ADA Compliance Checker

What Does ADA Compliance Mean for a Website?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a 1990 civil rights law. It does not mention websites, but the Department of Justice has long taken the position that it covers them. Title II applies to state and local governments, and Title III applies to businesses that are open to the public, known as places of public accommodation.

For Title II, the question is settled: in April 2024 the Department of Justice published a rule adopting WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for government websites and mobile apps. For Title III businesses there is no website regulation yet, but courts and settlement agreements almost always use WCAG 2.1 AA as the measure. That is why an ADA compliance check is, in practice, a WCAG 2.1 AA check.

Most website claims start with barriers an automated scan can find: missing alternative text, unlabeled form fields, empty links and low contrast. Finding and fixing those first, then testing key journeys with a keyboard and a screen reader, is the most practical way to reduce risk.

Who Needs to Think About ADA Website Compliance?

• State and local government bodies, including cities, counties, public schools, public universities, courts and transit agencies (Title II).
• Businesses open to the public: retailers, restaurants, hotels, healthcare providers, banks, and service businesses with a website (Title III).
• E-commerce sites, which receive a large share of website accessibility claims because checkout and product pages involve forms and images.
• Agencies and developers who build websites for any of the above.

Barriers Most Often Cited in ADA Website Claims

Demand letters and complaints tend to describe the same problems. The first five are ones this checker finds automatically.

• Images without alternative text

  Product photos, icons and linked images that a screen reader cannot describe (WCAG 1.1.1).

• Unlabeled form fields

  Search boxes, sign-up and checkout fields that do not announce what to enter (1.3.1, 4.1.2).

• Empty links and buttons

  Icon-only links such as social media, cart and menu buttons with no accessible name (2.4.4, 4.1.2).

• Low color contrast

  Light grey text, text over images and placeholder text that is hard to read (1.4.3).

• Missing page language and titles

  Pages that screen readers pronounce incorrectly or cannot identify (3.1.1, 2.4.2).

• Keyboard barriers

  Menus, pop-ups and carousels that cannot be reached or closed without a mouse. These need a manual keyboard test.

What This ADA Compliance Checker Tests

WCAG 2.1 Level AA has 50 success criteria. This checker runs 62 automated rules, which test 19 of them. The rest need a person to judge, and they are listed here so nothing is missed. Open a principle to see every criterion.

What to Check by Hand

Automated rules find the code-level failures. Add these checks to cover what they cannot judge.

1. Complete your most important task, such as checkout, booking or a contact form, using only a keyboard.
2. Listen to the same task with a screen reader such as NVDA or VoiceOver.
3. Check that pop-ups, cookie banners and chat widgets can be closed with the keyboard.
4. Confirm that error messages explain what went wrong and how to fix it.
5. Check PDFs and documents linked from key pages, which are also covered.
6. Publish an accessibility statement with a way to report barriers.

For a step-by-step routine, see Plan manual testing in our Help Center.

How to Use Your Results

1. Fix critical and serious issues first, especially on forms, navigation and checkout. Each issue shows the failing code and how to fix it.
2. Filter by criterion to hand one type of issue to the right person, for example contrast to design and labels to development.
3. Rescan after each fix to confirm it, then run the manual checks above.
4. Monitor the whole site. A free scan checks one page. AccessBell Pro monitors up to 500 URLs per domain against WCAG 2.1 Level AA every day and alerts you to new issues.

Related Guides

• ADA Website Compliance: What Businesses Need to KnowHow the ADA applies to websites, which WCAG level courts and regulators reference, the Title II rule for public entities, and practical steps to reduce risk.
• ADA Lawsuit Process: Stages, Timeline and What to ExpectThe ADA lawsuit process step by step: service, the 21-day answer deadline, mediation, discovery, settlement and appeal, plus what to do if you are sued.
• Free Tools to Check Website Accessibility: 6 Best Options ComparedCompare the best free tools to check website accessibility: AccessBell, WAVE, axe DevTools, Accessibility Insights, Lighthouse and ANDI, and when to use each.
• WCAG Success Criteria LibraryLook up any of the 50 criteria in WCAG 2.1 Level AA in plain language, with how to test it by hand.
• Free Accessibility Statement GeneratorPublish a statement that names WCAG 2.1 Level AA as your target and tells people how to report barriers.
• Filter reports by WCAG version and levelNarrow your results to exactly the criteria in WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

ADA Compliance Checker Questions