Here’s What Your Business Needs to Know About Website ADA Compliance:
As of April 2026, municipalities with 50,000+ residents — and companies with 50 or more employees — must meet federal ADA/WCAG accessibility standards for their websites.
An ADA accessible website is designed so that everyone, including people with disabilities, can easily navigate, understand, and interact with its content. This includes compatibility with screen readers, keyboard navigation, and clear visual contrast for readability. And it’s good for your business. Read on to learn more.
By April 2027, that requirement will extend to those with fewer than 50 employees. (Only businesses with fewer than 15 employees will be fully exempt.)
There’s time to make these changes, but it’s wise to start thinking about it now.
A portion of your investment making these changes is tax deductible, to a maximum of $5000. That makes it far easier to make these adjustments ahead of time.
Read more about Tax Incentives for Improving Accessibility.
And doing this carries other benefits: Accessible websites are also better for your customers, your SEO, and your bottom line. We’ll unpack all that here.
An ADA-Compliant Website Avoids Lost Opportunities
One in four adults in the U.S. have a disability of some kind. Website designs that don’t take these into account risk alienating visitors.
Highly accessible websites are a good match for:
- Hearing and visually impaired
- Older adults and less tech savvy users
- People using slower internet connections
- Those with temporary challenges, such as a broken wrist or looking at the website in bright sunlight (where colors and detail are harder to make out)
- Cognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia or traumatic brain injury.
- Those unable to use a traditional mouse and keyboard.
Several Accessibility Choices Also Contribute To Marketing Efforts:
- Descriptive alt text on images is a meaningful part of SEO, and quick load times align with Google’s best practices.
- Accessibility elements, such as proper headings, meaningful anchor text for links, and fewer animations are also benefits for SEO.
- The more seamless it is for users to complete forms or find information, the less they’ll call support lines and tie up staff, or leave altogether.
- Colors chosen to accommodate color blindness or other considerations ensure information is easy to read, and calls to action are as obvious as they should be.
- A 2019 report showed that 2% of all e-commerce transactions ($10.3 billion) are completed by blind users.
Not sure if your website meets accessibility standards?
We can help you run a quick audit to spot common gaps — no tech jargon, just clear answers with next steps.
What Does An Accessibility Redesign Look Like?
This type of planning goes beyond the typical “make it look pretty” aims of a website redesign. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a scrap everything, start over endeavor. But there are some key areas a designer skilled in ADA compliance will look at:
- Careful review of the content and its presentation, looking for any problematic areas that can be improved. (Language, format, order.)
- Color choices to ensure everything is legible, easy to read, and provides workarounds for hearing or visually impaired users.
- Use of images – sizing, tags, display on mobile, and color choices. This includes cases where there is excessive animation that can cause dizziness, seizures, or even trigger migraines.
- Navigation structure and what browsing it requires.
- Presence or absence of tooltips and interactive elements like forms or buttons.
- Code structure (headings, schema, links) and avoiding accessibility issues like using tables to display information.
… And more.
In essence, the designer is reviewing the site to answer these questions: “What aspects of this site would complicate or prevent usage for someone with a disability? What changes can we make to accommodate that as efficiently as possible?”
These changes are first and foremost to bring the website in line with modern ADA regulations. The secondary benefit is the reduced likelihood of lawsuits related to lack of accessibility features.
Mitigating Risk:
Lawsuits over ADA compliance have happened a few notable times with brands like Fox and Blue Apron, regarding screen readers not being able to properly read the site.
It’s not an everyday issue, but the average ADA website lawsuit now exceeds $350,000.
Big brands like Netflix have made strides to improve their own accessibility for screen elements, which allows them to properly serve a larger audience and avoid additional legal issues.
In your case, once accessibility updates are made, it’s wise to routinely check the site for screen readers and keyboard-only navigation. Since digital standards are always evolving, what we can learn from companies like Netflix is that accessibility is a part of regular website maintenance and not a one and done fix.
For many small businesses, a few focused updates can go a long way. It doesn’t always require a full rebuild.
ADA compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines — it’s about building a better, more inclusive experience for everyone that visits your site.
If you’re ready to get ahead of the 2026–2027 deadlines, we’re here to help with audits, upgrades, or accessible web design from the ground up.
Let’s make your website work better for everyone.
Want a deep dive into what makes a website accessible. Download our FREE copy of Website Accessibility: Building Inclusive Digital Spaces and Maintaining ADA/WCAG Accessibility Standards.