Website Accessibility FAQs

Information and answers about website accessibility

Is website accessibility required?

Effectively, yes. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been interpreted by courts to apply to websites. It requires "full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation". There is some debate as to whether informational-only websites are subject to the ADA, but no question it's the right thing to do, with a number of bonus benefits: check out the Top 5 Benefits of Website Accessibility .

How is website accessibility measured?

The ADA does not lay out specific criteria, but courts frequently reference WCAG 2.0 guidelines .

How do you make our website accessible?

We follow WCAG 2.0 guidelines. Compliant, well-structured code accounts for a large part of accessibility, but we go further, performing page-by-page audits, and focusing on finer details like color contrast, keyboard actions, and adding hidden code specifically for screen readers.

Is our website 'ADA Compliant'?

Here's what we can say: "Your website meets WCAG 2.0 AA Guidelines, based on automated tests and manual reviews". We cannot make a blanket legal statement about 'ADA Compliance' (it's highly debatable whether that's a valid term anyway), because we are not lawyers or accessibility experts, and we do not perform extensive real-world user testing of every website element and possible interaction using assistance software.

So, can we still be sued?

Anything is possible, but your exposure is minimal. Here's why:

  1. The risk of an accessibility lawsuit is already near-zero for a small business, especially an informational website.
  2. We perform audits and testing with industry-leading tools including Google Lighthouse, WAVE and Axe, alongside manual reviews. Your website is free of accessibility errors according to those audits. By comparison, it's nearly impossible to find a website without numerous accessibility errors. Try the WAVE accessibility test tool yourself. You'll have a hard time finding a website (aside from yours) that is error-free. This dramatically eliminates the risk of a 'click-by' lawsuit, and makes it very difficult to make a case that your website and business is not taking accessibility seriously.
  3. It is likely additional user testing would confirm your website as 'ADA Compliant', we simply aren't able to make that kind of a legal claim without extensive real-world user testing of every website element and possible interaction using assistance software.