Website Accessibility Audit
Does your accessibility plugin actually protect you?
One line of code and a little icon in the corner is sold as ADA compliance. The FTC called that claim deceptive, and the lawsuit data shows sites with those widgets get sued anyway. We audit what is really in your code, for free.
Get a free accessibility auditRead-only. We change nothing without your approval. Marketing and technology information, not legal advice.
In plain terms: a website is accessible when people who use screen readers, keyboards, or voice control can use it, and the standard everyone points to is WCAG 2.1 Level AA.[6] That is a property of your page’s code. A plugin that patches the page after it loads cannot reliably create it, and no vendor can honestly promise it will keep you from being sued.[2][5]
What the data says
Precisely: the FTC action is a consent order over deceptive marketing claims and binds accessiBe. It is not a court ruling that overlays violate the ADA. The lawsuit figures are UsableNet’s tracking and are a minimum, not a full count.
Why a plugin cannot do the job
The product category is often called an overlay. Here is where the approach breaks down.
It guesses after the page loads
Alt text, form labels, heading order, and focus order live in your page’s code. An overlay runs after the page has loaded and has to guess what each element means. It cannot know that an image is a phone-number button or that three fields are one address.
Bad ARIA is worse than none
The W3C’s own guidance is that no ARIA is better than bad ARIA. Labels injected by a script that guesses wrong can make a screen reader announce the wrong thing, which is worse than announcing nothing. (W3C ARIA Authoring Practices, source 8.)
It cannot keep up with modern sites
The Overlay Fact Sheet, signed by over 1,000 accessibility professionals, notes overlays cannot reliably handle sites that rebuild the page on the fly (React, Angular, Vue), and cannot fix keyboard access, focus control, or error handling.
It can raise your profile with plaintiffs
The widget is visible code that tells a plaintiff’s firm exactly which vendor you rely on, and the 2024 data shows widget sites were sued in volume anyway.
The National Federation of the Blind, one of the largest organizations of blind Americans, ended accessiBe’s convention sponsorship over these practices in 2021.[9]
Where the law stands
Private businesses. The DOJ’s position is that the ADA covers the websites of businesses open to the public, that there is no detailed web rule for Title III, and that WCAG is helpful guidance for meeting the obligation.[3] In Robles v. Domino’s, the Ninth Circuit held the ADA reaches a company’s site and app, and the Supreme Court declined to review it in October 2019.
Government. In April 2024 the DOJ adopted WCAG 2.1 AA for state and local government web content. Compliance dates have since been extended to April 26, 2027 for entities serving 50,000 or more people, and April 26, 2028 for the rest.[4] That rule binds government, but it cements WCAG 2.1 AA as the benchmark everyone else is measured against.
What it can cost. Reported settlements commonly land around $5,000 to $25,000, and defense costs can equal or exceed a settlement even when you win. Those are ranges reported by legal and industry sources, not quotes.
This is marketing and technology information, not legal advice. For what applies to your business, talk to an attorney.
What real accessibility looks like
WCAG is organized around four ideas, known as POUR.[7] Here is what each one means for a small business site.
Real alt text on images that carry meaning, captions or transcripts for video, and text that has enough contrast (WCAG 1.4.3 AA asks for roughly 4.5:1 for body text).
Everything works from the keyboard, with a visible focus ring, no keyboard traps, and menus and popups that manage focus correctly. This is where most “accessible” sites actually fail.
Forms have real labels and clear error messages, the language is declared, and navigation behaves the same way on every page.
Semantic HTML and correct names, roles, and states, so screen readers and other assistive technology can read the page the way a sighted visitor sees it.
Automated scanners catch only part of this. That is why we pair them with testing by keyboard and with a screen reader.
How we do it
Free read-only audit
We scan your key pages with axe-core (the engine behind Lighthouse), WAVE, and Pa11y, then test the pages that make you money by keyboard and with a screen reader (NVDA and VoiceOver). We change nothing on your site.
