There is a growing legal risk that most tradesmen do not know about, and it has nothing to do with job site injuries or licensing. It is your website. Specifically, whether your website is accessible to people with disabilities.
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) lawsuits targeting websites have exploded in recent years. According to UsableNet's annual report, over 4,600 web accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court in 2023 alone — up from about 2,000 in 2018. And these lawsuits do not just target big companies. Small businesses, including contractors and service companies, are increasingly in the crosshairs.
Before you panic: making your website accessible is not as hard or expensive as you think. Here is what you need to know.
What "Web Accessibility" Actually Means
Web accessibility means that people with disabilities — visual impairments, hearing loss, motor disabilities, cognitive disabilities — can use your website. That includes people who:
- Use screen readers because they are blind or have low vision
- Navigate with a keyboard because they cannot use a mouse
- Need captions on videos because they are deaf or hard of hearing
- Require sufficient color contrast because they are colorblind
According to the CDC, 26% of American adults have some type of disability. That is one in four of your potential customers. Even if you set aside the legal risk entirely, making your website accessible is just good business — you are making it easier for more people to hire you.
Does the ADA Apply to My Website?
The short answer: almost certainly yes. The ADA applies to "places of public accommodation," and courts have increasingly ruled that websites count. The Department of Justice issued guidance in 2022 explicitly stating that the ADA applies to websites of businesses that serve the public.
If your business serves customers (you are a plumber, electrician, HVAC tech — of course you serve customers), your website is covered.
The Most Common Accessibility Problems
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the international standard for web accessibility. Most lawsuits reference WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the benchmark. Here are the issues that come up most often on contractor websites:
1. Missing Alt Text on Images
Every image on your website needs "alt text" — a short text description that screen readers can read aloud. If your site has photos of your work, your team, or your trucks with no alt text, a screen reader user has no idea what those images show.
The fix: Add descriptive alt text to every image. "Completed kitchen remodel with white cabinets and granite countertops" not "IMG_4523.jpg."
2. Poor Color Contrast
Light gray text on a white background might look "clean," but it is nearly invisible to people with low vision or colorblindness. WCAG requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text.
The fix: Use a free tool like WebAIM's Contrast Checker to test your text colors. Dark text on light backgrounds is almost always fine.
3. No Keyboard Navigation
Some people cannot use a mouse and navigate websites entirely with their keyboard (using the Tab key to move between elements). If your website's menus, buttons, and forms do not work with keyboard-only navigation, you have a problem.
The fix: Try navigating your own website using only the Tab and Enter keys. Can you reach every link, button, and form field? If not, your developer needs to fix the HTML structure.
4. Missing Form Labels
If your contact form has fields for name, email, phone, and message, each field needs a proper HTML label that screen readers can identify. Many templates use placeholder text instead of labels, which disappears when you start typing and is invisible to screen readers.
The fix: Every form field needs a visible label and a proper HTML <label> element linked to it.
5. Videos Without Captions
If you have videos on your website — testimonials, how-to content, company overview — they need captions or a transcript.
The fix: YouTube auto-generates captions (edit them for accuracy). If your videos are self-hosted, add caption files or provide a written transcript.
How to Check Your Website Right Now
You do not need to hire an expert to get a baseline. Here are three free tools that will identify the biggest issues:
- WAVE (wave.webaim.org): Enter your website URL and get an instant report of accessibility errors, contrast issues, and missing alt text. Free and easy to understand.
- Google Lighthouse: Built into Chrome's developer tools (press F12, click "Lighthouse" tab, check "Accessibility," and run). Gives you a score out of 100 with specific issues to fix.
- Tab test: Open your website and try navigating using only your keyboard. Press Tab to move between links and buttons. Can you see where you are? Can you reach the contact form? Can you submit it? This takes two minutes and catches major problems.
The Overlay Widget Trap
You may have seen accessibility "overlay" widgets — tools like AccessiBe, UserWay, or AudioEye that add a little wheelchair icon to your website and claim to make it accessible automatically. Be cautious.
The National Federation of the Blind and other disability advocacy organizations have publicly opposed overlay tools, stating they do not actually fix underlying accessibility problems and can sometimes make things worse. Multiple businesses using overlays have still been sued successfully.
Overlays are a band-aid, not a fix. If your website has fundamental accessibility issues, the real fix is to address them in the code, not cover them with a widget.
What a Lawsuit Actually Looks Like
Most ADA web accessibility lawsuits follow a pattern: a plaintiff (or more often, a plaintiff's law firm that files these in bulk) identifies websites with obvious accessibility failures, sends a demand letter, and offers to settle for $3,000-$10,000 rather than go to court. Fighting the lawsuit costs more than settling, so most businesses settle.
The settlement usually requires you to fix your website and pay the legal fees. Some serial plaintiffs have filed hundreds of these cases. The best defense is to not be an easy target — fix the obvious issues before someone comes looking.
The Practical Checklist
Here is a prioritized list of what to address. Start at the top and work your way down:
- Add alt text to all images (highest priority — easiest to check, most commonly cited in lawsuits)
- Ensure sufficient color contrast for all text
- Label all form fields properly
- Make sure the site works with keyboard navigation
- Add captions to videos
- Use proper heading structure (H1, H2, H3 in order — not just big text)
- Make link text descriptive ("Read our plumbing services" not "Click here")
- Add a skip-to-content link for keyboard users
Most of these fixes are straightforward for any web developer. If you are paying someone to maintain your website, send them this checklist. If you are building a new site, make sure accessibility is part of the requirements from day one.
Accessibility is not just about avoiding lawsuits — it is about making sure every potential customer can find and contact you. That is good for your community and good for your business. Reach out to us if you want a website built with accessibility baked in from the start.