Guide to Web Accessibility and ADA Compliance for Squarespace
- What Does Having an Accessible Squarespace Website Mean?
- Does My Squarespace Website Need to be ADA Compliant?
- What Does My Squarespace Website Need to be ADA Compliant?
- How Can I Check My Website’s Accessibility?
- Why Does Digital Accessibility on my Squarespace Site Matter?
- Take the Next Step Toward a More Accessible Squarespace Website
Guide to Web Accessibility and ADA Compliance for Squarespace
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In this post, we share tips on how to help make your Squarespace site accessible and explain why that matters for accessibility laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Originally Posted on April 14, 2023
Launched in 2004, Squarespace has become one of the most popular website development platforms on the market. Last year, the platform generated $1,012.3 million in revenue — a 17% year over year increase — and nearly three million live websites use Squarespace.
If you’re one of the millions of businesses who run an eCommerce site on Squarespace, you probably spend a lot of time optimizing your site to improve your reach and drive more leads or sales. One of the best ways to do this? Enhance your site’s accessibility.
Just 3% of the internet today is accessible to the 1.3 billion people worldwide with a disability. It’s a huge gap that needs to be closed, but also a huge opportunity for businesses that focus on accessible design — or the practice of building sites that can be used by everyone, regardless of ability.
Below, we’ll review the importance of enhancing accessibility on your Squarespace and the latest legal requirements. We’ll also share tips on how you can make Squarespace site more accessible.
What Does Having an Accessible Squarespace Website Mean?
Having an accessible Squarespace website is about more than just ticking boxes — it’s about creating an inclusive digital space where everyone can engage, explore, and enjoy your content. Aside from providing an accessible and inclusive experience, an accessible website is also a legal requirement.
For example, in the U.S., the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prevents businesses from discriminating against people with disabilities in public places — which includes the internet. To comply with the ADA, organizations must make their content navigable and usable for all users. Similarly, the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and Canada’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) push for similar goals. Not only do these laws protect the rights of individuals but also encourage businesses to adopt more inclusive practices.
To meet legal requirements, most countries worldwide enforce the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a measurement of accessibility. The guidelines are built around four principles: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust (POUR) and includes three levels of conformance (Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA). Most accessibility laws require businesses to meet the accessibility standards included in WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Doing so eliminates most accessibility barriers that hinder the user experience for individuals with disabilities. For a comprehensive list of WCAG success criteria you need to follow, check out our Essential WCAG Checklist for Website Accessibility.
Does My Squarespace Website Need to be ADA Compliant?
Yes, your Squarespace needs to be ADA compliant. And there are plenty of reasons to prioritize accessibility. Not only is it good for business, but it’s also the right thing to do.
However, there’s another aspect of web accessibility that should not be ignored: the rising threat of legal action, in the form of demand letters and lawsuits.
So far, in 2024, 4,280 accessibility lawsuits have been filed — a 5% increase from 2023, according to Seyfarth Shaw. And it isn’t just large organizations being sued either. Small businesses are just as prone to accessibility-related lawsuits or demand letters, emphasizing the importance of businesses checking their Squarespace content against WCAG standards.
What Does My Squarespace Website Need to be ADA Compliant?
It’s now standard for eCommerce platforms like Squarespace to provide a number of accessibility features out of the box. However, these features alone aren’t enough to make your website accessible — especially considering you inadvertently introduce new issues every time you update your site or add new content.
So, how can you tell if your Squarespace site is accessible — and whether it conforms with accessibility standards like WCAG? Ensure you’re implementing the accessibility features included in WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Doing so helps you get closer to ADA compliance and significantly loweres your chances of legal action.
We’ve included a few of these features below.
1. Include Page Titles
Squarespace lets you add a page title to every page. The title is the first thing a screen reader will announce when it lands on a page. Including an accurate, descriptive title will help orient visitors — and let them quickly determine if they’ve reached the right page and want to keep reading.
2. Use Headers in a Hierarchial Order
For general readability, we always recommend breaking up large blocks of content into smaller sections. However, it’s also important to remember to use headers and maintain proper header order. Screen readers will announce each header, and it can be confusing for users if you skip heading ranks.
On Squarespace, you can use the text toolbar to format text as headings.
Pro Tip: You can use formatting (like bold or italic font) to draw attention to a particular word or phrase, but you shouldn’t use it in place of proper header structure.
3. Use Alt Text
Alt text is a written description of an image that screen readers can read out loud — or convert to Braille — for people with visual impairments, sensory processing disorders, or cognitive disorders.
Done right, alt text can paint a complete picture of a website for people who cannot perceive images visually.
Unfortunately, many designers and content creators forget to provide alt text. Or they write something so non-descriptive — like an image of a menu that is simply labeled “menu” — it might as well not be there.
4. Write Descriptive Links
Descriptive links help users understand where clicking the link will take them. Screen reader users often navigate emails by going from link to link, so providing links that make sense is an important part of the user experience.
For example, an inline link like “To reach out, click here.” can leave screen reader users wondering where exactly they’ll be taken. Instead, try writing “To reach out, visit our contact page.”
5. Avoid Using Color Alone to Convey Information
A common UX practice is to convey information using color, whether it’s setting a different color for links or adding a red outline to indicate errors. Unfortunately, color differences like this can be missed by people with visual impairments.
