Blog ADA Compliance & Accessibility
Common Accessibility Mistakes & Easy Fixes
This is Part 2 of our ADA Compliance Series. If you haven't read Part 1: What Every Organization Needs to Know, start there for the full picture of why this matters.
If you just read Part 1, you're probably somewhere between "well, that's concerning" and "okay, what do I actually do now?" Fair. The legal landscape is real, the lawsuits are rising, and the government compliance deadlines are now set for 2027 and 2028.
Here's the good news: the most common accessibility errors on websites are also some of the easiest to fix.
The WebAIM Million 2025 report analyzed one million homepages and found an average of 51 accessibility errors per page. That sounds overwhelming, until you learn that the top six error categories account for 96% of all detected errors. A small number of fix categories can address the vast majority of issues on your site.
- 51 average accessibility errors per homepage
- 96% of errors come from just six categories
- 1M homepages analyzed in the WebAIM study
We're going to walk through eight of the most common website accessibility mistakes, grouped by how much effort they take to fix. Some of these you can handle this afternoon. A few need a developer. And one popular "solution" you should avoid entirely.
Tier 1: You Can Fix This Today
These are content-level fixes. No code. No developer. Just your WordPress login and some focused time.
Mistake #1: Missing Alt Text on Images
When a screen reader encounters an image without alt text, it either announces "image" with no context or reads the filename aloud, something like "IMG underscore 4372 dot jpg." That's not helpful for anyone.
WebAIM found that 18.5% of all homepage images lacked alt text entirely. And many that technically have alt text have descriptions that are unhelpful or inaccurate.
The fix: In WordPress, click on any image in your post or page, and you'll see an "Alt Text" field in the right sidebar. You can also update alt text through your media library. It's a content task, not a development task.
A few quick rules for writing good alt text:
- Describe the content and function of the image, not just its appearance
- Keep it concise, generally under 125 characters
- Decorative images (borders, spacers) should use empty alt text (
alt=""), not no alt attribute at all - Don't start with "image of" or "picture of," since screen readers already announce it as an image
Before
After
The honest caveat: Adding alt text to one image is easy. Adding it to hundreds of images across your entire site (clicking into each one in the WordPress media library, one at a time) is genuinely tedious.
We actually built a free plugin for this because we saw how tedious the standard process is. The Alt Tag Manager surfaces every image on your site that's missing alt text in one view and lets you update each one right there, with no extra clicks and no digging through the media library one image at a time. It's free and available in the WordPress plugin directory.
Mistake #2: Poor Color Contrast
This is the single most common accessibility error detected anywhere on the web. WebAIM found low contrast text on 79.1% of homepages, with an average of 29.6 distinct instances per page. Light gray text on white backgrounds. Thin fonts on colored sections. Text placed over photographs without an overlay.
The fix: Use the WebAIM Contrast Checker (free) to test your specific color combinations. Enter your text color and background color, and it tells you instantly whether you pass or fail. The numbers to know: WCAG AA requires a minimum 4.5:1 contrast ratio for normal text and 3:1 for large text (18pt or larger).
Before
After
Honest caveat: Identifying contrast problems is easy. Fixing them site-wide may require updating your CSS or theme color settings, which could need a developer depending on your setup. But at minimum, you can identify and document every issue yourself, and that list becomes incredibly useful when you hand it to whoever manages your site.
Mistake #3: Non-Descriptive Link Text
Links that say "click here," "read more," or just "here." Screen readers can pull up a list of every link on a page. If they all say "click here," that list is completely useless.
The fix: This is a pure content fix. Search your site for "click here," "read more," and "learn more." Rewrite each one to describe where the link actually goes. A good test: would the link text make sense if you read it completely out of context?
Before
"Click here to download our annual report."
"To learn more about our programs, click here."
After
"Download our 2025 annual report."
"Explore our community programs."
Bonus: Descriptive anchor text also helps search engines understand what the linked page is about. This is one of those places where accessibility and SEO directly overlap, something we dig into in Part 3 of this series.
Tier 2: A Quick Settings Check
These fixes go a step beyond content editing. They involve checking a plugin setting, a theme option, or a structural pattern in your pages. Still within reach for most site admins, though a couple may need a quick conversation with your developer.
