Joomla ADA Compliance Checker

ADA Compliance for Joomla Websites

Joomla sites tend to be long-lived, often running for years through several upgrades with a commercial template and a stack of extensions. Associations, schools and local organizations often use Joomla, and an old site can quietly accumulate ADA problems that no one is assigned to fix.

This Joomla ADA compliance checker runs the same engine as the Joomla accessibility checker with the ADA preset selected, so the results are measured against WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Paste a page address above to see the issues on your own Joomla site.

Joomla ADA Compliance Risks to Check First

These are the barriers most often behind accessibility complaints on Joomla sites. Each one maps to a WCAG success criterion that the scan reports.

• Module titles breaking heading order

  Module titles rendered as headings in odd places on the page.

  WCAG 1.3.1 Info and Relationships

• Editor-inserted images

  Images inserted into articles without alt text.

  WCAG 1.1.1 Non-text Content

• Sliders and galleries

  Extensions that autoplay slides with no pause control.

  WCAG 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide

• Form extensions

  Contact and form extensions with placeholders and unannounced errors.

  WCAG 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions

How the ADA Applies to Your Joomla Site

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses open to the public to give people with disabilities equal access to their goods and services. The Department of Justice states that this covers a business's web content as well as its physical locations ({ADA.gov web guidance (opens in a new tab)}). The law does not name a technical standard for private websites, so courts, settlements and demand letters tend to point to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which is why this checker uses it.

• 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits filed in U.S. federal court in 2025, up 27% from 2024 Seyfarth Shaw, ADA Title III blog (opens in a new tab)
• 5,000+ digital accessibility lawsuits filed across federal and state courts in 2025 UsableNet 2025 year-end report (opens in a new tab)
• 1,427 of those 2025 lawsuits were against companies that had already been sued UsableNet 2025 year-end report (opens in a new tab)
• 64% of companies sued in the first half of 2025 had annual revenue under $25 million UsableNet 2025 midyear report (opens in a new tab)

None of this depends on which platform you use: a claim names the barrier on the page, not the software behind it. Read more in our ADA website compliance guide and the general ADA compliance checker.

Joomla ADA Compliance Steps

1. Run the ADA check above on your homepage, and then on a page of each type you publish.
2. Check the age of your template and extensions, since unmaintained code is a common source of old problems.
3. Review template overrides, which can silently remove accessibility features Joomla provides.
4. Fix content habits, such as alt text and real headings, then scan every few weeks.
5. Rescan to confirm each fix, and keep dated records. AccessBell Pro monitors up to 500 URLs per domain every day and emails you when something new fails.

What an Automated Joomla ADA Check Can and Cannot Do

Automated testing finds a large share of the machine-detectable WCAG failures, such as missing alt text, unlabeled fields, low contrast and broken ARIA. It cannot judge whether alt text is accurate, whether a keyboard path makes sense or whether a screen reader user can complete a purchase. Test your key journeys by hand as well, and read our methodology for exactly what runs.

No tool, including this one, can certify that a Joomla site is ADA compliant or protect you from a claim. Treat a scan as evidence of ongoing effort, and speak to a lawyer if you receive a demand letter.

Free scan and 3-day free trial

• Free, with no account: every issue found on the page, ranked by severity, with the WCAG criteria each one fails.
• With the trial: the failing HTML, how to fix each issue, scans of up to 500 pages per domain, daily monitoring and a dated record of your fixes.

Start 3-day free trial

Publishing an Accessibility Statement on Joomla

Create an article for your accessibility statement and add it to a footer menu module. Our free accessibility statement generator writes the text, and it should name the standard you follow, any known gaps and a way to contact you.

Joomla ADA Compliance: Frequently Asked Questions