Websites
and the
ADA.

When the ADA applies

The Department of Justice publishes guidance on web accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act. The starting point: “Title III prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities by businesses open to the public (also referred to as ‘public accommodations’ under the ADA).”

And it reaches online. The guidance states that such organisations “must ensure that the programs, services, and goods that they provide to the public, including those provided online, are accessible to people with disabilities.”

So the threshold question is not whether your website is covered. It is whether your business is open to the public, which for most of the businesses reading this is not in doubt.

What flexibility does and does not mean

That flexibility is sometimes mistaken for permission to do nothing. It is not. The same guidance says that online programs, services, and goods must be accessible.

The flexibility is about the method, not the result. There is no single prescribed way to make a booking process accessible, but people with disabilities still need to be able to use it. A small business can choose an approach that fits the size and complexity of its site.

The standard that is named but not mandated

The guidance does point somewhere: “Existing technical standards provide helpful guidance concerning how to ensure accessibility of website features. These include the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).”

Helpful guidance is not the same as a mandate on private business. In practice, WCAG is the reference almost everyone uses. Settlements tend to name it, auditors measure against it, and this site targets Level AA of version 2.2. Aiming at a published standard is easier to explain than aiming at nothing.

A caution about anything sold as a one-line fix

A category of product exists that promises conformance from a single script added to a page. Treat the claim with the scepticism any one-line fix for a structural problem deserves, and note what the DOJ guidance actually asks: that what you provide online is accessible. That is a property of the thing itself.

There is another risk in buying a promise of instant compliance. If you publicly claim that a site conforms and it does not, that claim may work against you. It is safer to describe the work you have actually done and any problems that remain.

Where a small business should start

Start with the parts customers need to contact or pay you: booking, phone links, contact details, and enquiry forms. A failure there can prevent someone from using the service entirely, while a decorative problem may only be inconvenient.

Two checks cost nothing and need no specialist, and both are on our page about checking your own site: whether the site can be operated without a mouse, and whether any important signal is carried only by colour. Neither requires a tool, an audit or a budget, and between them they catch a surprising share of what actually goes wrong.

The third step, once something has been done, is to say so honestly. This site publishes its own accessibility statement describing what was tested, how, and what remains unresolved, which is a more defensible document than a conformance badge, and a far more useful one to a reader who needs to know whether they can use your site.