How to Make a Website ADA Compliant: The 7-Step Process (2026)

From audit to monitoring — exactly what to do to bring a website to WCAG 2.1 Level AA

Why this matters today

In 2025, plaintiffs filed 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits — a 27% increase over 2024 (Seyfarth Shaw, March 2026). Per the WebAIM Million 2026 report, 95.9% of the top one million home pages have detectable WCAG failures — a six-year improvement trend just reversed. The DOJ codified WCAG 2.1 Level AA for ADA Title II in 2024 and extended compliance dates to April 26, 2027 / April 26, 2028 in its April 2026 Interim Final Rule. HHS Section 504 dates of May 11, 2026 (15+ employees) were not extended. Whatever you build, build it accessible.

Step 1: Establish the baseline

Before remediation, you need to know what is broken.

Run automated scans with axe-core, WAVE, and Lighthouse. These detect 30-40% of WCAG failures — useful as a baseline, not as proof of compliance.
Use our Compliance Checker tool for a free preliminary WCAG 2.1 AA scan grouped by the WebAIM Big Six.
Crawl all pages — not just the home page. Most plaintiff complaints target product pages, checkout flows, and forms.
Record findings in a tracking system (Jira, GitHub Issues, Asana) with WCAG criterion IDs.

Step 2: Fix the WebAIM Big Six first

These six failure types account for 96% of all detected accessibility errors on the open web — for the seventh consecutive year:

Low contrast text (83.9% of home pages, WCAG 1.4.3) — audit body, secondary, tertiary text against backgrounds. Update design tokens.
Missing alternative text (53.1%, WCAG 1.1.1) — audit every image; train content authors; add a CI lint check.
Missing form input labels (51%, WCAG 1.3.1, 3.3.2, 4.1.2) — every input gets a programmatic <label for="…"> or aria-label. Placeholder is not a label.
Empty links (46.3%, WCAG 2.4.4) — icon-only links need aria-label; image-only links need alt text on the image.
Empty buttons (30.6%, WCAG 4.1.2) — icon buttons need aria-label; audit hamburger menus, close buttons, share buttons.
Missing document language (13.5%, WCAG 3.1.1) — <html lang="en">. One-line fix.

Step 3: Address the rest of WCAG 2.1 Level AA

WCAG 2.1 Level AA contains 50 success criteria total — 30 at Level A and 20 at Level AA. After the Big Six, work through the remaining criteria using our 50-item checklist.

Prioritize by user impact:

Critical user paths first — homepage, checkout, contact, account creation, search.
Then high-traffic pages — top 20 pages by analytics.
Then long-tail pages — work through the rest systematically.

Step 4: Manual assistive-technology testing

Automation cannot test the things plaintiffs actually file lawsuits over. You need:

Screen reader passes with NVDA (free, Windows), VoiceOver (built into macOS/iOS), and JAWS (industry standard for enterprise). Test the screen-reader output of every key user flow.
Keyboard-only navigation: unplug the mouse and complete every critical task with Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, Space, Arrow keys.
200% zoom test: bump browser zoom to 200% on a 1280×1024 viewport. Verify nothing breaks.
Color-blindness simulation: use browser dev tools to simulate deuteranopia, protanopia, tritanopia. Verify nothing relies on color alone.

Step 5: Publish an accessibility statement

A public accessibility statement with a feedback mechanism does two things: signals good-faith effort to plaintiffs (mitigates damages in many cases) and satisfies a Title II expectation. The statement should include:

The standard you conform to (WCAG 2.1 Level AA).
The scope of your audit (full site? key user paths only?).
Known issues you are still remediating.
A feedback email or form for accessibility complaints.
Last review/update date.

Step 6: Bake accessibility into the development pipeline

If you only fix what is currently broken, the next deploy will reintroduce failures. To keep conformance:

Linting: ESLint plugin eslint-plugin-jsx-a11y (React/Next), eslint-plugin-vuejs-accessibility (Vue), or framework-equivalent.
CI accessibility tests: @axe-core/playwright or axe-core integrated with Cypress / Playwright. Fail builds on serious or critical violations.
Component library: enforce accessible primitives in the design system — buttons, inputs, modals, comboboxes.
Content author training: alt text, semantic headings, descriptive link text, captions.

Step 7: Monitor + re-audit

Accessibility regresses. Set a calendar:

Monthly: automated scan of top 20 pages; review changes; triage findings.
Quarterly: manual assistive-technology pass on critical user paths.
Annually: full third-party audit + accessibility statement update.

Get help from someone who builds for this every day

If you do not have an in-house accessibility team, work with a federally-certified studio. Grow Wild Agency holds 8 DHS Section 508 certifications, 10 GSA accessibility certifications, and is pursuing IAAP CPACC → WAS → CPWA accreditation. We do not install overlays. We build to WCAG 2.1 Level AA on the first audit.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to make a website ADA compliant?

It depends on site size, CMS, and content depth. Small marketing sites (10-25 pages) typically run $5,000-$15,000. Mid-size sites (100-500 pages) run $15,000-$50,000. Large e-commerce or media sites take 6-12+ months and can exceed $100,000. For perspective: ADA demand-letter settlements run $1,000-$25,000, out-of-court settlements average ~$25,000 (up to $100,000), and court judgments average ~$75,000. Class actions reach $6M+ (NFB v. Target was $6M; Fashion Nova settled for $5.15M in 2025).

How long does ADA remediation take?

Plan on 2-4 weeks for a small site, 1-3 months for a mid-size site, and 6-12+ months for a large complex site. Plan for ongoing maintenance — accessibility is not a one-time fix; every new page or feature can introduce new barriers.

Can I just install an overlay widget to make my site compliant?

No. The FTC fined accessiBe $1,000,000 in April 2025 for falsely claiming its overlay made sites WCAG-compliant. EcomBack reports 22.64% of websites sued in H1 2025 had an overlay installed at time of suit. The American Bar Association and National Federation of the Blind both reject overlays as a compliance strategy. Overlays cannot fix underlying HTML/CSS issues and frequently conflict with assistive technologies.

Do I need a professional audit?

Strongly recommended for any site that handles transactions, takes user data, or is publicly visible. Automated scans miss 60-70% of WCAG failures. Manual testing with screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, and disability user research catches the issues that lawsuits and demand letters actually target.