Mistake #4: Missing Form Labels
Form fields without proper labels. The field might show placeholder text that disappears when you start typing, but screen readers can't reliably determine what information the field requires. WebAIM found 34.2% of form inputs weren't properly labelled.
The fix: If you use a WordPress form plugin (Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, WPForms), check the plugin's settings and documentation for label options. Many plugins have a toggle for accessible labels that may not be enabled by default.
Honest caveat: This one straddles DIY and developer territory. Checking requires running a tool like WAVE on your form pages. Fixing may require adjusting plugin settings or adding code. For most non-technical site admins, this is a "identify the problem, then talk to your developer" fix. But identifying it is something you can do right now.
Mistake #5: Missing Language Attribute
The HTML element at the top of every page on your site should declare the language of the content, for example lang="en" for English. Without it, screen readers may default to the wrong language pronunciation, making your content difficult to understand.
The fix: This is a single attribute that applies site-wide. One fix covers your entire site. Most modern WordPress themes include this by default. Run WAVE on any page and look for the "language" alert to check. If it's missing, ask your developer. It's a 30-second fix for anyone with access to your theme files.
Mistake #6: Heading Hierarchy Issues
Heading tags (H1, H2, H3) used for visual styling rather than content structure. Choosing H3 because it "looks the right size" instead of because it's a subsection of an H2. Skipping levels, jumping from H1 to H3 with no H2 in between. Screen readers use headings to navigate, so skipped or misused headings make a page disorienting.
The fix: In the WordPress block editor, selecting the correct heading level from the dropdown is exactly as easy as selecting the wrong one. The rules are straightforward:
- Each page gets exactly one H1 (usually the page title, which WordPress often handles automatically)
- Major sections get H2s
- Subsections get H3s
- Never skip levels (H1 to H3, or H2 to H4)
- Never use a heading tag just to make text bigger. Use bold or custom styling instead
Honest caveat: Fixing heading structure in existing content is manual work, since you need to go through each page. But each individual fix takes seconds, and WAVE shows your heading structure visually so you can spot problems instantly.
Tier 3: Talk to Your Developer
These are important issues to understand, but fixing them requires technical expertise. The good news: you can test for them yourself, even if you can't fix them yourself.
Mistake #7: Keyboard Navigation Issues
Interactive elements (links, buttons, forms, dropdown menus) that can't be reached or operated using only a keyboard. This affects people who can't use a mouse, including many users with motor disabilities.
The test anyone can do: Open your website. Set your mouse aside. Press Tab. Watch for:
- Can you see where the focus is? Is there a visible outline on the active element?
- Can you reach every link, button, and form field?
- Can you navigate in a logical order, top to bottom, left to right?
- Can you activate buttons with Enter or Space?
- Can you close dropdown menus and popups with Escape?
Honest caveat: If basic keyboard navigation works, that's a good sign. If it doesn't, the fixes range from simple CSS changes (restoring focus outlines that were removed for visual reasons) to significant development work (rebuilding custom interactive components). Testing is easy and you should absolutely do it. Fixing depends entirely on what you find.
Mistake #8: Videos Without Captions
Video content without captions or transcripts excludes deaf and hard-of-hearing users entirely. YouTube and other platforms offer auto-generated captions, but they don't meet accessibility standards on their own. They need to be reviewed and corrected.
What you can do: In YouTube Studio, review and edit the auto-generated captions for each video. Fix names, technical terms, and anything the auto-captioning got wrong. For new videos, plan for captioning as part of the production process, not as an afterthought.
Honest caveat: For content with technical jargon, multiple speakers, or background noise, auto-captions will have significant errors. Professional captioning services may be worth the investment. This is an ongoing effort, not a one-time fix.
What NOT to Do: Accessibility Overlay Widgets
You may have seen tools that promise to make your website accessible by adding a single line of code. A toolbar appears on your site letting users adjust font size, contrast, and other settings. They sound like the perfect shortcut.
They're not. Here's what the data says:
- The FTC fined accessiBe, one of the largest overlay providers, $1 million in April 2025 for false advertising about what its overlay tool could actually do.
