Guide
What accessibility actually requires of a small-business website
Figures measured across 5,293 scanned sites, window ending 2026-08-20. This page identifies problems. It does not certify compliance and it is not legal advice.
Accessibility questions usually reach a small business one of two ways: a demand letter arrives, or an owner hears about one and wants to know their exposure. Both conversations go better with the same two inputs: what the law actually attaches to, and what your site actually does. The first is a short read. The second is measurable.
The legal shape, in plain terms
In the United States, the Americans with Disabilities Act is the frame. Title II covers state and local government: a 2024 Department of Justice rule requires their web content to meet WCAG 2.1 AA on a phased schedule, which also makes that standard the reference point everyone else gets measured against in practice. Title III covers businesses open to the public. Courts disagree about exactly when it reaches a website, but plaintiffs file anyway, and most matters resolve on the cost of defending rather than the merits. Several states add their own statutes. None of this means every site is liable. It means an inaccessible site is an open question a letter can force you to answer.
The practical standard in nearly every settlement and every serious remediation is WCAG 2.1 AA. If you fix toward anything, fix toward that.
What sites actually get wrong, measured
Across 5,293 sites we scanned in the 30 days ending 2026-08-20, the most common accessibility findings are ordinary and mechanical:
| Finding | Share of sites | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| No skip-to-content link | 87.2%95% CI 86.2% to 88% | Keyboard users must tab through the whole navigation on every page. |
| No main landmark | 63.6%95% CI 62.2% to 64.8% | No main element, so assistive technology cannot jump to the content. |
| Images missing alt text | 17.9%95% CI 16.8% to 18.9% | Images carry no text alternative for screen readers or image search. |
| Form fields without labels | 17.9%95% CI 16.9% to 18.9% | Inputs a screen reader announces as nothing at all. |
| Pinch-zoom disabled | 11.5%95% CI 10.7% to 12.4% | The viewport tag blocks zooming, which some visitors need to read at all. |
| Screen readers cannot tell the language | 10.7%95% CI 9.9% to 11.5% | Assistive technology has to guess how to pronounce the page. |
| No mobile viewport tag | 9.5%95% CI 8.7% to 10.3% | The page renders desktop-sized on phones. |
Share of 5,293 scanned sites raising each finding. Intervals are 95% Wilson intervals. These checks are automated; automated checks find a subset of WCAG issues, not all of them.
Why the common ones matter beyond the law
Missing form labels (17.9% of sites) mean a screen-reader user hears nothing when they land on your contact form, which is to say the form does not exist for them. Missing alt text (17.9% of sites) removes your images from screen readers and from image search at the same time. Disabled zoom (11.5%) locks out anyone who needs larger text. Each of these is also a customer who tried to buy and could not.
What to do, in order
- Measure before you spend. Run an automated check to find the mechanical failures above. They are the cheapest to fix and the most commonly cited.
- Fix forms, images, and structure first. Labels on every input, alt text on meaningful images, one main landmark, a skip link, zoom enabled, language declared.
- Then test with a keyboard. Tab through your own checkout or contact flow. If you cannot complete it without a mouse, neither can a large group of your visitors.
- Treat overlays with caution. Accessibility overlay widgets claim to fix sites with one script. They are frequently named in complaints rather than preventing them, and they do not change your underlying markup.
- Keep evidence of progress. Dated scans showing issues found and fixed are worth more in a dispute than any badge.
What a scan can and cannot tell you
Automated checks, ours included, find the mechanical subset: markup, labels, landmarks, zoom, language, contrastable structure. They cannot judge whether your videos are captioned accurately or whether a complex flow makes sense to a screen-reader user. Our reports identify issues and never certify compliance, for the same reason a thermometer does not certify health. For the mechanical subset, the free scan shows where your site stands in about a minute.
Questions we get
Does the ADA definitely apply to my website? That depends on facts about your business and your jurisdiction, and it is a question for a lawyer. What is not in dispute is that inaccessible sites draw complaints and accessible ones rarely do.
Is there an official government certification? No. Anyone selling a compliance certificate is selling a document, not a legal status. The useful artifact is your site actually meeting WCAG 2.1 AA, plus records showing when you fixed what.
Will an overlay widget protect me? The record says no. Fix the markup.
Run the free scan. The accessibility checks are included
This guide describes common patterns and published rules. It is not legal advice, and a scan identifies issues rather than certifying compliance. For advice about your situation, talk to a lawyer.