Web accessibility
ADA compliance / accessible website / WCAG / accessibility audit
Web accessibility means people with disabilities can use your site. The Department of Justice says the ADA's requirements apply to what a business offers online, while stating it has no regulation setting out detailed standards for how. A separate rule does set one, WCAG 2.1 Level AA, but it binds state and local government.
Two things are true at once here, and almost every sales pitch collapses them into one. The obligation is real, and for a private business the technical bar is not written down.
Start with the obligation. The Department of Justice states that it has consistently taken the position that the ADA's requirements apply to all the goods, services, privileges or activities offered by public accommodations, including those offered on the web. It gives the reason plainly: a website with inaccessible features can limit the ability of people with disabilities to reach what a business offers through that website.
Then the part that surprises people. On how to comply, the Department says businesses and state and local governments have flexibility, and that it does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards. It names the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and the Section 508 standards as existing technical standards that provide helpful guidance. Guidance, in that sentence, is doing real work. You must comply with the ADA. What you measure that against is currently your choice.
There is one place a standard has been set, and knowing which one it is saves money. The rule at 28 CFR 35.200 requires public entities with a total population of 50,000 or more to make their web content and mobile apps comply with the Level A and Level AA success criteria of WCAG 2.1, unless they can show that doing so would be a fundamental alteration or an undue financial and administrative burden. Smaller public entities and special district governments come under it beginning 26 April 2028. Those are state and local government bodies. A private business is not one.
In practice
This is why a proposal promising a compliant website deserves a follow up question. Compliant with what, exactly, and who says so. For a public entity there is a named standard and a date. For a business there is a legal obligation, a widely used standard that the Department calls helpful guidance, and no regulation that turns one into the other.
Not the same as
- WCAG
- That is a technical standard. The Department names it as guidance for businesses, and a separate rule adopts version 2.1 Level AA for public entities.
- Section 508
- The Department describes those as the standards the federal government uses for its own websites.
Why it matters to you
Flexibility is not an exemption, and that is the trap in both directions. Some businesses hear no detailed standards and conclude nothing applies, which is not what the Department says. Others buy a certificate against a standard that was never written for them and believe the question is closed. The honest position is that the requirement is about whether people can actually use the site, and that WCAG is the most common way to check.
What to ask or check
- 01Which standard and level is this work measured against, and who decided that?
- 02Are we a public entity, which has a named standard and dates, or a business, which does not?
- 03Has anyone tested the site with the assistive tools real visitors use?
What people get wrong
That there is an official ADA certification a website can hold. The Department says it has no regulation setting out detailed standards for businesses, and names WCAG as helpful guidance rather than a rule.
Red flags
- A proposal that promises compliance without naming a standard and a level.
- A certificate offered against a rule that applies to public entities, sold to a private business.
- An accessibility quote where nobody has tested the site with assistive tools.
Who owns it
The business offering the goods or services online. For public entities the rule reaches content provided through contractual, licensing or other arrangements, so using an outside supplier does not move it.
Where you will see it
In demand letters, website build proposals, and any quote for an accessibility audit or remediation.