Best Practices to Ensure Your Website is ADA Compliant

Best Practices to Ensure Your Website is ADA Compliant

Digital accessibility refers to the practice of building digital content, applications, and websites that can be used by anybody, including individuals who have visual, motor, auditory, speech, or cognitive disabilities. The ADA (The Americans with Disabilities Act) is a law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life. There has been much more about ADA in the media over the past few years due to many lawsuits, so companies are becoming more aware of what’s needed to make their website accessible and why it’s important.

And the urgency has only increased. In 2025, over 5,100 federal ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed, a 37% increase over 2024. AI tools are now enabling individuals to identify violations and file complaints without legal representation, and pro se ADA lawsuits increased 40% year-over-year. On top of that, the new ADA Title II rule requires state and local governments serving populations of 50,000 or more to have WCAG-compliant websites by April 26, 2026, with smaller entities following by 2027. The landscape has shifted from “it’s a good idea to be accessible” to “there are real legal and financial consequences if you’re not.”

ADA Compliance Levels and WCAG 2.2

The ADA encourages self-regulation of accessibility standards by following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). As of October 2023, the current standard is WCAG 2.2, which replaced WCAG 2.1 and was updated again in December 2024. WCAG 2.2 adds nine new success criteria and removes one (4.1.1 Parsing, which is now obsolete). With attention continuing to heighten around the topic, it’s best to be proactive in anticipation of future laws and to ensure accessibility of your website for any user.

WCAG 2.2 identifies three levels of compliance. They are:

• A – the minimum requirements that must be met
• AA – the standard most organizations are expected to meet
• AAA – the highest level, typically not required for most sites

The biggest difference between all the levels is color contrast; with each level, there’s a higher contrast minimum for text. The WCAG recognizes it’s virtually impossible to build a website to be 100% accessible and does not recommend that level AAA conformance be required as general policy. However, there are many things you can do to get it close. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:

1

Only use color for enhancement

Color is an enhancement. It should never be the sole way you convey any type of meaning or information, as there are people with visual impairments who won’t be able to distinguish between the colors. For example, maybe a bar graph doesn’t just have bars of different colors but also patterns to distinguish between data sets. All content must have sufficient color contrast, and there are many tools available to help you check that, including ones that live on the WCAG and WebAIM websites. You can enter the hex codes for the colors, and it will verify whether or not it is accessible. Normal text (16px) requires a higher contrast ratio, while larger text or text that is bolded (18px bold or 24px) requires less.

For a deeper look at ADA color compliance specifically, including contrast ratio requirements across each level, check out our guide on ADA Color Compliance for Websites.

2

Ensure forms have labels and inline messaging

Some people access websites through a screen reader, which will read the entire website to you. Therefore, any instructions for the user should be clear and concise.

When it comes to forms, you should pull helper text out above the field as a label so that screen readers can read it, as they can’t pick up the placeholder text when it’s only within the form field. You should also consider how you are developing your form validation and error messaging. Forms are a vital way that users connect with your company, so you want to make sure they are easy to use and understand.

Inline error messages are beneficial so that a user knows when they have filled something out incorrectly or missed a field, and how to fix it. The message displays within the form (instead of at the very top or bottom of the page) and clearly notes the error. State changes are important here too, such as highlighting a required field box that the user skipped or where they entered information incorrectly.

WCAG 2.2 also introduced Redundant Entry (3.3.7), which means information previously entered by the user that is required again in the same process should be auto-populated or available for selection, reducing unnecessary friction in multi-step forms. And Accessible Authentication (3.3.8) now requires that login processes don’t rely solely on cognitive function tests like CAPTCHAs, unless an alternative method is provided. Both of these are Level AA criteria, meaning they’re part of the recommended baseline for compliance.

3

Pair images and video with text

Be sure to include text with any images and videos. All images should have succinct, meaningful alt text, which is used in the HTML code to describe the image. You can enter this in the back end of your website for each image, through your CMS.

Visually impaired users will be read the alt text by a screen reader to better understand the image, and it’s also a best practice for SEO. Similarly, ensure that audio and video content has captioning or transcription to make it accessible, and this text is beneficial for SEO as well. You should also provide a way to pause or stop any video or animation, as some users may be susceptible to seizures, etc.

Lastly, make sure to always use true text; avoid having any text as an image. This can’t be read or accessed by devices like a screen reader. It’s also purposeless for SEO because search engines can’t read the text, and additionally, this format is not responsive.

