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
On this page
On this page
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.
Need help with ADA compliance?
Use our free accessibility tools to check your website for common issues.
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.
Need help with ADA compliance?
Use our free accessibility tools to check your website for common issues.
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/playwrightoraxe-coreintegrated 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.
Need help with ADA compliance?
Use our free accessibility tools to check your website for common issues.
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.