Where the law stands
This isn’t legal advice; if you’ve received a demand letter, talk to an attorney. What follows is the technical side.
- State and local governments are covered by a 2024 Department of Justice rule under Title II of the ADA that sets WCAG 2.1 level AA as the standard, with compliance dates starting in April 2026 for larger governments and April 2027 for smaller ones.
- Private businesses open to the public fall under Title III. There’s no equivalent federal regulation with a technical standard for their websites, but the Department of Justice has said the ADA applies to them, and courts and settlements commonly point to WCAG.
- Lawsuits and demand letters over inaccessible websites are filed against businesses of every size, including restaurants and local shops.
What WCAG asks for, in short
- Text alternatives for images that carry meaning.
- Enough contrast between text and background.
- Everything usable with a keyboard, with a visible focus outline.
- Form fields with real labels, and error messages that say what’s wrong.
- Headings in order, so screen readers can navigate.
- Video with captions.
- Pages that still work when text is enlarged.
The failures we see most on local sites
- Light gray text on white, or white text on photos.
- Menus and pop-ups that can’t be closed with a keyboard.
- Contact forms whose fields only have placeholder text, which disappears when you start typing.
- Menus, specials and flyers posted as images or PDFs with no text version.
- Buttons that are just icons with no label.
What about accessibility overlays?
Overlays are scripts that add a toolbar and promise compliance with one line of code. Many disabled users and accessibility experts say they don’t fix the underlying problems and sometimes get in the way, and businesses using them have still been sued. In 2025 the FTC took action against one overlay company over its claims that the product made sites compliant. Fixing the site itself is what works.
Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.