Is My Website ADA Compliant? How to Check Your Digital Content

Accessibility lawsuits aren't slowing down, either. In 2025, 5,791 accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court, following 6,007 in 2024, according to AudioEye's 2026 Web Accessibility Litigation Report. That's nearly 12,000 federal filings in two years, targeting businesses of every size, from household names to small e-commerce shops.

Most businesses with a public-facing website need to comply with the accessibility standards enforced by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). And with filing volume like this, the question isn't whether to take accessibility seriously but whether your site is actually compliant right now.

Below, we'll cover how to check your site for ADA compliance, the tools that can help, best practices for staying compliant, and what to do if your site falls short.

What is ADA Compliance?

Put simply, ADA compliance refers to creating digital content that meets the accessibility standards outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), created by the World Wide Web Consortium(opens in a new tab) (W3C). The guidelines are enforced by the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a way to ensure websites are accessible, operable, and inclusive to individuals with disabilities. 

For example, individuals with visual impairments or disabilities should be able to read your content using assistive technologies, such as a screen reader, and easily browse through your webpages. If individuals can’t do this, your website is not ADA-compliant.

How to Check for ADA Compliance

You have a few different options for testing for accessibility compliance. However, each one generally tests your digital content against the latest WCAG guidelines (currently WCAG 2.2). Most accessibility testing tools will highlight where accessibility violations exist on your site; some also provide recommendations on how to fix errors or apply fixes automatically.

Here’s a look into some of the ways you can check whether your site is ADA-compliant.

Automated Tools

As the name suggests, automated testing conducts compliance testing for you. The software analyzes your website’s underlying code and existing content for elements that fail to fulfill the accessibility standards outlined in WCAG. 

For example, AudioEye's automated fixes automatically run more than 400 accessibility tests with each page load, flags errors, and automatically fixes common issues. AudioEye also provides accessibility tools such as a Color Contrast Checker to test for appropriate color contrast ratios and a Website Accessibility Scanner to determine if your site meets ADA and WCAG compliance standards.

Manual Testing

You can also manually test your website for ADA compliance. Manual audits typically involve reviewing all of your webpages against all WCAG success criteria and determining whether or not your web content or mobile apps fulfill the criteria. It’s important to note that WCAG includes numerous accessibility criteria, which can feel daunting as a website owner. However, the list does provide a good starting point for ADA website compliance.

Manual audits are thorough, but they're expensive, time-consuming, and only capture your site as it looked on the day of the test. For most businesses, the practical path is pairing automated tools with expert testing so you get both breadth and depth without the overhead of a full manual review every time something changes.

For example, AudioEye’s Digital Accessibility Platform handles both sides. Real Time Monitoring and automated fixes catch and resolve common issues across your site. For issues that automation can't reach on its own, Expert Audits bring in specialists who test with screen readers and other assistive technology. And when you need answers between scheduled audit cycles, Agentic Audits let you test your highest-risk pages on demand, with fix recommendations ready in 1 hour.

A stylized browser with a website that has been made accessible and ADA compliant.

How Do I Keep My Website ADA-Compliant?

The methods above are ideal for finding and fixing existing accessibility issues on your site. As you build and implement new content and technologies, there are some best practices you should follow to ensure your site remains ADA-compliant.

Regularly Review WCAG and ADA Guidelines

Accessibility recommendations are always changing. Regularly reviewing accessibility laws and standards can help you make necessary changes to your site before they impact your customers and become a bigger issue.

For example, the W3C regularly adds new success criteria to WCAG in response to evolving technologies or user preferences. The latest version of WCAG, 2.2, added nine additional criteria to WCAG 2.1 to enhance accessibility and improve the user experience for disabled users.

Use an Accessibility Checklist

An accessibility or WCAG checklist can help you include web elements that enhance accessibility, including:

• Adding alternative text (alt text) to all multimedia content

• Including transcripts and closed captions for video content

• Keeping content short and scannable

• Using descriptive links and HTML labels

• Appropriate color contrast 

• Following proper heading structure

• Optimizing navigation for keyboard users

• Using accessible fonts

• Including descriptive tags and anchor links

Each of these elements helps to enhance usability and accessibility for individuals with disabilities. For example, appropriate color contrast ensures users with low vision or colorblindness can properly distinguish between elements, while captions ensure those with hearing impairments can interact with audio content.