Plain-English findings report
Every issue shown with a screenshot, the WCAG success criterion it breaks, how serious it is, and what fixing it takes. Ranked by what a visitor (or a plaintiff) hits first.
Fixed in the code
If you want us to fix it, we remediate in the template and components themselves: labels, headings, focus, contrast, forms. One change at a time, with before and after proof on the rendered page.
Statement and monitoring
An accessibility statement written to match what is actually true of your site, and optional scheduled scans so a new page or plugin does not quietly undo the work.
What it costs
The audit is free and the report is yours to keep. If you want the issues fixed, we scope the work to what is actually broken and give you a fixed quote after the audit. Fixing it once in your templates costs far less than a settlement.
Compare that with an overlay subscription that renews every year and, by the FTC's and the accessibility community's account, cannot deliver the compliance it advertises.
See what your site is really missing, free
A read-only audit and a plain-English report: what a screen reader and a keyboard actually hit on your key pages, and what to fix first. No changes, no obligation.
Get my free accessibility auditAlso see our tracking audit, healthcare privacy audit, or all audits.
Questions, answered
Does my small business website really need to be accessible?+
The Department of Justice’s position is that the ADA applies to websites of businesses open to the public. Most cases are filed against smaller companies: UsableNet reports a majority of suits hit businesses under $25M in revenue, many of them e-commerce and retail. This is information, not legal advice, so your attorney decides what applies to you.
Will an accessibility plugin or overlay make me compliant?+
No product can promise that. The FTC found accessiBe’s claims that its widget made any site WCAG compliant deceptive and ordered it to pay $1 million. The Overlay Fact Sheet, signed by over 1,000 accessibility professionals, says no overlay can make a site fully compliant with any existing standard. Note that the FTC order binds accessiBe specifically and is not a ruling that all overlays are illegal.
What standard are you auditing against?+
WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which is the standard courts, the DOJ, and demand letters refer to in practice. The DOJ’s April 2024 rule adopted WCAG 2.1 AA for state and local government sites, with compliance dates since extended to April 2027 and April 2028 depending on population.
What does a lawsuit actually cost?+
Reported settlements commonly fall around $5,000 to $25,000, demand-letter resolutions are often reported in the low thousands, and defense costs can match or exceed a settlement even when you win, because the ADA’s fee-shifting favors plaintiffs. Those are reported ranges, not quotes, and every case differs.
Is the audit really free?+
Yes. It is read-only, and you get the findings report whether or not you hire us. If you want the issues fixed, we give a fixed quote after the audit based on what is actually broken.
Is this legal advice?+
No. We are a marketing and web development team. We find and fix the technical issues, and the legal question of what your business owes is for you and your attorney.
Sources & references
Every claim is tied to a government, standards-body, or industry-tracker source. Lawsuit counts are UsableNet’s; cost figures are reported ranges.
- [1] UsableNet — 2024 Year-End Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Report. https://info.usablenet.com/hubfs/UsableNet-2024-Year-End-ADA-Web-Lawsuit-Report.pdf
- [2] FTC — Final Order Requiring accessiBe to Pay $1 Million (April 2025). https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/cases-proceedings/2223156-accessibe-inc
- [3] U.S. Department of Justice — Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA. https://www.ada.gov/resources/web-guidance/
- [4] U.S. Department of Justice — Fact Sheet: Final Rule on Web Accessibility for State and Local Governments. https://www.ada.gov/resources/2024-03-08-web-rule/
- [5] Overlay Fact Sheet — signed statement from accessibility professionals. https://overlayfactsheet.com
- [6] W3C — Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) overview. https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/
- [7] W3C — WCAG 2 at a glance (POUR principles). https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/glance/
- [8] W3C — ARIA Authoring Practices: No ARIA is better than bad ARIA. https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg/practices/read-me-first/
- [9] National Federation of the Blind — statement on accessiBe sponsorship (2021). https://nfb.org/about-us/press-room/sponsorship-statement-regarding-accessibe