Website Accessibility for Small Businesses: ADA, WCAG and AODA Explained

An accessible website is one that people with disabilities can use: someone navigating by keyboard, someone using a screen reader, someone with low vision zoomed to 200%, someone with a tremor tapping small buttons. It is also a legal topic in both the United States and Canada, and one that is surrounded by a lot of confusing sales pitches.

Why it matters beyond compliance

Disability is common. The CDC reports that more than 1 in 4 US adults have some type of disability, and Statistics Canada's 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability found that 27% of Canadians aged 15 and over had one or more disabilities. Many more people have temporary or situational limitations: a broken wrist, bright sunlight on a phone screen, an older parent booking an appointment.

A site that works for all of them is simply a better site. Clear headings, readable contrast, large tap targets and forms with proper labels help every visitor.

United States: the ADA and websites

Businesses open to the public (Title III)

The Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses open to the public, such as restaurants, clinics, stores and service providers, to provide equal access to their goods and services. In its March 2022 web accessibility guidance, the Department of Justice states that this applies to websites too.

The same guidance also notes that the DOJ does not have a regulation setting out a detailed technical standard for private businesses. Businesses have flexibility in how they make their websites accessible, and the guidance points to existing standards such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as helpful. In practice, WCAG Level AA is the benchmark most commonly used in audits, settlements and lawsuits. Some states also have their own disability-rights laws that can apply to websites.

State and local governments (Title II)

In 2024 the DOJ issued a rule that sets WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for state and local government websites and apps. In April 2026 the DOJ extended the compliance dates to April 26, 2027 and April 26, 2028, depending on the size of the entity. This rule applies to public entities, not private businesses, but it matters if you build or run services for a city, school district or other public body, and it shows which standard the federal government considers appropriate.

Canada: the AODA, the Accessible Canada Act and provincial laws

Ontario: the AODA

Under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, Ontario's website accessibility rules require businesses and non-profits with 50 or more employees to make public websites and web content published after January 1, 2012 conform to WCAG 2.0 Level AA. The deadline was January 1, 2021. Two success criteria are exempt: live captions and pre-recorded audio descriptions. Smaller Ontario organizations are not covered by the website requirement but are still covered by other parts of the AODA, such as customer service standards.

The Accessible Canada Act

The Accessible Canada Act applies to the federal government and federally regulated sectors such as banking, telecommunications and interprovincial transportation. Most local businesses, such as a restaurant, salon or dental office, are regulated provincially and are not directly covered by it.

Other provinces

Manitoba, Nova Scotia, British Columbia and other provinces have their own accessibility laws and are developing or phasing in standards. If you operate outside Ontario, check your province's current requirements.

WCAG in plain English

WCAG is published by the W3C. Version 2.0 arrived in 2008, 2.1 in 2018 and WCAG 2.2 in October 2023. Each version builds on the previous one, and each has three levels: A, AA and AAA. Level AA is the usual target.

Aiming for WCAG 2.2 AA is a sensible choice for a new site: it includes nearly everything in 2.0 and 2.1 AA, plus newer criteria that matter on phones, such as minimum target sizes and not hiding focused elements behind sticky headers.

The fixes that help real customers first

• Color contrast. Normal text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background; large text needs 3:1. Light grey text on white, or pale text on busy photos, is the most common failure.
• Alt text. Describe meaningful images ("Crown and bridge work on lower molars"); give decorative images empty alt text so screen readers skip them.
• Keyboard access and visible focus. Every menu, button, form and booking step must work with the Tab and Enter keys, with a clearly visible focus outline.
• Form labels and errors. Every field needs a real label, not just placeholder text, and errors should explain what went wrong in words, not only in red.
• Headings and link text. Use a logical heading structure and descriptive links ("View our dinner menu" rather than "Click here").
• Menus and documents as HTML. Scanned PDF menus and intake forms are often unreadable to screen readers. Put the content on the page.
• Captions. Add captions to videos with speech.
• Tap targets and zoom. Keep buttons comfortably large and never disable pinch-to-zoom.
• Third-party tools. Booking, ordering and chat widgets are part of your site from the customer's point of view. Ask vendors for their accessibility conformance information.

A warning about overlay widgets

Some products promise that one line of code will make any website compliant. Be careful. In 2025 the FTC finalized an order requiring accessiBe to pay $1 million over allegations that it misrepresented its AI tool's ability to make websites WCAG-compliant. Automated tools can help find some issues, but they do not replace accessible design and code.

How to test your site

1. Run free automated checks such as the WAVE evaluation tool or the Lighthouse accessibility audit in Chrome. Automated tools only catch part of the problems, so treat a clean result as a starting point.
2. Unplug your mouse and try to book, order or submit a form with only the keyboard.
3. Turn on VoiceOver (iPhone and Mac) or TalkBack (Android) and listen to your homepage.
4. Zoom the browser to 200% and check that nothing overlaps or disappears.
5. For larger sites or regulated businesses, commission a manual audit that includes testing by people who use assistive technology.

Accessibility checklist

Accessibility is ongoing, not a one-time certificate. Build it into how your site is designed, written and updated, and it stops being a scary legal topic and becomes part of good customer service.