Level Access

Author: Level Access

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that public accommodations are accessible to people with disabilities—and courts have widely interpreted the law as applying to the websites and mobile apps of private businesses. Additionally, a 2024 ADA Title II rule from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sets specific accessibility requirements for the websites and mobile apps of state and local governments. The best way for organizations to demonstrate that web content is ADA compliant is to conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, at minimum. 

Most Americans today rely on the web to manage their daily lives—including the more than 70 million U.S. adults with disabilities. Yet many websites and apps weren’t built with these users’ needs in mind.

Web accessibility barriers can block users with disabilities from vital information, products, and services. And they’re a source of growing legal and regulatory risk for organizations. According to Seyfarth Shaw, the number of federal ADA Title III lawsuits related to web accessibility jumped 27% year-over-year in 2025, reaching 3,117 cases.

If you’re unsure whether your website and apps are ADA compliant, this guide is a good place to start. Learn how the ADA’s requirements apply to the web, who the law applies to, and how your organization can meet its compliance obligations and better serve all users.

Key insights

  • Title III of the ADA requires public accommodations to be accessible to people with disabilities, and courts have widely interpreted this requirement as applying to the websites and mobile apps of private businesses.
  • A 2024 rule from the U.S. DOJ sets specific accessibility requirements for state and local government websites and mobile apps.
  • The number of ADA Title III website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court jumped 27% in 2025, reaching the highest volume in three years, according to Seyfarth Shaw.
  • Any business open to the public is required to comply with ADA Title III, regardless of size or revenue.
  • The DOJ and courts consistently point to WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark for Title III ADA website compliance for private businesses. For state and local governments, WCAG 2.1 AA conformance is required by the DOJ’s 2024 Title II rule.
  • A professional accessibility audit against WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the recommended starting point for achieving ADA compliance.

What is the ADA, and does it apply to your website?

The ADA, signed into law in 1990, is a federal civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. The ADA impacts a wide range of organizations, from private businesses and nonprofits to state and local governments. Courts have consistently applied its nondiscrimination requirements to websites and mobile apps, making digital accessibility a legal obligation for most U.S. organizations.

What are the ADA’s five titles?

The ADA is organized into five titles, each covering a different area of public life. Private businesses should pay close attention to Title III, which covers any organization that provides goods or services to the public. State and local governments should be mindful of their obligations under Title II.

Title I: Employment

Title I applies to private employers, state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor unions with 15 or more employees. It requires that organizations provide equal opportunity for people with disabilities across employment-related activities, including the job application process, promotions, training, benefits, and reasonable accommodations—unless it creates an undue hardship. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces these standards.

Title II: Public services (state and local government)

Title II applies to state and local governments, including public schools, courts, and transit agencies. Under Title II, state and local governments are required to provide an equal opportunity for people with disabilities to benefit from their programs, services, and activities. The law covers programs, services, and activities that are accessed through digital channels, not just those offered at a physical location.

Title III: Businesses open to the public and private-sector services

Title III covers public accommodations, meaning privately owned businesses and other organizations that provide goods or services to the public. This includes retail stores, financial institutions, hotels, and restaurants. To comply with this title, businesses open to the public must remove barriers to access and ensure effective communication for people with disabilities.

Title IV: Telecommunications

This title requires phone carriers to establish relay services for people with speech disabilities and hearing disabilities. It also requires closed captioning for federally funded public service announcements.

Title V: Miscellaneous provisions

Title V contains miscellaneous provisions including rules prohibiting retaliation. No one can be punished or discriminated against for asserting their right to equal treatment.

ADA Title III and web accessibility: What businesses need to know

While Title III does not explicitly require web accessibility, the DOJ has clarified its position that private businesses’ websites are public accommodations, and courts have widely upheld this interpretation. However, courts across different federal circuits aren’t fully aligned on how the law applies to the web. Specifically, some courts have ruled that online-only businesses are covered, while others maintain that a business website needs a “physical nexus” (meaning the site needs to be connected to a brick-and-mortar location) for Title III to apply.

ADA Title III compliance for websites is enforced primarily through private litigation, rather than federal government actions.

ADA Title II and the DOJ’s 2024 rule

Unlike Title III, Title II now explicitly requires web and mobile app accessibility. In April 2024, the DOJ published a final rule requiring state and local governments to ensure their web content and mobile apps conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA—the first federal regulation to mandate a specific technical standard for web accessibility across a broad category of entities.

Compliance deadlines are phased based on entity size. Entities serving populations of 50,000 or more must comply by April 26, 2027. Entities with populations under 50,000, and special district governments, have until April 26, 2028.

What happens if your website isn’t ADA compliant?

Failing to maintain an ADA compliant website carries significant legal risk for both businesses and public entities. Businesses should note that, in 2025, ADA Title III web accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court reached their highest volume in three years, according to Seyfarth Shaw. New York federal courts remained the busiest with 1,021 filings, and the count in Florida nearly doubled, rising from 470 in 2024 to 961 last year.

Federal lawsuits are only part of the picture—these numbers don’t account for cases filed under state laws, like California’s Unruh Act. Additionally, many organizations receive demand letters before any formal litigation takes place.

Importantly, there’s no small-business exemption under Title III. And while high-profile lawsuits tend to involve larger companies, smaller businesses remain firmly in scope

State and local governments that fail to meet the DOJ’s 2024 Title II rule face the same private litigation risks as private businesses. The consequences go beyond legal fees, as organizations must also remediate issues on a tight timeline, often under court supervision. The reputational damage from a lawsuit doesn’t fade quickly either because it signals to customers and users that accessibility wasn’t a priority.

