ADA Accessibility Requirements Getting Started: A Clear Overview
If you’ve just been handed the task of “making our website ADA compliant,” you’re probably staring at a wall of legal jargon, technical standards, and conflicting advice. Let’s cut through it.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) doesn’t actually spell out web standards. Courts and the Department of Justice have repeatedly pointed to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as the de facto benchmark. For most businesses, that means WCAG 2.1 Level AA is your target. That’s the practical answer to “what do I need to comply with” — and it’s a lot more manageable than it sounds.
This guide walks you through the first steps: understanding the legal landscape, auditing what you have, fixing the highest-impact issues, and building a process that keeps you compliant.
Why ADA Compliance Matters More Than Avoiding Lawsuits
Yes, the legal risk is real. In 2023, over 4,600 web accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal courts — a record. But the more compelling reason is simpler: roughly 1 in 4 American adults lives with a disability. That’s your customers, your clients, and your readers.
Think about the last audiobook you listened to. The narrator’s voice carried the entire experience — pacing, emotion, clarity. Now imagine that voice suddenly became garbled or disappeared entirely. That’s what an inaccessible website feels like to someone using a screen reader or navigating by keyboard alone.
Accessibility isn’t a penalty box. It’s the difference between inviting people in and leaving them standing outside.
The First 48 Hours: What to Do Before You Panic
Before you start rewriting code or hiring consultants, do these three things:
1. Run an automated scan. Tools like WAVE, axe, or Lighthouse will give you a baseline within minutes. They won’t catch everything, but they’ll flag obvious issues like missing alt text, low color contrast, and unlabeled form fields.
2. Test your keyboard navigation. Unplug your mouse. Tab through your site. Can you reach every link, button, and form field? Can you see where you are (a visible focus indicator)? If you’re stuck on a dropdown menu or can’t reach a search bar, you’ve found your first critical issue.
3. Check your color contrast. WCAG 2.1 AA requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. If your site uses light gray text on white backgrounds — a common “modern” design choice — you’re likely failing. Use a contrast checker to identify problem spots.
These three steps take an afternoon and will tell you exactly how bad the situation is.
The Big Five: High-Impact Fixes That Move the Needle
Not all accessibility issues are created equal. These five areas account for the majority of user-facing problems and are where you’ll get the most bang for your buck.
Alt Text That Actually Describes
Screen reader users rely on alt text to understand images. But “decorative image” and “photo of a person” are both useless.
Good alt text is contextual. If you’re reviewing an audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan, the alt text for her author photo should say “Julia Whelan, narrator, smiling in a recording studio” — not “woman with headphones.”
If an image is purely decorative (a divider line, a background texture), use `alt=””` so screen readers skip it entirely.
Headings That Make Sense Out of Order
Screen reader users navigate pages by jumping between headings, just like you’d skim an article. If your headings are styled to look right but coded wrong (a `<div>` with bold text instead of an `<h2>`), that navigation breaks.
The fix: use real heading tags (`h1` through `h6`) in a logical order. Don’t skip levels. An `h1` followed by an `h3` confuses screen readers — it implies there’s an `h2` somewhere that doesn’t exist.
Links That Say Where They Go
“Click here” and “read more” are meaningless when read out of context. A screen reader user can pull up a list of all links on a page — imagine seeing “click here, click here, read more, click here.”
Instead, write descriptive link text: “Read our review of Project Hail Mary” or “Download the WCAG 2.1 guidelines PDF.” This also helps sighted users skim more effectively.
Forms With Labels That Stick
Every form field needs a `<label>` element explicitly associated with it. Placeholder text alone doesn’t count — it disappears when you start typing and often has too low contrast to read.
If you have a search bar, a newsletter signup, or a checkout form, this is a must-fix. Screen reader users need to know what each field is for, and the label needs to stay visible even when the field is filled.
Video and Audio With Captions and Transcripts
This one hits close to home for the audiobook crowd. If you have any promotional videos, podcasts, or audio clips on your site, they need:
- Captions for spoken content
- Transcripts for audio-only content
- Audio descriptions for visual information that isn’t conveyed through dialogue
Services like Rev and Otter.ai can generate captions quickly, but always review for accuracy — especially with proper nouns like book titles and author names.
What Your Audit Results Actually Mean for Your Next Move
Once your automated scan comes back, you’ll likely see a list of dozens — maybe hundreds — of issues. Here’s how to read that list without spiraling.
Critical issues (keyboard traps, missing form labels, zero-contrast text) are your non-negotiables. Fix these first, even if it means pulling a developer off another project. These are the issues that make your site completely unusable for some visitors, and they’re also the ones most likely to attract legal attention.
Serious but not blocking issues (missing alt text, heading structure problems, unlabeled links) affect usability but don’t completely shut people out. These are your week-two and week-three targets. They matter, but they won’t cause someone to abandon your site in frustration within seconds.
Minor issues (slightly low contrast on decorative elements, redundant page titles) can wait. Track them, but don’t let them derail your momentum.
Here’s the practical implication: if your scan shows mostly minor issues, you’re in good shape — budget for a few weeks of cleanup, not a rebuild. If it shows critical issues across multiple pages, you need to decide whether to fix in place or rebuild those pages entirely. For a small site with a handful of problem pages, fixing is almost always cheaper. For a large e-commerce platform with deep structural problems, a rebuild of the affected templates might be more cost-effective in the long run.
