What ADA Website Compliance Actually Means (And What I Do About It)
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Most clients have never heard of WCAG, don't know what "AA" or "AAA" means outside of batteries, and have no idea their website could be a legal liability. That's the normal starting point, not the exception. So when I bring up accessibility during a project, I'm usually introducing the topic for the first time, not answering a question someone already had.
Sometimes that conversation is easy. Sometimes it means telling a client their favorite brand color, the one on their business cards and their storefront sign, doesn't pass contrast testing and needs to be adjusted before it goes on their website as text. That's not always a welcome conversation. But once I walk through who that adjustment helps and why it matters, most clients come around fast. This post is that same conversation, in writing.
What "ADA Compliant" Really Means for a Website
The Americans with Disabilities Act doesn't name a specific technical standard for private business websites. What it does say is that businesses open to the public need to provide equal access to their goods and services, and courts have increasingly applied that to websites. In practice, that means judges and the Department of Justice both lean on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, Level AA, as the working definition of accessible.
The Department of Justice's 2024 rule requires WCAG 2.1 AA for state and local government websites. Those compliance deadlines were extended in April 2026, now landing in April 2027 for larger entities and April 2028 for smaller ones. That rule doesn't legally bind private small businesses. But it tells you exactly where the bar sits, since private lawsuits use the same standard as their reference point.
WCAG 2.2 AA is the newer version, and it adds a handful of criteria on top of 2.1. Building toward 2.2 now, rather than the minimum 2.1, is a smart way to stay ahead instead of playing catch-up the next time the standard shifts.
Why This Matters for Real People
Accessibility isn't about avoiding a lawsuit first. It's about the person using a screen reader because they're blind, the person navigating by keyboard because a mouse doesn't work for them, and the person reading your site in bright sunlight on their phone who needs enough contrast to see it clearly. Building for those people also happens to build a better, more usable site for everyone, including search engines trying to understand your content.
More than 5,000 ADA website lawsuits were filed in the U.S. in 2025, up about 37% from the year before. Research from UsableNet found that 64% of sued companies had annual revenue under $25 million, and e-commerce and retail sites made up nearly 70% of the targets. Small businesses selling online are the group most exposed, not just big brands.
One thing worth knowing before you go looking for a fix: accessibility overlay widgets, the little icon that pops open a menu to adjust font size or contrast, don't make a site compliant on their own. They sit on top of a page without changing the underlying code, and in recent cases the presence of an overlay has been used as evidence that a business knew accessibility mattered and chose the cheapest visible fix instead of a real one. I mention this so you can spend your time and budget on things that genuinely help, not a shortcut that looks like progress but isn't.
Are AI-Built Websites Accessible?
With more business owners turning to AI website builders and AI page generators, this question comes up a lot, and the honest answer is that AI tends to make accessibility worse right now, not better. AI tools are trained to produce something that looks good, not something that passes an accessibility standard, and that shows up in predictable ways: alt text that's just the original stock photo filename, low-contrast text laid over hero images because it looks trendy, and page structure that renders fine visually but confuses a screen reader completely.
AI can genuinely help speed up parts of the accessibility process, like suggesting fixes or flagging obvious issues across a large site. What it can't do yet is reliably confirm that a page meets WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA. Studies on automated and AI-powered scanning tools put their detection rate at roughly 30 to 40% of real WCAG failures, which means a huge share of issues still need a human to catch. If you're using an AI builder or AI-generated content on your site, treat it the same way you'd treat a human first draft: a starting point that still needs a real review before it goes live.
What I Actually Do to Build Accessible Websites
A few things I build into every site I hand off, client request or not:
Color contrast testing across the full palette. I run every color combination in a client's brand palette through a dedicated contrast checking tool that reports back which pairings meet AA and which meet the stricter AAA standard. When a favorite brand color doesn't pass, I show the client the actual report and we find an adjusted shade that still feels like their brand.
Real alt text on every image. Not "image123.jpg" and not a keyword-stuffed sentence either. Alt text that describes what a screen reader user needs to know about that image, written the same way I'd describe it to someone on the phone.
Squarespace's built-in accessibility features, used on purpose. Squarespace bakes in a fair amount by default: keyboard navigation with visible focus outlines, a skip-to-content link, and proper heading and ARIA landmark structure in most blocks. I don't just trust that it's there. I check heading order on every page, confirm the color panel settings meet contrast guidelines, and make sure nothing about a custom section breaks that native structure.
Heading hierarchy checked page by page. No skipping from an H1 straight to an H3, and no headings used just because a bigger font looked better. Every heading follows actual page structure, top to bottom.
Button and link text you can understand out of context. No "click here" or "learn more" floating with nothing to describe where it goes. Every button and link says what happens next.
An accessibility statement on every site, written to reflect what's genuinely been done, not boilerplate language copied from somewhere else.
Explaining the real-world reason behind each choice. A contrast requirement or a heading rule can sound like an arbitrary box to check. I'd rather show a client who benefits from it, because that's what turns a reluctant "fine, if we have to" into genuine buy-in.
Common Mistakes That Undercut Real Progress
A few patterns show up again and again, even on sites where the owner genuinely cares about this.
Fixing contrast and stopping there is one. Contrast is the most common failure across the web, but it's not the only one that matters. A site can pass every contrast check and still be hard to use if headings skip around or links say nothing about where they lead.
Reaching for an overlay widget as a first move is another. It's marketed as a one-click fix, and it isn't one.
Treating accessibility as a one-time audit is a third. A site that passed a check at launch can drift out of compliance the first time someone adds a new page, swaps in a photo without alt text, or pastes in a video without captions. It has to be part of how a site gets maintained, not just how it gets built.
Where to Start If You Haven't Looked at This Yet
You don't need to overhaul your entire site this week. A good starting point:
Run your brand's color palette through a contrast checker and note which combinations pass AA.
Open your image library and check if alt text is genuinely descriptive, not blank or auto-filled.
Scroll through your pages and check that headings go in order, H1 to H2 to H3, without skipping levels.
Search your site for "click here" and "read more" links and rewrite them to describe where they lead.
Write (or rewrite) your accessibility statement so it reflects what you've genuinely done, not a generic template.
Every one of these is manageable on its own, and each one makes a real difference for a visitor who needs it.
Accessibility isn't a box to check once and forget. It's part of how I build every website from the start, and it's one of the things that sets a genuinely well-built site apart from one that just looks good. If you want a second set of eyes on your current site, or you're starting a new build and want accessibility handled from day one, I'd love to help.
