Website accessibility used to be a nice-to-have. Today it’s a legal and business necessity. Lawsuits and demand letters over inaccessible websites have climbed steadily, and they aren’t aimed only at big corporations. Restaurants, retailers, dental offices, and contractors get them too. And beyond the legal risk, an inaccessible website quietly turns away customers who wanted to do business with you.
If you want the basics of what ADA compliance covers, including what it means for public entities and PDFs, start with our earlier post, What ADA compliance means for your website and PDFs. This post is for business owners: what the risk looks like, why accessibility pays off, and how to run a quick website accessibility check on your own site in about ten minutes.
A quick note
This is a general overview, not legal advice. If you’ve received a demand letter or have specific compliance questions, talk with your attorney.
The standard businesses aim for
Title III of the ADA covers businesses that are open to the public. Courts have increasingly applied it to websites, but the regulations don’t name a specific technical standard for businesses. In practice, most businesses aim for WCAG 2.2 Level AA. It’s the current version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and meeting it also covers the older 2.1 standard many rules refer to.
Why it matters for your business
- Legal protection. Thousands of website accessibility lawsuits are filed in U.S. courts every year, and many more claims are settled through demand letters that never reach a courtroom. Small businesses are frequent targets because their sites are less likely to have been reviewed.
- A bigger audience. About 1.3 billion people worldwide live with a significant disability, roughly 1 in 6 people. Add the aging population, people with temporary injuries, and anyone squinting at a phone in bright sunlight, and the number of visitors who benefit grows quickly.
- Better SEO. Many accessibility best practices help search engines understand your site too: clear heading structure, descriptive image text, meaningful link text, and logical navigation.
- Better usability for everyone. Readable text, clear buttons, and forms that explain what went wrong make a site easier to use for every visitor, which usually means more calls, bookings, and sales.
A 10-minute website accessibility check
You don’t need special software to get a rough sense of where your site stands. Try these on your homepage and your contact or booking page:
- Put the mouse away. Press Tab to move through the page. Can you always see where you are? Can you reach every menu item, open dropdowns, and submit your contact form using only the keyboard?
- Zoom to 200%. Hold Ctrl (or Cmd on a Mac) and press + a few times. Does the text stay readable without overlapping or forcing you to scroll sideways?
- Look for low-contrast text. Light gray text on white, or text over busy photos, is one of the most common problems we see.
- Fill out your form wrong on purpose. Leave a required field blank. Does the error message say what’s wrong and where, or does the form just refuse to submit?
- Watch your videos with the sound off. Are there captions?
- Run a free automated scan. Tools like WAVE flag missing image descriptions, empty links, contrast issues, and unlabeled form fields.
One caution: automated scanners catch only a fraction of real accessibility issues. A clean scan is a good sign, not proof of compliance. A full audit combines automated testing with manual testing, including with a screen reader.
Didn’t pass every check?
That’s normal, and it’s fixable. We’ll run a full audit and tell you exactly what needs fixing, in plain English. Request an accessibility audit.
If you receive a demand letter
Don’t ignore it, and don’t panic. Contact your attorney, then get a professional audit so you know exactly what needs fixing. Documenting that you’re actively remediating your site puts you in a much stronger position than doing nothing, and much stronger than installing a quick-fix widget, which won’t resolve the underlying issues.
How to get started
- Audit your current site to find the accessibility gaps, starting with your highest-traffic pages and anything customers use to contact you, book, or buy.
- Prioritize fixes based on legal risk and user impact. A broken contact form matters more than a decorative image on an old blog post.
- Build accessibility into future updates instead of treating it as a one-time project. If you’re already planning a redesign, building accessibility in from the start costs far less than retrofitting it later. Not sure which route makes sense? See Should you fix your website or start over?
- Monitor on an ongoing basis. New blog posts, uploaded images, plugin updates, and pop-ups can all introduce new issues after a site has been fixed.
Frequently asked questions
Do small businesses have to make their websites accessible?
Title III of the ADA applies to businesses open to the public, and unlike the ADA’s employment rules, it has no minimum size. Courts haven’t been fully consistent about how it applies to websites, but small businesses are sued and sent demand letters regularly. Treating accessibility as a requirement is the safer approach.
Will an accessibility widget make my site compliant?
No. Overlay widgets change how a site looks on the surface, but they don’t fix the underlying code, and businesses using them still get sued. In 2025, the Federal Trade Commission ordered one overlay vendor to pay $1 million over claims that its tool could make any website compliant.
How long does it take to fix an inaccessible website?
It depends on the size of the site and what the audit finds. A small business site with a handful of pages can often be fixed in a few weeks. Larger sites, or sites with lots of PDFs, take longer. After an audit, we’ll give you a clear scope and timeline.
Do PDFs on my website need to be accessible too?
Yes. Menus, forms, brochures, and price lists posted as PDFs count as web content. Our post on ADA compliance for websites and PDFs explains what PDF remediation involves.
How we help
Forward Web Solutions partners with ADAComply to offer accessibility audits, remediation for existing sites, and WCAG-compliant new builds, plus ongoing monitoring so compliance doesn’t slip as your site changes. Whether you’re starting from scratch or fixing an existing site, we’ll scope a plan that fits your budget and timeline. We work with businesses across mid-Michigan, from Midland, Bay City, and Saginaw to the surrounding communities.
Contact us for an accessibility audit and find out where your site stands.
