ADA Compliance Checker: Is Your Website Accessible?

Web Accessibility Lawsuits Are Surging

In the past few years, the number of ADA-related lawsuits targeting websites has skyrocketed. Businesses of all sizes — not just large corporations — have been hit with demand letters and lawsuits claiming their websites are inaccessible to people with disabilities. Settlements routinely land in the tens of thousands of dollars, and many businesses never saw it coming because they assumed accessibility was only a concern for government sites.

It is not. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, any business that serves the public is expected to make its digital presence accessible. Courts have repeatedly held that websites qualify as places of public accommodation. If your site cannot be navigated with a screen reader, or if your forms lack proper labels, you have a problem that could end up in court.

What WCAG 2.1 AA Actually Means

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the international standard for web accessibility. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the benchmark that most legal frameworks and regulations reference. It covers four core principles — your site must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust.

In practical terms, that means:

• Images need alt text that describes their content for screen reader users
• Headings must follow a logical hierarchy — do not skip from H1 to H4
• Form inputs need associated labels so assistive technology can announce what each field is for
• Color contrast ratios between text and background must meet minimum thresholds (4.5:1 for normal text)
• Interactive elements must be keyboard accessible — no mouse-only navigation traps
• ARIA attributes should be used correctly when native HTML semantics are not sufficient
• Links must have descriptive text — "click here" tells a screen reader user nothing about the destination

What Our Accessibility Checker Scans

Our free tool crawls your page and runs it against dozens of WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria. It flags issues by severity — critical violations that block access entirely, serious problems that make your site difficult to use, and moderate issues worth cleaning up. Each finding includes a plain-language explanation and a recommendation for how to fix it.

The checker looks at:

• Missing or empty alt attributes on images
• Heading hierarchy and structure
• Form label associations
• Color contrast ratios
• ARIA roles, states, and properties
• Keyboard navigation and focus management
• Link text quality and descriptiveness
• Language attributes on the HTML element
• Table markup and data cell associations

Who Should Be Running Accessibility Scans

If you build or maintain websites — whether for yourself or for clients — accessibility scanning should be part of your regular workflow. Agencies that offer accessibility audits as a service are adding a high-margin revenue stream while helping their clients avoid legal exposure. Business owners who catch issues early can fix them before they become five-figure legal problems.

Running a scan takes seconds and costs nothing. There is no good reason not to know where you stand.

Concerned about security alongside accessibility? Our website security scanner checks for vulnerabilities that could put your visitors at risk.