The short answer: you can't know for certain without testing it — but you can find out a lot in ten minutes. "ADA compliant" for a website practically means meeting the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the five self-checks below reveal the most common failures. If any of them fail, some of your customers can't use your site today.
What "ADA compliant" actually means for a website
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses open to the public to be usable by people with disabilities. Courts and regulators have widely applied that to websites, and the measuring stick used in practice is WCAG — an international checklist covering whether people can see, navigate, and operate your site with different abilities and tools (screen readers, keyboards, zoom, captions).
Two things follow from that. First, this isn't only about risk: every failed criterion is a real customer who couldn't buy from you. Second, "compliance" isn't a plugin you install — it's a property of how your site is built.
The ten-minute self-check (five tests)
- The keyboard test. Put the mouse away. Using only Tab, Shift+Tab, and Enter, try to reach your menu, open a product, and start a purchase or inquiry. If you get trapped or can't see where you are, keyboard and assistive-tech users can't get through either.
- The image test. Right-click a few important images and inspect, or use your platform's editor: do product and content images have written descriptions (alt text)? Empty descriptions on meaningful images means screen-reader users hear nothing at all.
- The squint test (contrast). Look at your gray-on-white text, buttons, and prices. If you have to work to read it in daylight, it likely fails the contrast requirement — one of the most common violations anywhere.
- The form test. Click into your contact or checkout form fields. Does each field have a visible label (not just gray placeholder text that disappears)? Unlabeled fields are unusable with assistive tech and get abandoned by everyone else.
- The video/audio test. If you use video with speech, does it have captions? If audio matters to your content, is there a text alternative?
Five passes doesn't make you compliant — WCAG has many more criteria, and some need expert judgment. But five fails tells you clearly where you stand.
About demand letters — calmly
A wave of ADA website demand letters and lawsuits has targeted small businesses for years, typically citing exactly the failures above. If you receive one: don't ignore it, and don't panic-purchase a "compliance widget." Overlay widgets that promise one-click compliance have not stopped complaints and can introduce new barriers of their own. The credible path is a real audit (know your actual state), documented remediation of the highest-impact issues, and advice from a lawyer experienced in digital accessibility. We'd rather tell you that plainly than sell you fear.
What fixing it looks like
Most sites don't need a rebuild. The usual priority order: fix keyboard traps and focus visibility, label every form field, add meaningful alt text, correct the worst contrast failures, then caption media. A competent developer can clear the top issues quickly once they're identified and ranked — which is the point of measuring first. Our accessibility lens guide covers the deeper detail, and every finding in our reports says what it means for the business and how to fix it.
Common questions
Does the ADA apply to websites?
In practice, yes — business websites have widely been treated as covered, with WCAG as the standard used to judge them. The specifics of your situation are a question for a qualified professional; the practical direction (accessible = lower risk + more customers) doesn't change either way.
Can a tool certify my website as ADA compliant?
No — and be wary of anyone who says otherwise. Automated scans catch a meaningful share of issues (and we label those findings Measured); several criteria require human judgment. Compliance certification isn't a thing a scanner can honestly sell you.
Are accessibility overlay widgets enough?
The record says no: sites using overlays have continued to receive complaints, and overlays can interfere with the assistive tools people already use. Fixing the site itself is the path that actually works.
I got a demand letter. What now?
Talk to a lawyer experienced in digital accessibility, get a real audit so you know your actual state, and begin documented fixes on the highest-impact issues. Ignoring it is the only clearly wrong move.
See where your site actually stands
The Grader checks accessibility as one of six lenses and explains every finding in plain English — with each result labeled Measured or Estimated, never dressed up.
Grade my site The full accessibility guide