ADA compliance for the trades, in plain English.
Your website is legally a 'place of public accommodation' — and web accessibility lawsuits are at record highs. This is the honest, jargon-free guide to what ADA compliance actually means, why the overlay 'fix' is a trap, how to do it right, and why accessibility wins you more customers (especially aging homeowners).
Your website has to work for everyone.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires “places of public accommodation” to be usable by people with disabilities. Courts have overwhelmingly extended that to business websites — including small, local trades companies. There's no official government checklist, so the courts and the Department of Justice point to one practical standard: WCAG 2.2, Level AA — the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
In plain terms: a blind customer using a screen reader, someone who can't use a mouse, or a homeowner with low vision should be able to find your services, read your content, and book a job — without hitting a wall.
Record lawsuits. Nobody's too small.
Web-accessibility litigation has climbed for years and hit new highs in 2025. Most start as a demand letter — a quick settlement ask that never shows up in court statistics — and serial filers specifically hunt for easy, non-compliant targets.
Digital accessibility lawsuits hit roughly 4,600–5,100 across U.S. federal and state courts in 2025 — and federal filings jumped about 27% over 2024. Demand letters that never reach court push the real number far higher.
The WebAIM Million audit found almost every homepage has detectable WCAG failures. The odds your current site has issues a plaintiff could cite are, frankly, near-certain.
Serial filers and law firms run the same playbook again and again. Small local businesses — including the trades — get demand letters too. "We're too small" is not a defense.
That “accessibility” widget won't save you.
You've seen the little accessibility button that promises instant compliance for a monthly fee. It's a band-aid — and increasingly, a liability. Overlay tools bolt a script onto a broken site instead of fixing the underlying code, and they have become a red flag for plaintiffs, not a shield.
The only real protection is an accessible website. Fix the source, not the symptom.
- !Over 400 lawsuits in 2025 named sites that were using overlay widgets — the badge didn't protect them.
- !Multiple federal courts have ruled that overlays do not constitute WCAG compliance.
- !Overlays often break screen readers and keyboard navigation — making the site harder to use for the people they claim to help.
- !Major disability advocacy groups actively oppose overlay products.
Accessibility is a customer magnet.
Compliance is the floor. The real upside is that an accessible site reaches more people and converts better — which matters more for the trades than almost any other industry.
1 in 4 adults
About a quarter of U.S. adults live with a disability. An inaccessible site quietly turns away a huge share of your market before they ever call.
Your aging homeowners
Home-service customers skew older — exactly the homeowners most affected by low vision, dexterity, and hearing changes. Accessibility is usability for your best-paying demographic.
Better SEO & AI visibility
Semantic structure, alt text, and clean code are the same signals search engines and AI answer engines use to understand and recommend you. Accessible sites rank and get cited better.
Higher conversion for everyone
Clear contrast, readable text, and forms that just work help every visitor — on a phone, in bright sunlight, one-handed on a job site — not only those using assistive tech.
What actually makes a site accessible.
WCAG 2.2 AA has dozens of criteria, but for a trades website it comes down to a handful of fundamentals. Here's what to look for — and what we build in by default.
Text alternatives
Every meaningful image, icon, and button has descriptive alt text so screen readers can describe it. Decorative images are marked to be skipped.
Color contrast
Text meets at least a 4.5:1 contrast ratio against its background. Low contrast is one of the most-cited failures in lawsuits — and it's one of the easiest to fix.
Keyboard operable
Every menu, form, and button works with a keyboard alone — no mouse required — with a visible focus outline so users can see where they are.
Clear structure
Proper heading order (one H1, logical H2/H3s) and semantic HTML let assistive tech understand and navigate the page the way a sighted user scans it.
Labeled forms
Every field has a real, associated label, and errors are announced clearly. Quote and contact forms are where you lose accessible visitors fastest.
Captions & no surprises
Videos have captions or transcripts, nothing auto-plays disruptively, and motion can be reduced — so content is usable for everyone, on every device.
Five steps to real compliance.
Audit against WCAG 2.2 AA
Start with the current standard — WCAG 2.2 Level AA — using both automated scans and manual testing. Automated tools catch maybe a third of issues; the rest need a human.
Fix the source code, not a widget
Remediate the actual HTML, contrast, structure, and components. This is what holds up legally and what actually helps real users — there is no compliant shortcut.
Test with real assistive technology
Navigate the site with a screen reader and keyboard the way a disabled customer would. Real-world testing surfaces the barriers scanners miss.
Publish an accessibility statement
State your commitment, the standard you target, and how someone can report a barrier and reach you. It signals good faith and gives users a path to help.
Maintain it over time
Accessibility isn't one-and-done. Every new page, promo, or form can reintroduce barriers — so it has to be built into how the site is published, not bolted on once.
Accessible by default — not as an add-on.
We design and develop every site to conform to WCAG 2.2 Level AA from the start — semantic, fast, static HTML with real labels, strong contrast, and keyboard support baked in. No overlay band-aids, no monthly “compliance” widget. It's the right thing to do, it reaches more customers, and it keeps you off a serial filer's list.
This guide is general education, not legal advice. For your specific obligations and risk, consult a qualified attorney.