What is ADA Compliance for Websites? A Complete Guide

The ADA Was Written Before the Web Existed — So Why Does It Apply?

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990, a year before the World Wide Web was publicly available. Yet today, businesses face lawsuits, DOJ guidance, and regulatory pressure to make their websites compliant with it. How did we get here?

The answer lies in how courts have interpreted Title III of the ADA, which prohibits discrimination in "places of public accommodation." For decades, businesses argued that this only covered physical locations. Courts disagreed. A landmark 2017 ruling in Robles v. Domino's Pizza established that websites and mobile apps are covered under the ADA when they have a nexus to a physical location — and subsequent rulings expanded this further.

In 2024, the DOJ published a final rule explicitly stating that state and local government websites must conform to WCAG 2.1 AA. While the rule directly targeted Title II entities, it reinforced the legal trend that WCAG 2.1 AA is the de facto compliance standard for all public-facing digital products.

What Does "ADA Compliant Website" Actually Mean?

There is no single ADA certification for websites. ADA compliance for the web means meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Specifically, the legal standard that courts, the DOJ, and accessibility advocates point to is WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

WCAG 2.1 organizes its criteria around four core principles, often remembered by the acronym POUR:

• Perceivable — Information and UI components must be presentable to all users. This covers things like alt text for images, captions for video, and sufficient color contrast.
• Operable — All functionality must be accessible by keyboard. Users who cannot use a mouse must be able to navigate, activate controls, and complete tasks using only a keyboard or switch device.
• Understandable — Content must be readable and predictable. Forms must have clear labels and error messages. The page language must be declared.
• Robust — Content must work with assistive technologies like screen readers. Proper HTML semantics and ARIA usage are essential.

Who Does This Affect?

Practically every business with a public-facing website should care about ADA compliance. The risk is highest for businesses with physical locations that sell goods or services online — retail, hospitality, healthcare, financial services, and entertainment. But even SaaS products and developer tools have faced accessibility lawsuits.

Beyond legal risk, there is a market reality: approximately 26% of adults in the United States have some form of disability. Inaccessible websites exclude a massive segment of potential customers and users.

Common Mistakes Businesses Make

The most frequently cited accessibility failures in lawsuits include missing alt text on product images, unlabeled form inputs, inaccessible checkout flows, and poor color contrast. These are not obscure edge cases — they are fundamental issues that automated tools can detect quickly.

A dangerous misconception is that publishing an accessibility statement is enough. Courts have consistently rejected this argument. What matters is whether the site actually works for users with disabilities.

How to Start Auditing Your Website

The most practical first step is to run an automated scan. Automated tools cannot catch every accessibility issue — manual testing with a screen reader is also required — but they can immediately surface the most common violations and give your team a baseline.

The ADA Compliance Checker Chrome extension by Rare Input does exactly this. Install it, open any webpage, and it instantly highlights violating elements with color-coded outlines. Clicking any element opens a detailed side panel explaining the specific WCAG failure and criterion reference.

From there, a remediation plan should prioritize critical violations first (anything blocking keyboard navigation or missing alt text), then work through warnings and informational items systematically.

The Bottom Line

ADA compliance for websites is not optional for businesses that serve the public. WCAG 2.1 AA is the legal benchmark. Automated auditing is the fastest way to find obvious violations. And building accessibility into your development process from the start is far cheaper than retrofitting a site — or defending a lawsuit.