Website Accessibility Compliance: What Businesses Should Know

Where the Legal Obligation Comes From

For most businesses, website accessibility is a question under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that places of public accommodation, a category that includes most businesses open to the public, provide individuals with disabilities equal access to their goods, services, and privileges. The Department of Justice takes the position that this obligation extends to a business's website, not just its physical location, though Title III itself doesn't specify a single required technical standard the way some newer regulations do for other contexts.

WCAG Is the Reference Point Businesses Actually Use

In the absence of one mandated standard for private businesses, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published by the World Wide Web Consortium, have become the practical reference point. DOJ's own guidance points businesses toward WCAG as a widely used and detailed technical benchmark, and the federal government uses a closely related standard, Section 508, for its own websites. Settlements and court decisions involving business websites have also commonly referenced a specific WCAG conformance level, making it the de facto target even without a single statute requiring that exact version.

The 2024 Rule Applies to Governments, Not Businesses

In April 2024, DOJ published a rule setting specific web accessibility requirements, tied to a particular WCAG conformance level, for state and local government entities under Title II of the ADA. This rule doesn't extend to private businesses under Title III; it's specifically a Title II rule for government websites and services. It's worth knowing about because it shows the direction DOJ's thinking has moved, even though it doesn't itself create a new binding technical standard for private business websites.

What Equal Access Means in Practice

Without a single mandated checklist, businesses generally work from the kinds of barriers DOJ's own guidance highlights as inconsistent with equal access, including:

• Images and non-text content with no text alternative for a screen reader to announce.
• Color contrast too low for users with low vision to read text against its background.
• Online forms that can't be completed using a keyboard alone, for users who can't use a mouse.
• Videos without captions or audio descriptions.
• Navigation and page structure that doesn't work in a logical, predictable order for assistive technology.

Flexibility in How You Get There

DOJ's guidance is clear that businesses have some flexibility in how they achieve accessible, nondiscriminatory online access; it doesn't mandate one specific vendor, tool, or remediation method. What matters is whether the result provides effective access, not which particular process you used to get there.

Why This Area Draws a Lot of Litigation

Website accessibility has been one of the more heavily litigated areas of ADA compliance for small and mid-size businesses in recent years, often through demand letters or lawsuits citing specific, identifiable barriers on a business's site. Because there's no federal certification process that declares a website "ADA compliant," and no single technical standard is written into Title III itself, businesses are left making a reasonable, documented effort toward an established benchmark like WCAG rather than checking a box against one official government test.

A Practical Starting Point

Running an automated accessibility scan catches some, but not all, of the barriers DOJ guidance describes; a human review, ideally involving someone who uses assistive technology, catches issues an automated tool misses, such as whether a keyboard-only user can actually complete your checkout flow in a logical order.

Automated Scans Aren't a Complete Compliance Check

Automated accessibility tools are useful for catching obvious issues quickly, but they can't fully evaluate whether a page's structure and interaction patterns actually work for assistive technology; treat them as a first pass, not a final answer.

New Features Can Reintroduce Old Barriers

Accessibility isn't a one-time fix; a new checkout flow, video, or interactive feature added later can reintroduce barriers that an earlier review already fixed elsewhere on the site. Build accessibility review into your ongoing development process, not just a one-time audit.

State Laws Can Add Requirements

Some states have their own accessibility or anti-discrimination statutes that courts have applied to websites, sometimes with requirements or remedies that differ from federal ADA litigation. Check whether your state has relevant case law or statutes beyond the federal baseline.

This Is Not Legal Advice

Whether a specific website meets Title III's equal-access requirement is a legal question that depends on your specific site and how courts in your jurisdiction have interpreted the ADA's application to websites. Talk to an attorney experienced in ADA website compliance, particularly if you've received a demand letter or are planning a significant website redesign.