ADA website accessibility guides

Plain-English answers for business owners dealing with ADA website claims, demand letters, and WCAG 2.1 AA fixes. Written for people who run the site, not for lawyers.

• Got an ADA website demand letter? What to do in the first two weeks

  A calm, practical checklist for business owners who received an ADA website accessibility demand letter or lawsuit: what to do, what not to do, and what to document.

• ADA website lawsuits explained: who sues, why, and what the law requires

  How ADA Title III website accessibility lawsuits work, why WCAG 2.1 AA is the benchmark, where they are filed, and whether the ADA applies to your website.

• Do accessibility overlay widgets prevent ADA lawsuits?

  What accessibility overlay widgets actually do, why sites that use them still get sued, the FTC's 2025 action against an overlay vendor, and what works instead.

• WCAG 2.1 AA checklist for business websites

  A practical WCAG 2.1 Level AA checklist for online stores and small business websites, ordered by what ADA website claims cite most, with links to fix guides.

• Why a dated accessibility audit record matters

  Why businesses should keep dated records of website accessibility audits and fixes, what to record, and how an audit trail helps when an ADA website claim arrives.

• A 5-Minute Keyboard Accessibility Test for Your Online Store

  Test your online store with only a keyboard in five minutes. See what failure looks like at each step and what to tell your developer.

• Accessible checkout: the fixes that matter most for online stores

  A practical guide to WCAG 2.1 AA checkout fixes: form labels, error messages, autocomplete, payment iframes, timeouts, CAPTCHA and order confirmation.

• Accessible Dropdown and Mega Menus for Online Stores

  Fix hover-only menus, keyboard traps and missing expanded states with the disclosure button pattern. Code examples and Tab and screen reader tests.

• Accessible Form Labels and Error Messages: Fixing Checkout Issues

  Fix missing labels, placeholder-only fields, color-only errors and silent error messages with before/after HTML and simple keyboard and screen reader tests.

• Accessible Image Sliders and Carousels: Pause Controls, Keyboard and Alt Text

  How to make auto-rotating hero sliders accessible: pause control, keyboard use, slide announcements, alt text, focus, plus when to use a static hero.

• ADA Website Lawsuits Against Shopify Stores: What Gets Cited

  A plain-English look at what ADA demand letters cite on Shopify stores and how to fix theme, app, and product page accessibility issues.

• ADA Website Lawsuits in Florida: What Business Owners Should Know

  Why Florida federal courts see many website accessibility suits, who files them, what complaints cite, and how to respond calmly and practically.

• ADA website lawsuits in Pennsylvania: a guide for online sellers

  Why online sellers outside Pennsylvania can face ADA website suits there, what plaintiffs usually allege, and a practical, calm response plan.

• Are PDFs on Your Website an ADA Risk? Making Documents Accessible

  Scanned PDFs, missing tags and broken reading order can block screen reader users. Learn how to check your PDFs and when to use an HTML page instead.

• California Website Accessibility Claims and the Unruh Act

  How California’s Unruh Act connects to the ADA, why statutory damages apply per violation, and why many website accessibility cases are filed in state court.

• Captions and audio description for small business videos

  Captions, subtitles, transcripts and audio description explained for small business videos, plus how to fix auto captions and handle background video.

• Cookie Banners, Popups and Chat Widgets: Accessibility Traps

  Cookie banners, newsletter popups and chat widgets often trap keyboard users or hide content. Learn the common failures and how to test and fix them.

• Hiring Someone to Fix Website Accessibility: What to Ask

  How to hire a web accessibility fixer: questions to ask vendors, red flags like compliance guarantees and overlay-only fixes, and deliverables to require.

• Hotel Websites and the ADA: Site Accessibility vs. Room Booking Rules

  Hotel websites face two separate ADA issues: general site accessibility (WCAG) and a specific reservations rule for accessible rooms. Here's how they differ.

• How to Check and Fix Color Contrast Across Your Whole Site

  Learn the WCAG contrast ratios, how to test them with free tools, and how to fix failures once at the theme level, including text on images and brand colors.

