Website accessibility and ADA compliance means a website is usable by people with disabilities, including blind, low-vision, deaf, motor-impaired, and cognitively disabled visitors. The legal standard for compliance is WCAG 2.2 at the AA conformance level. Failure to meet that standard exposes US businesses to ADA Title III lawsuits, which now run at over 4,000 federal filings per year. The technical work to reach AA compliance takes 30 to 90 days for most marketing sites and is permanently maintainable with the right tooling.
What ADA Compliance Actually Requires
The Americans with Disabilities Act (Title III) requires that places of public accommodation be accessible to people with disabilities. Federal courts have ruled repeatedly that websites are places of public accommodation when they connect to a physical business, and several circuits extend this to web-only businesses.
The ADA itself does not specify technical standards for websites. Courts and the Department of Justice point to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) published by the W3C. WCAG 2.2 was finalized in October 2023 and is the current standard. WCAG 2.1 remains acceptable in most contexts, but new builds should target 2.2.
Three conformance levels exist: A (basic), AA (industry standard, legally relevant), and AAA (gold standard, rarely required). Targeting AA is the practical compliance bar. AAA is too restrictive for most marketing content (it requires 7:1 contrast and limits content to lower reading levels).
The Lawsuit Landscape in 2026
Web accessibility lawsuits have been growing 15 to 25 percent year over year for the last five years. Estimates put 2025 federal filings at over 4,200, with thousands more in state courts (especially New York, California, and Florida). Demand letters that settle before filing add another 8,000 to 15,000 cases per year.
Average settlement on a serial-plaintiff case is $15,000 to $25,000 plus required remediation. Litigated cases that go to discovery routinely cost $75,000 to $250,000 in legal fees alone, regardless of outcome.
The plaintiffs are real. Many are blind or low-vision testers using screen readers (NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver) who file dozens of cases per year against businesses whose sites do not work with assistive technology. The defense “we did not know” does not work because WCAG has been the legal standard for over a decade.
The WCAG 2.2 AA Checklist
WCAG 2.2 has 50 success criteria at the AA level. The 12 that fail most often, in order of frequency:
- 1.1.1 Non-text content: Every image needs an alt attribute. Decorative images get alt=””. Informative images get descriptive alt text.
- 1.3.1 Info and relationships: Headings (H1-H6) must be used semantically, not just for styling. Forms must have labels associated with inputs.
- 1.4.3 Contrast (minimum): Body text needs 4.5:1 contrast against background. Large text (18pt+) needs 3:1.
- 1.4.10 Reflow: Content must reflow at 320 pixels wide without horizontal scrolling.
- 1.4.11 Non-text contrast: UI controls and graphical elements need 3:1 contrast.
- 2.1.1 Keyboard: Everything clickable must be reachable and operable with keyboard alone.
- 2.4.4 Link purpose: Link text must describe the destination, not “click here” or “read more.”
- 2.4.7 Focus visible: Keyboard focus must have a visible indicator.
- 3.1.1 Language of page: The HTML lang attribute must be set.
- 3.3.2 Labels or instructions: Form fields need clear labels and instructions.
- 4.1.2 Name, role, value: Custom UI components must have proper ARIA attributes.
- 4.1.3 Status messages: Live updates (form errors, success messages) must be announced to screen readers.
Hitting all 12 fixes 80 to 90 percent of accessibility lawsuit risk on most marketing sites.
Auditing the Current Site
Three audit layers catch most issues. Run all three on every site.
Automated tools (catch 30 to 50 percent of issues):
- axe DevTools (free Chrome extension, also available as a paid CI/CD tool)
- Lighthouse Accessibility audit (built into Chrome DevTools)
- WAVE by WebAIM (free browser extension)
- Pa11y (command-line, integrates with CI)
Manual keyboard testing (catches another 20 to 30 percent):
Unplug the mouse. Tab through every page. Verify focus is visible at every step. Verify every interactive element can be operated. Verify modal dialogs trap focus and can be closed with Escape.
Screen reader testing (catches the rest):
Use NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, or TalkBack on Android. Listen to the page read aloud. Verify every image has meaningful alt text or is properly hidden. Verify forms announce labels and errors. Verify the heading structure tells a coherent story.
Common Fixes by Type
The fixes that come up on every audit:
<!-- Missing alt text -->
<!-- Wrong: -->
<img src="hero.jpg">
<!-- Right: -->
<img src="hero.jpg" alt="Engineer reviewing analytics dashboard">
<!-- Missing form label -->
<!-- Wrong: -->
<input type="email" placeholder="Email">
<!-- Right: -->
<label for="email">Email address</label>
<input id="email" type="email" required>
<!-- Vague link text -->
<!-- Wrong: -->
<a href="/pricing">Click here</a>
<!-- Right: -->
<a href="/pricing">See our pricing</a>
<!-- Missing focus indicator -->
button:focus-visible {
outline: 3px solid #0066ff;
outline-offset: 2px;
}
<!-- Missing language attribute -->
<html lang="en">Most sites have between 50 and 500 instances of these fixes. The work is real but mechanical.
