What is the ADA, and what does it mean for your website?

The Americans with Disabilities Act is the US law that keeps businesses and governments open to people with disabilities. Here is what it means for websites, in plain words, with links to the official sources.

Updated: October 20, 2026

General information, not legal advice. Whether and how the law applies to you depends on your situation; for that, talk to a lawyer.

The ADA in one paragraph

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal civil rights law, signed on July 26, 1990. It bans discrimination against people with disabilities at work, in state and local government services, in businesses open to the public, in transportation and in telecommunications.

That covers a lot of people: the CDC reports that more than 1 in 4 adults in the US have some type of disability, including vision, hearing, mobility and cognitive disabilities.

Does the ADA cover websites?

The law was written before most people had heard of the web, so it doesn't mention websites. The Justice Department, which enforces it, says it reaches them anyway.

In its 2022 guidance, the Department says businesses open to the public must offer their goods and services to people with disabilities on equal terms, and that an inaccessible website can shut people out. It lists the barriers it sees most:

Poor color contrast between text and background
Color used alone to show information, such as red text for required fields
Images without alt text
Videos without captions
Forms without labels, clear instructions or error messages
Pages that only work with a mouse

Who has to make their website accessible

State and local governments (ADA Title II). A 2024 Justice Department rule sets a clear technical standard for their websites and mobile apps: WCAG 2.1 Level AA. After an extension in April 2026, governments serving 50,000 people or more must meet it by April 26, 2027, and smaller governments and special districts by April 26, 2028.
Businesses open to the public (ADA Title III): restaurants, hotels, shops, doctors' offices, gyms, day care centers, private schools and many more. No regulation sets a technical standard for their websites. The Justice Department points to WCAG as helpful guidance, and in lawsuits and settlements WCAG Level AA is the usual yardstick.
Businesses that exist only online. Here courts disagree. Some have said the ADA covers any business's website; others, only a website connected to a physical place, such as a restaurant's online ordering. That connection is why, in 2019, a federal appeals court let a blind customer's case over a pizza chain's website and app go forward (Robles v. Domino's).

What WCAG is

WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is the technical standard almost everyone measures against. It is published by the W3C, the group behind web standards. Version 2.0 came out in 2008, 2.1 in 2018 and 2.2 in 2023. Each builds on the one before, so a site that meets WCAG 2.2 also meets 2.1 and 2.0.

Each rule has a level: A (the minimum), AA (the usual target) and AAA (the strictest, rarely required for a whole site). The rules sit under four ideas:

Perceivable: people can see or hear the content. Images have text alternatives; videos have captions.
Operable: everything works with a keyboard, and people have enough time and control.
Understandable: text is clear, and forms say what they need and what went wrong.
Robust: the code is clean enough for screen readers and other assistive tools to read.

Federal agencies' own websites follow a separate law, Section 508, which uses WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

How lawsuits work

Most website accessibility cases are brought by people, not the government. Under the federal ADA, a private lawsuit can make a business fix its site and pay the other side's legal fees, but it doesn't award money damages. Some state laws do: California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, for example, adds damages of at least $4,000.

These cases are common. A law firm that tracks ADA filings counted 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2025, and more are filed in state courts. Many start with a demand letter. If you get one, talk to a lawyer before you reply.

Four things that aren't true

“My site can be ADA certified.” There is no official ADA certification for websites. The Justice Department doesn't certify sites, so no badge or vendor can make yours “ADA certified”.
“A widget makes my site compliant.” A toolbar doesn't fix the code underneath, and sites using one still get sued. Fixing the site is what counts: why a widget isn't enough.
“Small businesses are exempt.” For businesses open to the public, the ADA has no employee minimum. That limit applies only to its hiring rules (Title I).
“A clean automated scan means I'm done.” Automated tools find many common problems, but some checks need a person, such as whether alt text is accurate or captions match what is said.

Where to start

Scan the pages people use most: home, menu or products, ordering or booking, contact. Fix what stops someone from finishing a task first.
Fix problems in your site's code and content, not with a layer on top. Many are quick, like alt text, form labels and link names.
Check by hand: go through your key pages with only a keyboard, and try a screen reader such as VoiceOver or NVDA. Open your PDFs too.
Publish an accessibility statement that says what you are working on and how people can report a problem, and answer those reports quickly.
Keep checking. Every new page, menu or plugin update can bring new problems.

How Scanpoof helps, and what it can't do

What Scanpoof does

Checks your pages every day against WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA rules
Explains each problem in plain words, with code to fix it
Keeps a dated record of what was found and what was fixed

What it can't do

Tell you whether, or how, the law applies to your business
Judge the checks that need a person, like whether alt text is accurate
Promise you won't be sued: no tool can

A free scan of one page shows where you stand in about a minute.

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