4

Use correct markup on your content

Once you understand how devices such as a screen reader work, you can keep that front of mind as you design layouts and determine the visual order of each page by considering how you want the user to flow through it. Use headings appropriately, don’t skip them, and only use one <h1> per page. These are important notes for your developer, as all of these things provide correct markup so that when devices access the site, it’s not confusing or out of order.

Proper markup also supports how AI-driven search engines parse and understand your content. Structured, semantically correct HTML helps both assistive technologies and search engines accurately interpret your pages, which means good accessibility practices directly support your SEO. For more on how search engines are evolving and what this means for your digital presence, read our article on 2026 SEO Trends.

5

Support keyboard navigation

Any user should be able to navigate your entire site by using the tab key, as some may not be able to use a mouse. This means that each navigational item needs a focus indicator, which highlights each element so you can tell where you are on the page as you tab through it. Think about how you want this to look when you design the site. These are different than hover states and click states, although it may be helpful to design them all at the same time.

WCAG 2.2 strengthened focus requirements significantly. Focus Not Obscured (2.4.11) now requires that when an element receives keyboard focus, it isn’t completely hidden behind other content like sticky headers, cookie banners, or chat widgets. This is a Level AA criterion, which means if your site has fixed elements that cover focused items, that’s now a compliance gap. Additionally, Dragging Movements (2.5.7) requires that any functionality triggered by dragging (like drag-and-drop interfaces or sliders) also has a single-pointer alternative, ensuring users who can’t perform dragging gestures aren’t locked out.

6

Design for Touch and Click Accessibility

This is a new area of emphasis under WCAG 2.2. The Target Size (Minimum) criterion (2.5.8) requires that interactive targets—buttons, links, form fields—are at least 24×24 CSS pixels, or have sufficient spacing between them. This matters especially for mobile users and anyone with motor impairments who may struggle to tap small, tightly grouped elements.

In practical terms, this means auditing your site for small clickable areas: navigation links, icon buttons, inline text links that sit close together, and form controls. If they’re below the 24px minimum and don’t have adequate surrounding space, they need to be adjusted. Designing with generous touch targets from the start is easier than retrofitting later.

7

Create States That Communicate a Change

Create states that communicate their purpose and action. Hover states are important to communicate to the user that you can click on an element, and click states confirm that your action (a click) was taken. Keep color contrast in mind as you design these states, as it’s important that the change is noticeable.

Underlining links is another practice that may seem old-fashioned, but keeping design elements to a familiar structure is helpful when it comes to ADA. So with elements such as links or navigational items, avoid thinking outside the box with your design, as that can confuse users.

8

Use Informative Calls to Action

Be descriptive with any buttons or hyperlinks so it is clear what the next step is upon clicking. Use more intentionality with descriptions instead of leaving them open-ended. For example, you may want to label a button with “Call for a quote” instead of simply “Click here.” This way, when a screen reader reads the button, the user knows exactly what they are clicking on.

9

Provide Consistent Help Across Your Site

Another new addition in WCAG 2.2 is Consistent Help (3.2.6), a Level A criterion. If your website offers help mechanisms like a contact phone number, live chat, FAQ link, or support form, those mechanisms need to appear in the same relative location across every page. The idea is that users who rely on help features shouldn’t have to hunt for them page to page.

This one is straightforward to implement if you’re thinking about it from the start. A consistent footer with contact info, a fixed chat widget, or a persistent help link in the navigation all satisfy this requirement. The key is consistency, so wherever you put it, keep it there across your entire site.

Why Accessibility Matters for Your Business

According to the CDC, roughly 1 in 4 adults in the US—about 70 million people—live with some form of disability. Designing your website to be accessible is not just the right thing to do, it’s a meaningful business decision. Studies show that accessible websites have better search results, reach a bigger audience, are SEO friendly, have faster download times, encourage good coding practices, and always have better usability.

The legal side has only intensified. With ADA website lawsuits growing at a compound annual rate of roughly 30% since 2018 and now exceeding 5,100 federal filings per year, the risk of inaction is real. The new ADA Title II rule adds another layer, and while it directly targets government entities, it signals the direction the broader regulatory environment is heading. For more context on what the Department of Justice expects, review their fact sheet on the new web accessibility rule.

There’s still a lot of gray area when it comes to accessibility guidelines for the web, but now is the best time to get in front of the issue and audit your website to work towards ADA compliance — or better yet, to keep ADA front of mind while you are designing and developing your website and digital content, instead of making fixes after the fact.

For a comprehensive checklist to evaluate your current website, review our article on essential website features for AEC firms, and if your website is due for a larger overhaul, our website launch checklist covers the critical items to get right from the start.