• How to Write Alt Text for Product Images That Helps Shoppers

  Practical alt text examples for apparel, furniture, food, variants and color swatches, plus how to handle decorative images and bulk catalogs.

• Icon Buttons Without Labels: Fixing Cart, Search and Menu Icons

  Learn how to give icon-only buttons and links an accessible name using hidden text, aria-label and aria-hidden SVGs, and how to check it in dev tools.

• Link text that makes sense: fixing 'click here', 'read more' and empty links

  How to fix vague, repeated and empty links under WCAG 2.4.4, with before/after code and theme-level fixes for product grids and blog cards.

• Restaurant website accessibility: menus, ordering and reservations

  Practical guidance on making restaurant menus, online ordering, reservation embeds, and hours/address text accessible under WCAG 2.1 AA.

• Screen Reader Testing for Business Owners: VoiceOver and NVDA Basics

  A plain-English guide to testing your checkout path with VoiceOver and NVDA: the few commands you need and what good and bad sound like.

• Served with an ADA website lawsuit: first steps for a small business

  A calm checklist for the days after a federal complaint about website accessibility: deadlines, attorney, insurer, preserving your site, and fixing barriers.

• WCAG 2.2 vs 2.1: What Changed and Which One to Target

  WCAG 2.2 adds six new A/AA criteria and drops 4.1.1 Parsing. Here is what changed in plain English and which version small sites should target.

• Why So Many ADA Website Lawsuits Are Filed in New York

  Why New York federal courts see so many ADA website suits: public accommodation theories, state and city laws, and what small businesses can do.

• Wix and Squarespace Accessibility: What the Platform Handles vs. What You Fix

  Website builders give you accessibility tools, but they can't make your content accessible. Here is what Wix and Squarespace cover and what stays with you.

• WordPress Accessibility: Themes, Plugins and What to Check

  A practical WordPress accessibility guide: how to vet themes, page builders and plugins, fix media library alt text, and know what WordPress core covers.

Fix guides for the most-cited WCAG failures

• 1.1.1 Non-text Content

  Every meaningful image, icon and image button needs a text alternative that says what it shows or does; purely decorative images need an empty alt so screen readers skip them.

• 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded)

  Prerecorded video with sound needs synchronized captions that include speech and important sounds, so deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors get the same information.

• 1.3.1 Info and Relationships

  Structure you can see (headings, lists, tables, form groups) must also exist in the code, so screen reader users can navigate by it instead of hearing one flat stream of text.

• 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)

  Text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background, or 3:1 for large text (about 24px, or about 18.7px bold).

• 1.4.4 Resize Text

  People must be able to zoom text to 200% without content being cut off or overlapping, and mobile pages must not block pinch-zoom.

• 2.1.1 Keyboard

  Everything you can do with a mouse (menus, buttons, carousels, filters, checkout) must also work with a keyboard alone.

• 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks

  Give keyboard and screen reader users a way to skip repeated navigation, usually a "Skip to content" link plus proper page landmarks.

• 2.4.2 Page Titled

  Every page needs a unique, descriptive title in the <title> tag, which is the first thing a screen reader announces.

• 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context)

  Every link must have text (or an accessible name) that tells people where it goes. Icon links with no name, and vague "click here" links, fail.

• 2.4.7 Focus Visible

  Keyboard users must always be able to see which element has focus. Removing the focus outline with CSS without a replacement fails.

• 3.1.1 Language of Page

  Declare the page language with a lang attribute on the <html> tag, so screen readers pronounce the text correctly.

• 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions

  Every form field needs a visible label, programmatically tied to the field, and any format requirements must be stated up front. Placeholder text alone does not count.

• 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value

  Buttons, toggles, menus and custom widgets must expose a name, a role and their current state to assistive technology. Icon-only buttons with no label are the classic failure.

Proof of Access provides technical accessibility assessments. We are not a law firm and nothing on this page is legal advice. If you have received a demand letter or a lawsuit, talk to an attorney.