Is ADA website compliance required by law?

For state and local governments, yes - the Title II rule sets WCAG 2.1 AA with deadlines in April 2027 and April 2028. For private businesses open to the public, courts treat websites as covered by Title III even without a written web standard.

Which WCAG version does the ADA require?

The Title II rule names WCAG 2.1 Level AA. For Title III there is no named version; WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA is the usual reference.

Did the ADA Title II deadline change?

Yes. A Justice Department interim final rule published 20 April 2026 moved the dates from 24 April 2026 to 26 April 2027 for entities of 50,000+ people, and from 26 April 2027 to 26 April 2028 for smaller ones.

Does a small business website need to be ADA compliant?

If the business is open to the public, the safe reading is yes. There is no size exemption in Title III for websites, and most lawsuits target small and mid-size businesses.

ADA website compliance requirements, in plain English

For US state and local governments, the ADA Title II rule requires websites and apps to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA; an April 2026 rule moved the deadlines to 26 April 2027 (population 50,000+) and 26 April 2028 (smaller entities and special districts). For private businesses (Title III) there is still no written technical standard, but courts and the Justice Department treat websites as covered, and WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA is the usual yardstick in lawsuits and settlements.

Checked 5 November 2026 · sources below

Who must do what (checked 5 November 2026)

Who	Rule	Standard	Deadline
State and local government, population 50,000+	ADA Title II web rule (2024), dates changed April 2026	WCAG 2.1 AA	26 April 2027
State and local government under 50,000, special districts	Same rule	WCAG 2.1 AA	26 April 2028
Private businesses open to the public	ADA Title III (no web regulation)	None written; WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA used in practice	Applies now
Federal agencies	Section 508	WCAG 2.0 AA (via the 508 standards)	Applies now
Selling into the EU	European Accessibility Act	EN 301 549 (WCAG 2.1 AA based)	Since 28 June 2025

What WCAG AA asks for, in short

WCAG 2.2 Level AA has 55 success criteria in four groups: perceivable (text alternatives, captions, contrast), operable (keyboard use, no traps, visible focus, enough time), understandable (clear labels and errors, predictable pages) and robust (works with screen readers). Our WCAG 2.2 AA checklist lists all 55 in plain English. WCAG 2.2 adds six A/AA criteria to 2.1, so meeting 2.2 also meets 2.1.

The failures that show up most

WebAIM's 2026 scan of the top one million home pages found detected WCAG failures on 95.9% of them (56.1 errors per page on average). The six most common, and what fixing them means:

Low contrast text (83.9% of pages): body text needs 4.5:1 against its background, large text 3:1.
Missing image alt text (53.1%): every meaningful image needs a short text alternative; decorative ones get empty alt.
Missing form labels (51%): each input needs a visible label tied to it.
Empty links (46.3%): icon-only links need a text name.
Empty buttons (30.6%): same for buttons.
Missing page language (13.5%): set lang on the html element.

Beyond these, AA also needs: everything usable by keyboard with a visible focus, captions for video, no content that flashes, text that can be enlarged to 200% and reflow at 320 px wide, clear error messages, and correct names and roles for custom controls.

How to check your site

Run an automated check on your main templates (home, a product or article page, forms, checkout).
Test with a keyboard only: can you reach and use everything, and see where focus is?
Check contrast, alt text, form labels and error messages by hand.
Have a person review what tools cannot judge - in published comparisons, automated tools find only part of the issues (one UK government test found 10 free tools missed 29% of barriers).
Fix, re-test, and publish an accessibility statement with a contact.

What our own checks found

When we built our WCAG checker we tested it on held-back sample pages with known problems: it found 97-100% of the planted failures with no false failures on clean pages - but some criteria (like whether alt text is meaningful) still needed a person. That is why our WCAG check has every finding reviewed by a person.

Overlays are not compliance

Widgets that promise one-line compliance do not fix the underlying code, and businesses using them have still been sued. In April 2025 the US Federal Trade Commission finalised an order requiring one overlay vendor, accessiBe, to pay US$1 million over claims that its tool made websites WCAG-compliant.

Questions

Is ADA website compliance required by law?: For state and local governments, yes - the Title II rule sets WCAG 2.1 AA with deadlines in April 2027 and April 2028. For private businesses open to the public, courts treat websites as covered by Title III even without a written web standard.
Which WCAG version does the ADA require?: The Title II rule names WCAG 2.1 Level AA. For Title III there is no named version; WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA is the usual reference.
Did the ADA Title II deadline change?: Yes. A Justice Department interim final rule published 20 April 2026 moved the dates from 24 April 2026 to 26 April 2027 for entities of 50,000+ people, and from 26 April 2027 to 26 April 2028 for smaller ones.
Does a small business website need to be ADA compliant?: If the business is open to the public, the safe reading is yes. There is no size exemption in Title III for websites, and most lawsuits target small and mid-size businesses.

Sources

See the WCAG check

Automated WCAG 2.2 AA check of your site on desktop and phone, every finding reviewed by a person.

See the WCAG check