ADA website compliance for businesses (Title III)

This guide is general information, not legal advice. It explains what the law and the DOJ actually say, what a business can do about its website, and where automated testing stops. For the wider picture, see US web accessibility laws.

Does the ADA apply to my business website?

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act covers businesses open to the public, which the law calls public accommodations. The Department of Justice's position, set out in its March 18, 2022 guidance on web accessibility, is that the ADA applies to the web offerings of those businesses.

The statute defines public accommodations in 42 U.S.C. 12181(7): 12 categories of private businesses whose operations affect commerce, from hotels, restaurants and shops to doctors' offices, private schools, day care centers and gyms. The definition sets no minimum number of employees and no minimum business size.

The courts broadly agree when a website is tied to a physical business. In Robles v. Domino's Pizza, 913 F.3d 898 (9th Cir. 2019), the Ninth Circuit held that Domino's website and app were covered because they connect customers to its restaurants, and the Supreme Court declined to review the case on October 7, 2019. The holding covered the Domino's mobile app as well as the website, so a business app belongs in your testing too.

Businesses that exist only online are less settled. Federal appeals courts are split on whether Title III reaches a business with no physical location, so the answer can depend on where a case is filed. A lawyer can tell you how your circuit treats it.

Is there an official ADA website standard?

Not for private businesses. Written in 2022, before the Title II rule, the DOJ's guidance says the department "does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards". For businesses that is still the case. It describes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Section 508 Standards as "helpful guidance", and says businesses "have flexibility in how they comply". The guidance is not binding.

State and local governments are different. Their rule, under ADA Title II, names WCAG 2.1 Level AA and has fixed dates in 2027 and 2028; see the ADA Title II deadline guide.

Which standard should a business aim for?

WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the commonly used benchmark. It is not written into any Title III rule. In its February 2, 2022 settlement with Meijer under Title III, the DOJ required the company's vaccine registration content to "conform to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Version 2.1, Level AA". It is also the standard in the DOJ's Title II web rule.

Building to WCAG 2.2 Level AA covers 2.1 as well, because each WCAG version keeps the criteria of the one before (W3C). WCAG 2.2 adds nine criteria, described in what's new in WCAG 2.2. For which version each law names, see which WCAG version the law requires, and for the full list of criteria in plain English, the WCAG 2.2 guide.

Why it matters: lawsuits and penalties

Anyone who meets a barrier can sue under Title III. Federal website accessibility suits rose from 2,452 in 2024 to 3,117 in 2025, according to Seyfarth Shaw's ADA Title III tracking.

• In a private lawsuit, a court can order the business to fix the barriers (42 U.S.C. 12188(a)) and may award the winning party a reasonable attorney's fee (42 U.S.C. 12205).
• In a case the DOJ brings, civil penalties assessed after July 3, 2025 can reach $118,225 for a first violation and $236,451 for a later one (28 CFR 85.5).

If a letter has already arrived, start with what to check first after an ADA demand letter.

What a business can do

There is no certificate to obtain and no form to file. What a business can do is find the barriers on its site, fix them, keep them fixed, and keep a record of that work.

1. Test the site

   Start with an automated scan to find what machines can detect, then test the main journeys manually: navigate with the keyboard alone, check that forms have labels, and try a screen reader on checkout or booking. Free tools help with single checks: the alt text checker, contrast checker, heading checker, link text checker and the accessibility bookmarklet for any page in your browser.

   WebAIM's February 2026 analysis of a million home pages found low contrast text on 83.9% of them, missing alternative text on 53.1% and missing form labels on 51% (WebAIM Million). Start with those.

2. Fix the source code

   Fix problems where they live: in the theme, templates, components and content. A missing form label fixed in one template is fixed on every page that uses it. The WCAG 2.2 checklist and the alt text guide cover the most common fixes. Running a store? See accessibility for Shopify stores.

3. Monitor for regressions

   Sites change often. A new theme section, an app or a marketing page can reintroduce a problem you already fixed. Re-test on a schedule instead of treating one audit as the end of the work.

4. Publish an accessibility statement

   Say what standard you work to, what you know is not yet accessible, and how a visitor can report a problem and get help. The accessibility statement generator drafts one.

5. Keep records

   Record what you tested, what you found, what you changed and when. A dated record of ongoing work is useful evidence if your site is ever questioned.

Avoid overlay widgets

Overlay widgets add a script and a toolbar on top of a site, and some have been marketed as a quick route to ADA conformance. The US Federal Trade Commission took action against that kind of claim. In April 2025 it finalized an order requiring accessiBe to pay $1,000,000; the complaint charged that claims its product would make websites conform to WCAG were false or unsubstantiated. An overlay works on top of the page as it loads; the source code underneath stays as it was, and that code is what has to be accessible. Our overlays comparison covers the details.

Why a scan cannot prove ADA conformance

Automated testing is the right first step, and it cannot finish the job. Karl Groves found that an automated tool "can definitively test for approximately 25-29% of best practices for WCAG 2.0" and "cannot test for approximately 40%" (Karl Groves). Sources disagree on the exact share; roughly a third of WCAG is a fair summary of what machines can check. The DOJ's own guidance makes the same point about checkers: "A 'clean' report does not necessarily mean everything is accessible."

Alt text shows why. A scanner can see that an image has alt text. It cannot tell whether the text describes the image. GotAlt's deep audit downloads up to six images per page and compares each with its alt text using a vision model, which catches descriptions that are present but wrong. Our rule scanner comparison and methodology explain what each kind of check can and cannot see.