Color Contrast: The Most Common Failure
Color contrast violations are the single most-reported issue in automated audits. WCAG 2.2 AA requires 4.5:1 for body text and 3:1 for large text and UI components.
Tools to check:
- WebAIM Contrast Checker (web-based, free)
- Stark plugin for Figma and Sketch
- Chrome DevTools color picker (shows contrast ratio inline)
Fix by adjusting either the text color or the background. Light gray text on white (a popular brand choice in 2020-2024) is almost always non-compliant. The fix is darker text or a slightly off-white background.
Forms: The Highest-Stakes Surface
Forms get sued most often because they block conversion. A form that is keyboard-inaccessible or unclear to a screen reader is a direct ADA violation that costs the business money. Form requirements:
- Every input has an associated label using for/id
- Required fields are clearly indicated (text, not just color)
- Errors are announced to assistive technology
- Errors include a text description, not just a red border
- The submit button is reachable by keyboard
- Success messages are announced after submission
For deeper form patterns, the website accessibility guide covers form-specific patterns and ARIA usage.
Platform-Specific Considerations
Platform choice affects how much accessibility work is automatic versus manual.
Framer: generates clean HTML with proper landmark regions, semantic headings, and keyboard support out of the box. Custom components need ARIA attributes added manually. Color contrast must be designed in.
WordPress: the core is reasonably accessible. Themes vary wildly. Page builders (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery) often produce DOM structures that fail keyboard navigation and screen reader testing.
Webflow: generates accessible HTML when designers use semantic elements. Custom interactions need testing.
Squarespace: hits most baseline criteria. Some templates have contrast issues that require theme modifications.
The platform choice does not exempt the site owner from accessibility responsibility. The ADA applies to the public-facing site regardless of how it was built.
Overlay Widgets Are Not a Solution
Several vendors sell “accessibility overlays” or “AI accessibility widgets” that promise instant compliance for $20 to $200 per month. These do not work and can make accessibility worse.
The Department of Justice has filed amicus briefs against overlay vendors. Plaintiff attorneys specifically target sites using overlays because the underlying HTML is still inaccessible. A site with an overlay still needs to fix the underlying issues. The overlay does not substitute for the work.
The legitimate use of overlay-style tools is as a temporary monitoring layer while remediation work is in progress. They are not a long-term compliance strategy.
The 30-Day Remediation Sprint
Most marketing sites can reach WCAG 2.2 AA in 30 days with focused work. The plan:
Week 1: Audit and triage. Run automated tools across all key pages. Manually keyboard-test the top 20 pages. Document every violation in a spreadsheet with severity, page, and fix complexity.
Week 2: Critical fixes. Color contrast across the design system. Missing alt text on all images. Form labels and error handling. Focus indicators on every interactive element.
Week 3: Structural fixes. Heading hierarchy. ARIA landmarks (header, nav, main, footer). Skip-to-content links. Modal focus trapping. Custom components.
Week 4: Re-audit and document. Run automated tools again. Run manual screen reader test on top 10 pages. Document remaining issues with remediation plan. Publish an accessibility statement.
Ongoing Maintenance
Accessibility is not a one-time fix. Every new page, component, and feature needs accessibility review. Build it into the workflow:
- Add automated tests (axe-core in CI/CD) that fail builds on new violations
- Add an accessibility checklist to the design QA process
- Run quarterly manual audits on top-traffic pages
- Run an annual third-party audit for compliance documentation
For Framer-specific accessibility patterns, see our pricing for builds that ship WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant by default.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do all websites need to be ADA compliant?
US businesses connected to physical locations or selling to US customers should treat WCAG 2.2 AA as the legal standard. Federal courts have repeatedly applied ADA Title III to websites. Even sites without a physical location face increasing legal risk in California, New York, and Florida.
What is the difference between WCAG 2.1 and 2.2?
WCAG 2.2 adds nine new success criteria, mostly focused on cognitive accessibility, mobile, and motor disabilities. New builds should target 2.2. Existing sites compliant with 2.1 are still mostly compliant; 2.2 adds about 10 percent more requirements.
How long does it take to make a site ADA compliant?
Most marketing sites reach WCAG 2.2 AA in 30 to 90 days. The audit takes one to two weeks. Critical fixes take two to four weeks. Structural and component-level fixes take another two to six weeks depending on site size.
What does an accessibility audit cost?
A third-party WCAG 2.2 AA audit on a typical marketing site runs $3,000 to $15,000 depending on page count and complexity. Enterprise sites with 500+ pages run $25,000 to $75,000. The audit is the smallest cost in the compliance equation; remediation is the larger spend.
Are accessibility overlay widgets enough?
No. Overlay widgets do not fix underlying accessibility violations and can introduce new ones. The Department of Justice and plaintiff attorneys treat sites with overlays as no different from sites without them. Real remediation is the only path to compliance.
If you need a site that ships WCAG 2.2 AA-compliant from day one and stays compliant as you grow, talk to our team about a Framer build with accessibility baked into the design system.