Top 10 ADA Violations

WCAG reference: 1.1.1 Non-text Content
Level: A

If an image conveys information, it needs alternative text in the alt attribute. That’s it. Not complicated.

The failure happens constantly.

I audited a regional car dealership site in Ohio in 2024. The homepage hero showed a red 2022 Ford F-150 with “0% APR for 60 months” in big white letters. The <img> tag had no alt attribute. A screen reader user heard nothing. Just silence between headings.

That promotion ran for six weeks.

This is not about decorative icons. Decorative images should have empty alt text (alt=""). Informational images need meaningful text.

Bad example:

<img src="f150-sale.jpg">

Better example:

<img src="f150-sale.jpg" alt="Red 2022 Ford F-150 with 0% APR for 60 months financing offer">

The trade-off is time. Writing good alt text for hundreds of product photos takes effort. On a 1,200-vehicle inventory site, that’s work. But skipping it creates exposure. And automated tools only catch that the attribute is missing. They can’t tell you if the description is useful.

2. poor color contrast

WCAG reference: 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)
Level: AA

Text must have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background. Large text can drop to 3:1.

Design teams ignore this constantly.

In 2022, I reviewed a luxury hotel website based in Miami. Body text was #9E9E9E on a white background. The contrast ratio was around 2.8:1. It looked “elegant.” It was unreadable for users with low vision.

After the redesign, bounce rate on mobile dropped 11% over three months. Not because of accessibility messaging. Because people could actually read the copy.

The limitation: strict contrast requirements can conflict with brand guidelines. Marketing departments push back. But contrast is math. Either it passes or it doesn’t.

You can test contrast with free tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker. No guesswork.

3. inaccessible forms

WCAG reference: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships, 3.3.2 Labels or Instructions
Level: A and AA

Forms are where lawsuits often focus.

Common failures:

• Inputs without associated <label> elements
• Placeholder text used instead of labels
• Error messages that appear visually but aren’t announced to screen readers
• Required fields not identified programmatically

In 2023, a small medical practice in New Jersey settled an ADA claim after a patient couldn’t submit an intake form online. The fields were visually labeled, but the labels weren’t programmatically connected. Screen reader users heard “edit text” repeated six times with no context.

Basic correct structure:

<label for="email">Email address</label>
<input type="email" id="email" name="email">

The trade-off here is developer discipline. Many modern form builders output accessible markup. Custom JavaScript-heavy forms often break it.

If your lead generation form doesn’t work for keyboard and screen reader users, it’s not just a compliance issue. It’s lost revenue.

4. no keyboard accessibility

WCAG reference: 2.1.1 Keyboard
Level: A

Everything interactive must be operable with a keyboard alone.

That includes:

• Navigation menus
• Popups
• Sliders
• Filters
• Checkout flows

Press Tab. Can you reach everything? Can you see where focus is?

In 2021, I tested a dealership site in Texas. The “Schedule Test Drive” modal opened visually, but focus stayed behind the modal. Keyboard users were trapped. They couldn’t close it without a mouse.

Developers often remove the default focus outline because “it looks ugly.” They replace it with nothing.

That’s a violation.

CSS like this is common:

:focus {
  outline: none;
}

If you remove the outline, you must replace it with a visible alternative.

Keyboard testing takes 10 minutes. Yet it’s one of the top failures in nearly every audit.

5. missing or incorrect heading structure

WCAG reference: 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
Level: A

Headings are not just for SEO. They’re structural markers.

Screen reader users often navigate by headings. If your page jumps from <h1> to <h4> with no <h2> or <h3>, that’s confusing. If every bold line is styled as an <h3> because it “looks right,” that’s also a problem.

I reviewed a law firm site in California in 2024. The homepage had:

• Four <h1> tags
• No <h2> tags
• Seventeen <h3> tags used for styling

Visually fine. Structurally broken.

