Free ADA Website Compliance Checker

Enter your URL below to scan for accessibility barriers that could put you at risk under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our scanner tests against WCAG 2.2 — the standard courts reference in ADA enforcement — and returns results in under 30 seconds.

ADA Web Accessibility Lawsuits Are Surging

Businesses of every size are being targeted by ADA lawsuits over inaccessible websites. The legal and financial risks are real — and they are growing every year.

4,000+

ADA web lawsuits filed per year

Federal ADA lawsuits targeting websites and digital platforms have exceeded 4,000 annually since 2021, with no signs of slowing down.

20%

Year-over-year growth

ADA digital accessibility lawsuits have grown roughly 20% year over year, driven by plaintiff firms and increasing judicial recognition of web accessibility obligations.

$50K–$150K

Average settlement cost

Most ADA web accessibility cases settle between $50,000 and $150,000, not including legal fees, remediation costs, or reputational damage.

What the ADA Requires for Websites

The Americans with Disabilities Act does not explicitly mention websites in its original text. However, the Department of Justice (DOJ), federal courts, and regulatory guidance have consistently interpreted the ADA to cover digital properties. Two titles of the ADA are particularly relevant to web accessibility.

ADA Title II — State and Local Government

Title II prohibits discrimination by state and local government entities. In April 2024, the DOJ finalized a rule under Title II requiring that web content and mobile applications of state and local governments conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. This rule establishes concrete deadlines: larger entities (populations of 50,000 or more) must comply by April 2026, while smaller entities have until April 2027.

If you operate a government website — from a city portal to a public university or a county court system — your digital content is now subject to explicit, enforceable accessibility standards. Failure to comply can result in DOJ enforcement actions, complaints filed with the Office for Civil Rights, and private lawsuits.

III

ADA Title III — Public Accommodations (Private Businesses)

Title III covers private entities that operate places of public accommodation — hotels, restaurants, retail stores, healthcare providers, banks, and many other business types. Courts have increasingly ruled that websites operated by these businesses qualify as places of public accommodation or are sufficiently connected to physical locations to fall under Title III.

Unlike Title II, the DOJ has not yet issued a formal regulation specifying a technical standard for Title III web accessibility. However, DOJ guidance, consent decrees, and settlement agreements consistently reference WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark. In practice, courts and plaintiffs rely on WCAG as the de facto standard when evaluating whether a website is accessible under Title III.

The majority of ADA web accessibility lawsuits — including the thousands filed each year — are brought under Title III. E-commerce sites, booking platforms, restaurant websites, and healthcare portals are among the most frequently targeted.

DOJ Guidance and the Role of WCAG

The Department of Justice has published guidance reaffirming that the ADA applies to web content. In its 2022 guidance document, the DOJ stated that businesses and government agencies must ensure their websites are accessible to people with disabilities. While the DOJ has not mandated a single technical standard for private businesses, it has consistently pointed to WCAG as a helpful and widely recognized framework. Judges in ADA cases routinely use WCAG compliance — or the lack of it — as evidence when evaluating accessibility claims.

Standards We Test Against

CompliaScan uses axe-core, the most widely adopted accessibility testing engine, to evaluate your pages against WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criteria. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the international standard published by the W3C and is the technical benchmark that courts, regulators, and the DOJ reference in ADA enforcement actions.

What We Check

Color contrast ratios — text and interactive elements must meet minimum contrast thresholds for readability
Image alt text — every meaningful image needs descriptive alternative text for screen reader users
Form labels and inputs — form fields must be programmatically associated with visible labels
Heading structure — logical heading hierarchy helps screen reader users navigate page content
ARIA attributes — correct use of ARIA roles, states, and properties for dynamic content
Keyboard navigation — all interactive elements must be operable without a mouse
Link text and purpose — links must have discernible text that conveys their destination or function
Document language — pages must declare their language so assistive technologies can render content correctly

Why WCAG 2.2?

WCAG 2.2, published in October 2023 by the W3C, is the latest stable version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. It builds on WCAG 2.1 with additional success criteria for mobile accessibility, cognitive accessibility, and users with low vision. While the DOJ Title II rule currently references WCAG 2.1, courts and accessibility professionals treat WCAG 2.2 as the current best practice. Testing against 2.2 means you are meeting the highest established bar.

Automated Testing Catches 30-40% of Issues

Automated scanning tools like CompliaScan can reliably detect approximately 30-40% of WCAG success criteria violations. These include objective, machine-verifiable checks such as missing alt text, insufficient color contrast, and incorrect ARIA usage. The remaining 60-70% of potential issues — such as whether alt text is actually meaningful, whether content is logically ordered, or whether custom components are truly operable with assistive technology — require manual testing by trained reviewers.

This is why CompliaScan is a starting point, not a finish line. Use our automated scan to catch the low-hanging fruit quickly, then follow up with manual review and user testing for comprehensive coverage.

Powered by axe-core

CompliaScan is built on axe-core by Deque Systems, the industry-standard accessibility testing engine used by Microsoft, Google, and thousands of development teams. axe-core is open-source, regularly updated, and has zero false positives by design — every issue it reports is a genuine violation.

Check Your Website for ADA Compliance Now

Do not wait for a demand letter. Run a free scan to see where your site stands against the WCAG criteria courts use in ADA enforcement. Results in under 30 seconds — no signup required.