How to Verify Your Fixes Actually Work
Automated tools will tell you when a problem is resolved, but they won’t tell you if your fix is good. Here’s how to confirm.
For keyboard navigation: After you’ve fixed a dropdown menu or modal dialog, test it the way a real user would. Tab into the element, open it, tab through every option, and tab back out. If your focus gets trapped — meaning you can’t Tab or Shift+Tab your way out — the fix failed. A common failure mode is a modal dialog that closes when you press Escape but leaves focus behind on an invisible element, which is disorienting for screen reader users.
For alt text: Use a screen reader (NVDA on Windows, VoiceOver on Mac) to navigate a page with images. Listen to how your alt text reads in context. If you hear “image, image, image” without any descriptive content, your alt attributes aren’t working. If you hear alt text that’s redundant with adjacent text, trim it.
For color contrast: Don’t eyeball it. Use a contrast checker tool (WebAIM’s is free) and input your exact hex codes. A color that looks fine on your monitor might fail on a lower-quality display or in bright sunlight. If you’re using a brand color that fails, you don’t necessarily need to change your brand — you need to adjust where and how you use that color. For example, use it for large headings (which require only 3:1 contrast) but not for body text.
For form labels: Fill out a form using only your keyboard. If you can’t tell which field you’re in or what it’s for, the labels aren’t working. Also check that error messages are announced — a screen reader user shouldn’t have to guess why a form didn’t submit.
Beyond the Basics: What “Getting Started” Actually Looks Like
Here’s a realistic timeline for the first month:
Week 1: Run automated scans. Fix all critical issues (keyboard traps, missing form labels, zero-contrast text). Document everything.
Week 2: Tackle alt text and heading structure across your top 10 most-visited pages. These are the pages that matter most to your users and your business.
Week 3: Test with a real screen reader. NVDA (Windows) and VoiceOver (Mac) are both free. You don’t need to become an expert — just learn enough to navigate your own site and spot obvious problems.
Week 4: Create a written accessibility policy. It doesn’t need to be long. State your commitment, your target standard (WCAG 2.1 AA), and a contact email for accessibility issues. This alone can reduce legal risk and builds trust with users.
Where Most People Get Stuck (and How to Avoid It)
The most common failure isn’t technical — it’s organizational. Accessibility work stalls because no one owns it.
The “one-time project” trap. Accessibility is ongoing. Every new page, every new feature, every new image is a chance to introduce barriers. Build it into your publishing workflow, not just your backlog. If you use a CMS, add an accessibility checklist to your content approval process. If you have a development team, make accessibility review part of code review.
The “automated tools are enough” trap. Automated scanners catch about 30-40% of accessibility issues. They can’t evaluate whether your alt text is meaningful, whether your link text makes sense in context, or whether your keyboard navigation flow is logical. You need human testing.
The “we’ll fix it later” trap. The longer you wait, the more expensive it gets. A page built with accessibility in mind from the start costs about the same as a page built without it. Retrofitting an existing page costs significantly more, and retrofitting a complex application can cost 10-20 times more than building it accessibly from the beginning.
The “perfect is the enemy of good” trap. You don’t need to hit 100% WCAG compliance on day one. You need to fix the critical issues, build a process, and improve continuously. A site that’s 80% accessible today and improving is better than a site that’s 50% accessible and frozen while you wait for a perfect solution.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a specific law that mandates WCAG compliance?
The ADA itself doesn’t mention websites, but courts have consistently interpreted it to apply to online spaces. The Department of Justice has stated that WCAG 2.1 AA is the appropriate standard. Some states, like California, have their own laws with specific requirements.
Do I need to be WCAG 2.2 compliant instead?
WCAG 2.2 was published in October 2023, but the DOJ’s 2024 rule for state and local governments specifically requires 2.1 AA. For private businesses, 2.1 AA remains the safest target. If you’re building new, aiming for 2.2 AA is a smart future-proofing move.
What’s the difference between Level A, AA, and AAA?
Level A is the minimum — the most critical barriers. Level AA is the standard most organizations target and includes things like color contrast and captioning. Level AAA is the highest tier, but it’s rarely achievable for entire sites and isn’t legally required.
How much does it cost to fix an inaccessible website?
It depends entirely on your site’s size and complexity. A small site with mostly text content might cost a few thousand dollars. A large e-commerce platform with complex checkout flows can run into six figures. The earlier you catch issues, the cheaper they are to fix.
Can I be sued if my site isn’t accessible?
Yes. The number of ADA web accessibility lawsuits has risen steadily for years. Even if a lawsuit doesn’t succeed, defending one costs tens of thousands of dollars. Proactive compliance is significantly cheaper than reactive litigation.
Getting Started Is the Hardest Part
You don’t need to become a WCAG expert overnight. You need to start with the basics: scan your site, fix the critical issues, and build a process that prevents new problems from appearing.
Think of it like organizing a bookshelf. You don’t sort every book alphabetically by author, genre, and publication date on day one. You start with the books that are stacked sideways and falling over, then work your way through the rest.
Start with your keyboard navigation. Add descriptive alt text. Label your forms. Caption your videos. Each fix is small on its own, but together they transform your site from a closed door into an open one.
And if you’re wondering how this applies to the audiobook world specifically — consider this: the same principles that make a website accessible are what make an audiobook listenable. Clear narration, logical structure, and no barriers between the listener and the story. It’s all the same goal.
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