Understanding WCAG, the technical standard for ADA compliance

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), are the globally recognized technical standard for website accessibility. The DOJ’s 2024 rule establishes WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the official standard for Title II compliance, and both the DOJ and courts reference it consistently in Title III enforcement actions against private organizations.

While WCAG 2.1 AA is the minimum benchmark for ADA compliance, conforming with the latest version, WCAG 2.2, helps organizations stay ahead of evolving regulations and meet a broader range of access needs. Compared to WCAG 2.1, WCAG 2.2 adds nine new success criteria, largely focused on accessibility for people with low vision, people with cognitive disabilities, and mobile device users.

The POUR principles

The guidelines in WCAG are built around four core principles, known by the acronym “POUR”: perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. Together they establish what it means in practice for web content to be accessible for people with disabilities, including users of assistive technologies. For a full breakdown of each principle and its success criteria, visit the W3C’s WCAG documentation.

Common ADA compliance violations on websites

Accessibility failures are more common than most organizations realize. The WebAIM Million 2026 report found that 95.9% of home pages had detectable WCAG failures, averaging 56.1 errors per page. Here are some of the issues most frequently flagged in lawsuits.

Keyboard navigation

For your website to be accessible, every interactive element needs to be reachable and usable without a mouse. This means users can tab through menus, links, forms, and buttons in a logical order without getting trapped in a component they can’t navigate out of.

Alt text for images

All non-descriptive images on your site should be accompanied by context-appropriate alt text, so screen reader users can understand their meaning. According to the WebAIM Million 2026 report, missing alt text was present on 53.1% of the top one million home pages—making it one of the most common accessibility failures on the web.

Video captions

Captions provide text equivalents for spoken dialogue and relevant audio information in video content, and they’re essential for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. WCAG 2.1 requires synchronized captions for all pre-recorded video under Success Criterion 1.2.2—a Level A requirement, meaning it represents the minimum baseline for conformance.

Color contrast

Insufficient color contrast between text and background elements can make content difficult to read for people withcertain visual disabilities. To conform with WCAG, body text needs a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 with its background. Despite being one of the most specific and testable requirements, color contrast errors are widespread: The WebAIM Million 2026 report found that 83.9% of home pages currently fall short. In addition to providing sufficient contrast, it’s important to avoid relying on color alone to convey information.

Screen reader compatibility

Many people who are blind or have low vision use screen readers to understand and engage with websites, and a large number of WCAG success criteria focus on screen reader access. Making your site compatible with screen readers starts with ensuring content is well-structured, with proper heading hierarchy and landmark regions. ARIA labels should be used only where necessary; best practice is to rely on semantic HTML first.

Accessible forms

If form fields aren’t clearly labeled in a way that assistive technologies can interpret, or forms aren’t navigable by keyboard, users with disabilities may be unable to complete transactions. However, inaccessible forms remain a common source of accessibility barriers: The WebAIM Million 2026 report found that 51% of web forms lack proper labels.

ADA compliance checklist: Best practices to start reducing your risk

Achieving ADA compliance isn’t a one-time box-checking exercise—it’s an ongoing practice. The following steps can help your organization get started and stay on track:

  • Engage an expert to conduct an accessibility audit of your website and mobile apps against WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This evaluation should include both automated and manual testing and will surface accessibility gaps that may expose you to risk.
  • Prioritize remediation based on user impact. Focus first on the issues creating the biggest barriers, such as those in your key user flows—the paths users take to complete critical tasks like finding information, submitting forms, or making a purchase.
  • Make sure users who encounter barriers have a way to get help, including an accessible customer support channel.
  • Build accessibility into your design and development process from the start, so new content and features meet ADA requirements before they go live.
  • Implement continuous monitoring to catch new accessibility issues as your content and features change.
  • Keep a record of your accessibility work. If legal action is filed, being able to show you’ve been actively fixing issues puts you in a much stronger position.

ADA compliance is an ongoing commitment

A checklist gets you started, but the organizations that stay ahead of legal risk are the ones that build accessibility into how they work. Standards evolve and updated content introduces new risks. Sustained compliance comes from embedding accessibility into design, development, and content workflows from the start. When accessibility is part of how your team works—not a separate audit or a late-stage fix—it’s faster to maintain, easier to scale, and far less likely to create legal exposure

Level Access helps organizations across industries achieve and maintain ADA compliance. Our solution combines platform automation, AI agents, and expert guidance so you can find issues earlier, fix them faster, and prove progress.

For deeper insight on how to reduce your legal risk under the ADA, explore our risk reduction playbook.

Frequently asked questions

What are ADA compliance standards for websites?

There’s no binding federal rule for private businesses, but courts and the DOJ consistently reference WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark in enforcement actions and litigation. For state and local governments, the standard is explicit: the DOJ’s 2024 Title II rule mandates WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance for websites and mobile apps.

Yes, in many jurisdictions. The DOJ has clarified that private business websites are public accommodations under ADA Title III, and federal courts have widely upheld this interpretation. Any business open to the public should treat ADA website compliance as a legal obligation.

WCAG stands for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the internationally recognized technical standards for web accessibility. The DOJ adopted WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the mandatory standard for state and local government websites under Title II, and courts and the DOJ consistently reference it as the benchmark in Title III enforcement actions against private businesses.

No. ADA Title III doesn’t include a small business exemption for public accommodations. High-profile lawsuits have generally involved larger organizations, but businesses of every size remain at risk.

The most reliable way to assess your ADA compliance is through a professional accessibility audit against WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Automated scanning alone typically catches only a fraction of WCAG failures.

Share