Does My Website Need to Be ADA Compliant?
Short answer: almost certainly yes, if you’re a US business that serves the public. The ADA doesn’t mention websites by name, and courts still disagree about businesses that only exist online. But that hasn’t stopped the lawsuits: nearly 5,000 digital accessibility suits were filed in 2025, and most of them targeted small and mid-sized companies.
Here’s who the law covers, the three questions that decide how exposed you are, and what to do about it.
This article explains the law in general terms. It isn’t legal advice.
Who the ADA Covers Online
Two parts of the ADA apply to websites, and they work very differently.
Title III: businesses open to the public. This covers “public accommodations”: retailers, restaurants, hotels, banks, healthcare providers, schools, gyms, and most other businesses that serve customers. There’s no size threshold. The “15 employees” rule you may have heard of applies to Title I, which is about employment, not to your website.
Title II: state and local governments. Cities, counties, public schools and other public bodies have a specific rule. Their websites and apps must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA by April 26, 2027 (populations of 50,000 or more) or April 26, 2028 (smaller entities), under the DOJ’s April 2026 interim final rule.
The grey area: online-only businesses. Federal appeals courts are split. The 1st, 2nd and 7th Circuits have treated websites as covered even with no physical store. The 9th Circuit looks for a link to a physical location, and the 11th Circuit has gone further, ruling that a website on its own isn’t a place of public accommodation. Our ADA Title III guide explains the split in more detail.
That split matters less than it sounds. Plaintiffs file where the law favors them, mainly New York, Florida and California, and most cases settle long before anyone argues the point.
What standard applies? There’s no official Title III web rule. In practice, WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the benchmark used in settlements, court orders and the Title II rule. The DOJ’s 2022 web accessibility guidance still stands; it wasn’t among the 11 Title III guidance documents the department withdrew in March 2025.
The Three Questions That Decide Your Risk
Whether you’re legally covered and whether you’re likely to be sued are different questions. These three decide the second one.
1. Do people buy from you online?
Ecommerce is the biggest target by far. UsableNet found that 69% of digital accessibility lawsuits in the first half of 2025 were against online retailers.
If customers can add to cart, book, or pay on your site, you’re in the group plaintiffs’ firms look at first. A checkout that a screen reader user can’t finish is the easiest claim to make.
2. Where are your customers?
Lawsuits cluster in a few states. New York and Florida lead federal website filings, and California’s cases mostly run through state court under the Unruh Act, which carries a minimum of $4,000 in damages per violation.
You don’t need an office in those states to be sued there. Selling to their residents is enough. See our breakdown of ADA website lawsuits by state for where the risk sits.
3. Can a scan find obvious problems?
Most lawsuits start with an automated scan. Plaintiffs’ firms look for issues a tool can spot in seconds: images with no alt text, buttons with no name, form fields with no label, text with too little contrast.
Size won’t protect you. 64% of lawsuits in the first half of 2025 targeted companies with under $25 million in revenue. Being sued once won’t either: about 45% of 2025 federal suits named a business that had already been sued before.
PRO TIP: An accessibility widget or overlay isn’t a defense. Hundreds of 2025 lawsuits were filed against sites that had one installed.
What to Do Next
If you answered yes to any of those questions, start where the plaintiffs’ firms start: with a scan.
- Scan your key pages. Run your homepage, a product or service page, and your checkout or contact form through the AccessibilityChecker.org Scanner. It shows which WCAG issues it found and how to fix each one.
- Fix the blockers first. Prioritize anything that stops someone completing a task: unlabeled buttons, forms that can’t be used with a keyboard, missing alt text on product images.
- Test what a scan can’t. Automated tools catch only part of the problem. Try your checkout with just a keyboard, and get a manual audit for the journeys that make you money.
- Publish an accessibility statement. It tells visitors how to report problems, and shows you’re working on it. Our free Accessibility Statement Generator creates one in a few minutes.
For the full picture, read our ADA compliance guide.
FAQs
Does a small business website need to be ADA compliant?
Yes. Title III has no size or revenue threshold, and small businesses are the most common defendants. 64% of digital accessibility lawsuits in the first half of 2025 targeted companies with under $25 million in revenue.
Is there a law that says websites must be ADA compliant?
Not in so many words. The ADA was written in 1990, before most businesses had websites. The DOJ and many courts read it as covering websites anyway, and state and local governments now have a specific web rule under Title II.
What happens if my website isn't ADA compliant?
You may get a demand letter or a lawsuit asking you to fix the site and pay the plaintiff's legal fees. Federal ADA claims don't award damages to the plaintiff, but some state laws do, including California's Unruh Act.
Does the ADA apply if I only sell online?
It depends on where you're sued. Some federal courts say yes and others require a link to a physical location. Online-only businesses are sued regularly, so it's safer to assume you're covered.