

This guide explains how the ADA applies to websites, what “compliance” means in practice, and the steps that meaningfully reduce your risk.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Talk to a qualified attorney about your specific situation.

Which Parts of the ADA Apply to Websites

Title III covers “places of public accommodation,” such as retailers, restaurants, hotels, banks and healthcare providers. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has stated for decades that Title III applies to the goods and services these businesses offer online. In March 2022, the DOJ published guidance confirming that businesses open to the public must make their websites accessible, and it pointed to WCAG as a helpful reference. Our guide to ADA Title III law for businesses covers who is included and what to do about it.

Title II covers state and local governments, including public schools, universities, transit agencies and courts. In April 2024, the DOJ published a final rule that, for the first time, sets a specific technical standard for their websites and mobile apps: WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

The Title II Rule and Its Deadlines

As published, the Title II rule gives public entities two compliance dates based on population:

• April 24, 2026 for entities serving a total population of 50,000 or more
• April 26, 2027 for entities serving fewer than 50,000 people, and for special district governments

The rule includes limited exceptions, such as certain archived content and some preexisting documents, but these are narrow. Deadlines and enforcement policy can change, so confirm the current status on ADA.gov before planning around a date.

What Standard Applies to Private Businesses

For Title III, there is no regulation that names a specific technical standard. In practice, courts, plaintiffs and settlement agreements overwhelmingly use WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark, and many recent agreements reference WCAG 2.2.

Because WCAG 2.2 is backward compatible, building to WCAG 2.2 AA is the most practical target. It covers everything in 2.1 AA and positions you for future requirements. Our WCAG 2.2 checklist lists each requirement.

Where Lawsuits Usually Start

Most website accessibility claims begin with barriers that are easy to find with automated tools and a keyboard:

• Images and image links with no text alternative
• Form fields without labels, especially on checkout and contact forms
• Buttons and icon links with no accessible name
• Low color contrast on text and buttons
• Menus, modals and carousels that cannot be used with a keyboard
• Videos without captions
• PDFs that are scanned images with no text layer

Because these barriers are easy to detect, they are also easy for plaintiffs’ firms to find at scale. Fixing them first is the highest-return activity for most businesses. If a claim does arrive, our guide to the ADA lawsuit process explains each stage and its deadlines.

Steps That Reduce Risk

1. Audit your current state. Start with a website accessibility checker on your key templates: home, product or service pages, forms, checkout and account areas. Then test the same pages with a keyboard and a screen reader.

2. Fix by impact, not by page count. Prioritize barriers that stop someone from completing a task, such as buying, booking, applying or contacting you.

3. Monitor continuously. Sites change constantly. Scheduled scans catch regressions before they accumulate. This is the core of every AccessBell plan.

4. Publish an accessibility statement. Explain the standard you are working toward, known limitations and how people can report problems or request help. A clear feedback path lets you resolve issues before they escalate. Our free accessibility statement generator gives you a starting point.

5. Document your work. Keep scan reports, remediation tickets and test results. A documented, good-faith program is useful evidence if a claim arrives.

6. Train your team. Content editors who know to add alt text and use real headings prevent many issues from reaching production.

A Note on Overlay Widgets

Some products claim a single line of JavaScript makes a site “ADA compliant.” Accessibility overlays modify a page after it loads but do not fix the source code, and they often conflict with the assistive technology people already use. Sites using overlays continue to be sued. Durable compliance comes from fixing the underlying code and keeping it fixed.

International Requirements to Be Aware Of

If you serve customers outside the U.S., other laws may apply:

• European Accessibility Act (EAA), applicable from June 28, 2025, covers many consumer products and services, including e-commerce, banking and transport, and relies on the harmonized standard EN 301 549.
• Section 508 requires U.S. federal agencies, and effectively their vendors, to meet WCAG 2.0 AA.
• AODA in Ontario, Canada requires many organizations to meet WCAG 2.0 AA.
• The Equality Act 2010 in the UK requires reasonable adjustments, and public sector bodies must meet WCAG 2.2 AA under the 2018 accessibility regulations.

Targeting WCAG 2.2 AA puts you in a strong position across all of them.

Summary

The ADA applies to websites of businesses open to the public and of state and local governments. WCAG AA is the practical standard, with WCAG 2.1 AA required for public entities under the Title II rule and 2.2 AA as the forward-looking target. Find barriers, fix what blocks real tasks first, monitor continuously and document everything.

Run a free ADA compliance check to see where your site stands against WCAG 2.1 AA, work through the WCAG 2 AA checklist for manual testing, or talk to our team about monitoring your domains.