Website Accessibility for New York Small Businesses: What the ADA Means for Your Site

If a customer can’t use your website with a screen reader, a keyboard or enlarged text, they can’t book, order or find your phone number there. That’s lost business. For businesses open to the public it can also be a legal risk, and New York is one of the places where website accessibility lawsuits come up most often.

This post explains the basics in plain terms. It’s general information, not legal advice. For your own situation, talk to a lawyer.

What the law says, briefly

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses open to the public to be accessible to people with disabilities. It was written before websites were common, so it doesn’t set out website rules. In 2022 the U.S. Department of Justice published guidance saying businesses open to the public should make their websites accessible, while leaving them some flexibility in how they do it.

Courts haven’t all agreed on how the ADA applies to websites, especially for businesses without a physical location. Federal courts in New York have seen many of them, and some lawsuits also cite New York State and New York City human rights laws.

The practical takeaway: if the public does business with you, your website should work for everyone.

What “accessible” means in practice

Most accessibility work follows the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published by the World Wide Web Consortium. Settlements and court orders often refer to them. In 2024 the Department of Justice adopted WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the standard for state and local government websites. That rule doesn’t cover private businesses, but it shows which standard the government points to.

You don’t need to read the guidelines to catch the most common problems.

Common problems and how to fix them

Images without descriptions. Screen readers read an image’s “alt text” aloud. Every meaningful image needs a short description, and decorative images should be marked so screen readers skip them.

Low contrast. Light gray text on white, or white text over a busy photo, is hard for many people to read. WCAG sets minimum contrast ratios, and free online checkers will test your colors.

Forms without labels. Each field needs a visible label that stays in place, because placeholder text disappears as soon as you type. Error messages should say in words what’s wrong, instead of only turning a box red.

No keyboard access. Some people can’t use a mouse. Try your site with only the Tab and Enter keys. You should be able to reach every link, button and menu item, and see where you are on the page at each step.

Headings out of order. Screen reader users often move through a page by its headings. Use one main heading, then subheadings in order, rather than choosing heading styles for their size.

Links that say “click here.” Link text should make sense on its own, like “See our menu.”

Videos without captions. Add captions to any video with speech. Most video platforms let you correct their automatic captions.

PDF menus and forms. A scanned PDF is just a picture to a screen reader. Put menus, prices and forms on the page as real text.

Text inside images. Hours or prices baked into a graphic can’t be read aloud or enlarged cleanly. Use real text instead.

About accessibility overlays

Some companies sell a script that adds an accessibility button or toolbar to your site and says it makes the site compliant. Many disability advocates and accessibility specialists have criticized such tools, and businesses using them have still been sued. An overlay sits on top of the site without fixing the code underneath. Fixing the site itself is the dependable route.

How to check your own site

1. Run a free automated checker, such as WAVE from WebAIM or Lighthouse in Chrome. They catch many problems, though not all of them.
2. Try the keyboard test above on your home page and your contact form.
3. Zoom your browser to 200% and check that nothing breaks or gets cut off.
4. Turn on your phone’s screen reader (VoiceOver on iPhone, TalkBack on Android) and try to find your phone number.
5. Go through your images and check each one has a sensible description.

Automated tools can’t judge everything. For a site that handles a lot of your business, such as bookings or orders, a review by an accessibility specialist is worth the cost.

If you’re getting a new website

Clear headings, labeled forms, readable contrast, real text instead of pictures of text, and full keyboard use are far easier to build in from the start than to add later. Ask any designer, us included, how they handle accessibility and what they test before launch.

For more on what a new site should include, see our post on what to get when you hire a web designer. If you’d like a website that works for all of your customers, tell us about your business.