The Americans with Disabilities Act never mentions websites, it predates them. But U.S. courts have consistently treated business websites as ‘places of public accommodation,’ and the lawsuits that follow target businesses of every size: thousands of federal web accessibility suits are filed each year, with settlements typically ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 plus legal fees, plus the remediation you were always going to have to do anyway.
Beyond the legal exposure, roughly 26% of U.S. adults live with some form of disability. An inaccessible site turns away a quarter of the market before price or product ever enters the conversation.
The standard: WCAG 2.1/2.2 Level AA
Courts and the Department of Justice consistently reference the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at Level AA as the de facto standard. WCAG organizes requirements under four principles, content must be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. In practice, Level AA comes down to a concrete set of checks, most of which are very fixable on WordPress.
The WordPress accessibility checklist
Perceivable
- Every meaningful image has descriptive alt text (decorative images get empty alt attributes)
- Text contrast meets 4.5:1 against its background (3:1 for large text), test your brand palette, this is the most-failed check on the web
- Nothing conveys information by color alone (error states need icons or text, not just red)
- Videos have captions; audio content has transcripts
- Text can zoom to 200% without breaking the layout
Operable
- The entire site works with a keyboard alone: menus, forms, modals, carousels. Unplug your mouse and try to buy something
- Focus states are visible, if your theme removed the outline for aesthetics, that’s a violation
- A ‘skip to content’ link exists for screen reader and keyboard users
- Nothing flashes more than three times per second; carousels can be paused
Understandable
- Form fields have real labels, not just placeholder text that vanishes on focus
- Error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it, next to the field
- Navigation stays consistent across pages; the html tag declares the page language
Robust
- Valid, semantic HTML: one h1 per page, headings in order, buttons that are actually button elements
- ARIA roles used correctly where native HTML can’t do the job (and not sprayed everywhere ‘just in case’)
- Test with an actual screen reader: VoiceOver ships free on every Mac
The overlay widget problem
You’ve seen the accessibility overlay widgets, one line of JavaScript, a floating icon, ‘instant compliance.’ The record is clear at this point: overlays don’t make sites compliant, hundreds of businesses running them get sued anyway (plaintiffs’ firms treat the widget as evidence the owner knew about accessibility), and disability advocacy organizations have publicly asked businesses to stop using them because they often make screen reader experiences worse.
There is no one-line fix. Accessibility lives in the actual markup, templates, and content.
How this works on WordPress specifically
The good news: WordPress is a strong base for accessibility. Core ships accessible defaults, and the fix path is concrete: an accessibility-ready theme (or remediation of your current one), correct heading structure in content, form plugins configured with real labels, and an editorial habit of alt text on upload. Page builders need attention, Elementor can produce accessible output, but its defaults need configuring, custom widgets need checking, and popups and carousels are the usual violation hotspots.
What a professional remediation covers: Audit against WCAG 2.2 AA with both automated scans and manual keyboard/screen-reader testing, template-level fixes in the theme and builder, content-level fixes, and a statement of accessibility for your site. That’s our ADA/WCAG service, it typically runs 2-4 weeks.
Where to start today
- Run your homepage through a free scanner (WAVE or Lighthouse’s accessibility audit) for the obvious failures
- Do the two manual tests scanners can’t: navigate by keyboard only, and check your brand colors’ contrast
- Fix contrast, alt text, and form labels first, they’re the highest-frequency violations in real lawsuits
- Then decide: remediate the current theme, or fold accessibility into a redesign you were planning anyway
Is your site exposed?
We audit against WCAG 2.2 AA and tell you exactly what fails, what it takes to fix, and what to prioritize first. Fixed-price remediation if you want it handled.