As a best practice, we recommend underlining inline links and avoiding any kind of status update (such as an error or success message) that relies on color alone.
6. Provide Sufficient Color Contrast
You’ll also want to ensure your Squarespace site has sufficient color contrast. WCAG recommends a color contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for larger text. Striking that balance ensures individuals with visual impairments (such as color blindness or low vision) can easily distinguish between text and other website elements. It also enhances overall readability for all users.
Want to check your color contrast? Try using AudioEye’s free Color Contrast Checker →
7. Add Captions or Transcripts to Audio Content
If you’re using videos or other audio content on your Squarespace, include captions or transcripts. Doing so ensures those with auditory disabilities (e.g., deafness or hard of hearing) can still interact with audio content and not miss out on any important information.
8. Ensure Compatibility with Assistive Technologies
Many users with disabilities do not use a mouse to navigate the web and instead rely on assistive technologies like screen readers, screen magnifiers, text-to-speech software, or keyboard navigation. You’ll want to ensure your Squarespace is optimized for these technologies and the experience you’re providing for these users is intuitive and seamless.
9. Use Accessible Fonts
While more decorative fonts can add to the overall aesthetic of your Squarespace site, these fonts can be inaccessible to individuals with cognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia, or other neurological disorders. Opt for more accessible fonts that are simple and easy-to-read. This ensures your users can easily read and understand information, enhancing their overall experience.
10. Include Clear Error Messages
Errors are unavoidable — what is avoidable is failing to provide clear steps for issue resolution. Clear, descriptive error messages are especially important for assistive technology users as they help users understand where the error occurred and how to fix it. It’s also beneficial for users without disabilities as they’re able to understand how to resolve errors more quickly.
How Can I Check My Website’s Accessibility?
There’s a few ways you can test the accessibility of your Squarespace site. You can use automated accessibility testing tools like AudioEye to scan your site and identify common accessibility issues. Or you can manually test your site by:
- Navigating using only your keyboard. Many people today browse websites without the use of a mouse, whether they have a motor impairment or rely on assistive technologies like screen readers. Try using your keyboard to browse your site, whether it’s pressing the Tab key to jump between elements, pressing the Enter key to activate buttons and links, or using arrow keys to change selections in open dropdowns and pre-selected radio buttons.
- Increase the size of text on screen. In order to read comfortably, some users need to be able to change the way it is displayed. This includes changing the text size, spacing, font, and color. Zoom in your browser to see if content overlaps. If it does, you can adjust letter spacing and line height inside your template’s site styles.
- Preview each page title. Hover over and read the browser tab when a page is loaded. Each tab should have a unique title that clearly explains the page’s purpose.
- Test the accessibility of your forms. Enter incorrect data on your forms to make sure that error messages are clear and don’t rely on visual cues alone. For example, using color to indicate a missing or incorrect form entry is inaccessible to screen reader users or people with color vision deficiencies, or color blindness.
As a best practice, we recommend that you work with assistive technology testers to better understand the user experience; however, you can also try simulating the experience yourself using assistive technology or screen reader tools.
Why Does Digital Accessibility on my Squarespace Site Matter?
According to a report by Statista, revenue from retail e-commerce in the United States was $1,065.68 billion in 2023 — more than double the revenue in 2019. By 2029, that number is projected to exceed $1.9 trillion.
Unfortunately, most e-commerce sites — including many built on Squarespace — are not accessible to people with disabilities.
In 2023, AudioEye analyzed more than 40,000 enterprise websites across 22 industries to better understand the state of digital accessibility.
Almost every website we tested had accessibility issues, but retail sites performed worse than most with an average 17 accessibility barriers across the login, product, and checkout pages. This included the inability to view product descriptions, make a purchase, or book an appointment. Most of those issues were severe enough to impact a user’s ability to complete key tasks.
"Accessibility really doesn’t have to be this hard, scary thing. If you take some steps and do this today, your website will stand out as being exemplary."
Chris | AudioEye A11iance Member and Internet Security Professional
So what does that mean for your Squarespace site?
Beyond the reputational hit that can come from a web accessibility-related lawsuit, there’s also an opportunity cost to accessibility barriers.
According to one study, people with disabilities — along with their friends and family — control up to $13 trillion in disposable income. If your website is riddled with accessibility issues like missing alt text or keyboard traps, these would-be customers may end up shopping elsewhere.
Related Reading: Learn what 500 business leaders said about digital accessibility in our whitepaper on Building for Digital Accessibility at Scale →
Take the Next Step Toward a More Accessible Squarespace Website
Squarespace offers plenty of design flexibility and a large selection of customizable templates, but there’s always the risk of a designer or developer accidentally introducing an accessibility barrier.
That’s where the technology, expertise, and services of a solution like AudioEye come into play. Our hybrid approach to web accessibility — which blends the best of automated testing and human expertise — allows us to automatically find and fix most common accessibility issues before a page loads. And our team of certified experts is ready to deliver custom remediations that solve the trickiest accessibility issues.
Plus, we joined forces with Square ADA, a web accessibility firm dedicated to Squarespace website, in 2022 to offer a sustainable accessibility solution for the rapidly growing number of Squarespace sites.
Want to learn more? Check out how AudioEye’s Accessibility Platform seamlessly integrates with Squarespace or enter the URL of your Squarespace site in our Web Accessibility Scanner below to take the first step towards accessibility.
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