ADA website compliance

There is no official ADA certificate for websites, and no federal rule gives private businesses a technical checklist. In practice, the benchmark is WCAG 2.1 Level AA: it is the only web standard the Department of Justice (DOJ) has written into an ADA rule. That rule covers state and local governments, with compliance dates of April 26, 2027 and April 26, 2028. Businesses open to the public still have to make what they offer online accessible to people with disabilities, and lawsuits are common: Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2025. A badge won't protect you. A documented record of testing and fixing against WCAG 2.1 AA, kept up to date, is your strongest position.

Key takeaways

• The certification process in the ADA covers state and local building codes, not websites. Your proof is an audit report, a record of fixes and your monitoring history.

• Businesses fall under Title III. With no technical rule, WCAG 2.1 AA is the practical benchmark.

• Governments fall under Title II and must meet WCAG 2.1 AA by April 26, 2027 or April 26, 2028, depending on population.

• An overlay does not guarantee conformance. The FTC made one vendor pay $1 million over claims that its plug-in could make any website WCAG-compliant.

• Automated scans find only part of the problems. You also need a manual audit.

Title III: what the ADA asks of businesses

The DOJ's guidance on web accessibility and the ADA says Title III applies to businesses open to the public, such as retailers, banks, hotels, medical offices and restaurants. The DOJ has consistently held that this includes goods and services offered on the web. The same guidance says the DOJ "does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards". Businesses can choose how they make their sites accessible, and WCAG is named as a helpful standard. The guidance itself is not legally binding. Enforcement comes from the DOJ and from private lawsuits.

Online-only businesses face less certain rules. Seyfarth reports that federal and state appeals courts in California have found that online-only businesses are not covered by the ADA. The Second Circuit, which covers New York, has not yet decided the question, although most New York district judges who have ruled on it have found that online-only businesses are covered. Don't base a plan on that gap.

In practice, aim for WCAG 2.1 AA. Our audits test against WCAG 2.2 AA, and the W3C states that content that conforms to WCAG 2.2 also conforms to WCAG 2.0 and 2.1.

Title II: the government rule and its deadlines

Title II covers state and local governments: agencies, public schools and universities, courts, libraries, transit authorities and special districts. According to the DOJ fact sheet, the 2024 rule makes WCAG 2.1 AA the technical standard for their web content and mobile apps.

An interim final rule published April 20, 2026 extended the compliance dates:

This also matters for private companies. The rule covers content that a government provides through arrangements with others. The fact sheet's example is a city parking app run by a private company, which still has to meet WCAG 2.1 AA. If you build sites or apps for public clients, expect them to ask for this. The dates may also change: Seyfarth reports that the National Federation of the Blind sued in May 2026 to overturn the extension.

How real is the lawsuit risk?

The risk is real. According to Seyfarth's 2025 count, the 3,117 federal website suits were up 27% from 2,452 in 2024. They made up 36% of all 8,667 ADA Title III federal lawsuits. New York (1,021), Florida (961) and Illinois (585) led. The same report notes that demand letters and state-court suits are not included in these numbers.

If a demand letter arrives, don't ignore it and don't rush to install a widget. Give it to your lawyer and get an audit started.

A recent case shows what documentation can do. In 2026 a New York federal court dismissed a website suit as moot. The defendant filed a declaration showing it had worked with an accessibility consultant since 2023. It attached the consultant's audit report, explained how it fixed the issue that was found and set out its plan for ongoing compliance. The plaintiff did not offer any evidence in response. The dismissal was without prejudice, so the plaintiff can amend the complaint or sue in state court.

The issues that keep showing up

The WebAIM Million tested the top one million home pages in February 2026. Six error types made up 96% of all detected errors. The table also includes barriers that only manual testing finds, such as the mouse-only events and unannounced pop-ups alleged in the complaint in the New York case above.

Why an overlay is not a defense

The DOJ guidance says automated checkers and overlays "need to be used carefully" and that a clean report "does not necessarily mean everything is accessible." The FTC's January 2025 complaint alleged that a vendor's AI plug-in did not make all its users' websites WCAG-compliant, despite the company's advertising. The final order, approved in April 2025, requires the vendor to pay $1 million. It also bars the vendor from claiming its automated products can make any website WCAG-compliant unless it has evidence. The FTC acted against deceptive advertising. It did not make an ADA ruling.

The Overlay Fact Sheet, signed by accessibility professionals, explains that overlays add third-party JavaScript to the website's front-end code. It warns that their repairs can cause unexpected page changes for people using assistive technology, and it concludes that no overlay can make a website fully compliant with any existing accessibility standard. As we explain in our comparison of overlays, scanners and analytics tools, an overlay changes the page in the browser while your own source code stays the same.

The path: check, audit, fix, monitor, publish

1. Check. Our free accessibility checker tests a single URL against more than 80 automated WCAG checks based on axe-core and gives the page a score from 0 to 100 percent. Sign up free to see the full report with the affected places in the source code. The check is not proof of conformance.

2. Audit. Automated tests find only part of the real barriers, so you also need manual testing. You can run the audit yourself: a kick-off audit takes about one person-day, and the complete audit walks you through all 96 test steps. Both come with the Solo plan (see pricing). Or we run the full audit for you and deliver results in about four weeks, with a PDF and online report and a prioritized action plan. The price depends on scope.

3. Fix. Every finding becomes a task that you can export to Jira, Notion or Asana. Start with checkout, forms and contact pages. Fix templates before single pages, because one change to a product template can fix every product page built on it.

4. Monitor. Monitoring catches regressions, and on paid plans it also finds and tests new pages on its own. Paid plans run checks every 24 hours and the free plan every 7 days (pricing). After you fix things, run a re-audit to confirm each fix. Keep every dated report.

5. Publish an accessibility statement. Name the standard you aim for, the date of your last audit, known issues with target dates, and a contact. The DOJ guidance notes that a way for the public to report problems helps owners fix them. Our expert audit includes a draft statement, and the Agency plan includes a statement generator.