Provide Regular Accessibility Training

Courts have consistently held that the ADA's public accommodation requirements extend to websites, and the DOJ has reinforced this position through rulemaking and enforcement actions.

Because of this, it’s important to provide your employees with regular accessibility training and resources. Doing so ensures they understand and conform to accessibility guidelines. It also helps them understand the needs of people with disabilities and how to create a more inclusive web design.

Conduct Routine Accessibility Audits of Your Website

Every time you update your website or add new content, you risk introducing new accessibility issues. Continuous monitoring helps catch those issues as they appear, but your highest-risk pages, like checkout flows, login screens, and contact forms, benefit from deeper testing between scheduled audit cycles. On-demand auditing tools, like AudioEye's Agentic Audits, make it possible to test those pages between scheduled review cycles without undergoing a full audit.

Why Does My Website Need to be ADA Compliant?

Non-compliance with ADA guidelines puts your business at risk for costly legal lawsuits or demand letters that can have lasting consequences on your business.

More importantly, however, there are numerous benefits to creating an accessible design, including improving your company’s reputation, providing a more streamlined user experience,  increasing search engine rankings, and improving overall website performance. Together, these factors enable you to tap into a large (and often overlooked) market, which can increase customer engagement, satisfaction, and sales.

The biggest reason your website should be ADA-compliant is simple: it’s the right thing to do. Everyone, regardless of their abilities, should have equal access to online content.

What Happens if My Website Isn’t ADA-Compliant?

Websites that fail to meet ADA accessibility standards are at risk for a number of negative consequences, including:

• Accessibility lawsuits or demand letters: Should a disabled user come across an accessibility error on your site, they can pursue legal action against you for lack of accessibility. These lawsuits can be expensive, time-consuming, and cast a negative light on your business.

• Damage to company reputation: When a user encounters an accessibility barrier on your website, it results in user frustration and disappointment, which may find an outlet on social media. The negative feedback can quickly spread and tarnish your brand’s image. Additionally, an inaccessible website may send the message that you’re indifferent to customers’ needs.

• Poor user experience: Accessibility errors create a negative user experience not just for users with disabilities but for everyone. With an abundance of businesses and vendors to choose from, users are quick to leave business websites in search of a more streamlined or more accessible user experience.

A stylized web page with three different exclamation marks representing accessibility issues on the page.

What to do if Your Website Isn’t ADA Compliant

If an accessibility audit reveals that your site isn’t compliant with ADA requirements, the first thing to do is not to panic. Go back to the results of your accessibility audit and determine which accessibility errors should be corrected first. We recommend starting with quick, easy fixes while putting together a long-term fix plan with your team. 

You’ll also want to ensure your plan includes implementing accessibility best practices, including:

• Alt text for images and other multimedia content

• Semantic HTML markup

• Proper heading structures

• ARIA landmarks

• Captions and transcripts for videos or audio descriptions

From here, ensure your team regularly participates in accessibility training. This may help you foster a culture of accessibility and inclusivity moving forward. 

Finally, put ongoing monitoring in place so new issues get caught as your site changes, not months later at the next review. Your site will keep changing, and your accessibility program needs to keep up.

Get and Stay ADA Compliant with AudioEye

ADA compliance is about so much more than minimizing legal risk. It’s about providing all users with an accessible, inclusive experience, something that everyone deserves.

To help you on your path to ADA compliance, there’s AudioEye.

AudioEye's Digital Accessibility Platform is built to help you get and stay ADA compliant without managing it all yourself. Real Time Monitoring tests for new issues with every page load across your site. When it finds something, our automation fixes common issues, so your visitors experience an accessible site right from the start. For the issues automation can't catch, Expert Audits bring in specialists who test with assistive technology, and Agentic Audits let you test your highest-risk pages on demand, with findings and fix recommendations delivered in 1 hour.

Plus, with AudioEye Assurance, you get legal protection services designed to reduce your risk of valid accessibility claims.

Find out where your site stands right now. Run a free accessibility scan with AudioEye and get your results in minutes.

Curious what more AudioEye can do? Talk to an expert today.