ADA Website Compliance

Title III of the ADA applies to virtually all businesses that serve the public — including their websites. This covers:

• E-commerce sites and online stores
• Restaurants, hotels, and service businesses with websites
• Healthcare providers and hospitals
• Banks and financial institutions
• Educational institutions
• Any business open to the public

There is no revenue minimum or employee count threshold. If you have a website and serve the public, ADA likely applies to you.

The ADA itself doesn't specify a technical standard for websites. However, the Department of Justice and federal courts consistently reference WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark.

In April 2024, the DOJ published a final rule requiring state and local government websites to meet WCAG 2.1 AA — reinforcing it as the de facto standard for all web accessibility.

ADA violations can result in:

• Demand letters and lawsuits — plaintiff attorneys actively target non-compliant sites
• Settlements— most cases settle for $5,000–$25,000, plus attorney's fees and remediation costs that can push total costs significantly higher
• Injunctive relief — courts can order you to make your site accessible within a specific timeline
• Attorney's fees— you may be required to pay the plaintiff's legal costs

In 2023, nearly 2,800 website-specific ADA accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court. The number rebounded to over 3,100 in 2025 — a 27% increase.

The most frequently cited ADA violations in website lawsuits include:

• Missing alt text on images
• Insufficient color contrast
• Missing form labels
• Inaccessible navigation (no keyboard support)
• Missing page language declaration
• Videos without captions

SiteSmoke scans for all of these and more, mapping each issue to its WCAG criterion and providing a copy-paste code fix.