Does my website need to be ADA accessible?
What WCAG actually asks for, who is at real risk, and what to fix first.
If you are a state or local government entity, yes, and the standard is written down. If you are a private business, there is no federal technical standard, but WCAG 2.1 Level AA is what courts and plaintiffs reference, so it is the practical target.
What the rules actually say
The Department of Justice published a rule under ADA Title II adopting WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for the web content and mobile apps of state and local governments, which includes public schools, colleges, libraries, transit agencies, and public hospitals. ADA.gov lists the compliance dates as April 26, 2027 for entities serving 50,000 or more residents and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special district governments, following an interim final rule published April 20, 2026 that extended the original dates.
Title III covers private businesses open to the public. DOJ has not issued a parallel technical standard there. That does not mean no obligation, it means the obligation is defined by litigation rather than a regulation, and WCAG is the yardstick that gets used. If you serve government contracts, healthcare, education, or finance, treat AA as a requirement.
The conformance levels in plain terms
WCAG defines three levels. Level A is the floor, the things that make a site usable at all with assistive technology. Level AA adds the requirements that make it genuinely usable for most people, including color contrast and consistent navigation. Level AAA is the strictest tier and is not realistic as a blanket target for a whole site. AA is the level everyone means when they say compliant. WCAG 2.2 is the current version and is backward compatible with 2.1.
What to fix first
- Color contrast. Light gray text on white is the single most common failure and the easiest to fix.
- Keyboard navigation. Tab through the whole page. If you cannot reach and operate every link, menu, and form field, that is a failure.
- Form labels. Real labels tied to inputs, not placeholder text acting as a label.
- Alt text. Describe the image's purpose. Decorative images get empty alt.
- Captions on video, and a visible focus indicator on interactive elements.
Be skeptical of overlay widgets that promise instant compliance. They sit on top of the problem rather than fixing the markup, and they have been named in litigation rather than preventing it. The accessible version of a page is usually also faster, cleaner, and easier for search engines and answer engines to read, so the work pays twice.
Related: Will my website be mobile-friendly?, What types of websites does LevelUp Digital build?, What happens during discovery and design review?, and our website design and UX services.