- 25% of accessibility lawsuits filed in 2024 specifically cited overlay widgets as the problem, not the solution.
- Overlays detect and fix at most 25-30% of accessibility issues.
- They can override the assistive technology that users with disabilities already have configured, creating frustration rather than removing it.
There are no shortcuts here. But the good news is that the genuine fixes in this post aren't that hard. An overlay widget isn't a fix. It's a liability.
When to Call a Professional
Not everything on this list is a quick fix, and some common accessibility issues go beyond what any blog post can walk you through:
- Complex interactive components (carousels, accordions, modal popups, mega menus) require specific ARIA attributes and keyboard interaction patterns. This is developer work.
- Dynamic content that updates without a full page reload needs specialized implementation to be visible to screen readers.
- PDF accessibility is its own discipline. Quick win: start with properly structured Word documents and export to accessible PDF. For existing PDF libraries, prioritize your most-accessed documents first.
- Third-party widgets (chat tools, donation forms, social media embeds) give you limited control over someone else's code. When evaluating third-party tools, ask about their accessibility compliance.
You don't need to fix everything at once. Start with the easy wins from this post. Every single fix makes your site more accessible to more people. For the harder stuff, that is what agencies like us are for, whether your site runs on WordPress or is custom built. We design accessibility into both, and we are always happy to help you figure out where to start.
Free Tools to Get Started
These are the tools we'd recommend to anyone beginning their accessibility journey. All free, all practical.
| Tool | What It Does | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| WAVE | Free browser extension. Visual accessibility evaluation right on your page, with icons showing errors where they occur. | Your first scan. Start here. |
| axe DevTools | Free browser extension. Detailed technical results with severity levels and code-level fix suggestions. | Generating a report to hand to your developer. |
| WebAIM Contrast Checker | Enter two colors, instantly see the contrast ratio and pass/fail for WCAG AA and AAA. | Checking specific color combinations. |
Important note: Automated tools like these catch approximately 30% of accessibility issues. Manual testing and human judgment are needed for the rest. But the fixes in this post address the issues that are both easy to find and easy to fix, which is exactly why starting here matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if my website is accessible?
Start with the WAVE browser extension (free). Run it on your homepage and your most-visited pages. It shows a visual report of errors, warnings, and structural elements directly on the page. For a more thorough check, try the keyboard navigation test: set your mouse aside and navigate your entire site using only Tab, Enter, and Escape. These two steps will reveal a significant number of issues without any technical knowledge.
Can my nonprofit get sued for an inaccessible website?
Yes. Over 5,000 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025, a 37% increase over 2024. The majority of defendants weren't large corporations; most e-commerce defendants had less than $25 million in revenue. Nonprofits that receive federal funding face additional requirements under Section 508 and Title II of the ADA, which now sets compliance deadlines in 2027 and 2028 for state and local government entities. The good news: making genuine, documented progress on accessibility demonstrates good faith. Part 1 of this series covers the full legal landscape.
What's the difference between ADA compliance and WCAG compliance?
The ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is a federal law requiring accessible services, including websites. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) is the technical standard that defines what "accessible" means in practice. Courts and the DOJ increasingly reference WCAG 2.1 AA as the benchmark for ADA compliance. Think of it this way: ADA is the law, WCAG is the rulebook. We break this down in more detail in Part 1.
Do I need to fix every accessibility issue to be compliant?
Full WCAG AA compliance across an entire website is a significant undertaking, especially for sites with years of existing content. The practical approach: start with the highest-impact, most common issues, which is exactly what this post covers. Prioritize new content being created accessibly, then work backward through existing pages by traffic and importance. Documented, ongoing improvement demonstrates good faith and reduces legal risk, even before you reach full compliance.
Start With What You Can Do Today
You don't need to fix everything today. Start with alt text. Check your contrast. Rewrite a few "click here" links. Each fix is a real improvement for real people using your site.
Next in this series, we look at how accessibility and SEO overlap in ways that might surprise you, and why the graphics on your website might be creating problems you haven't considered.
If you want help figuring out where your site stands, we're always happy to take a look.