Correct structure is simple:

<h1>Los Angeles personal injury lawyer</h1>
<h2>Car accident cases</h2>
<h2>Wrongful death claims</h2>
<h3>Free consultation</h3>

SEO and accessibility align here. Clean heading hierarchy helps both.

The limitation: content management systems sometimes auto-generate heading levels. Fixing it can require template changes, not just content edits.

6. inaccessible pdf documents

WCAG reference: 1.1.1, 1.3.1
Level: A

If you post PDFs, they must be accessible.

Scanned PDFs are just images. No selectable text. No tags. Screen readers can’t interpret them.

In 2022, a city government in Illinois entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice over inaccessible online documents. The issue wasn’t flashy. It was meeting minutes and permit forms uploaded as scanned images.

An accessible PDF needs:

• Proper tagging
• Logical reading order
• Alt text for images
• Form field labels

Creating accessible PDFs takes time. Retrofitting hundreds of legacy documents is expensive. That’s the trade-off. But ignoring them doesn’t remove liability.

7. auto-playing media without controls

WCAG reference: 1.2.2 Captions (Prerecorded), 2.2.2 Pause, Stop, Hide
Level: A and AA

Two issues show up repeatedly:

• Videos without captions
• Auto-playing content that can’t be paused

If you publish marketing videos, they need captions. Not auto-generated junk with 40% error rates. Real captions.

In the Domino’s litigation record, the plaintiff argued that the website and app didn’t work with screen readers. The same principle applies to media: if users can’t perceive it, that’s a barrier.

Auto-play background videos on homepages are common. If they last more than five seconds and can’t be paused, that’s a violation.

Captions cost money. Rev.com charges roughly $1.50 per minute. Multiply that by 50 videos. Businesses hesitate.

Still cheaper than litigation.

8. missing skip navigation links

WCAG reference: 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks
Level: A

A skip link lets keyboard users jump past repetitive navigation directly to main content.

Without it, users must tab through every menu item on every page.

Basic example:

<a href="#main-content" class="skip-link">Skip to main content</a>

Then:

<main id="main-content">

I audited a 300-page e-commerce site in 2023. The top navigation had 42 links. On every page, keyboard users had to tab through all 42 before reaching product details.

It’s a small fix. Many frameworks don’t include it by default. That’s the problem.

9. reliance on overlays instead of fixing code

Not a specific WCAG failure. More of a pattern.

Accessibility overlays are third-party scripts that claim to make your site ADA compliant instantly. You’ve seen the floating wheelchair icon.

In 2023, hundreds of lawsuits were filed against companies that were already using overlays. Plaintiffs argued that the underlying code was still inaccessible.

Overlay companies promise compliance for $49 to $149 per month. Real remediation can cost $5,000 to $50,000 depending on site size.

The criticism: overlays don’t fix structural HTML problems. They add a layer of JavaScript on top. If the base markup is broken, it’s still broken.

There’s a trade-off here. Overlays can provide user tools like text resizing and contrast toggles. But they are not a substitute for meeting WCAG standards at the code level.

10. inconsistent focus management in dynamic content

WCAG reference: 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value; 2.4.3 Focus Order
Level: A and AA

Modern websites rely on JavaScript frameworks. Content updates dynamically without page reloads.

Common failures:

• Modals that don’t trap focus
• Dropdown menus without ARIA roles
• Error messages not announced via aria-live
• Content updates that screen readers never detect

In 2024, I reviewed a SaaS dashboard used by auto dealerships across three states. When a filter was applied, results updated visually. Screen reader users heard nothing. No announcement. No focus shift.

Proper ARIA usage is technical. Developers must define roles, states, and properties explicitly.

Example:

<div role="alert" aria-live="assertive">
  Inventory updated. 24 vehicles found.
</div>

The limitation: ARIA is powerful but easy to misuse. Bad ARIA can make things worse. The first rule is still: use semantic HTML whenever possible.

the legal and business reality

Title III of the ADA applies to places of public accommodation. Courts increasingly interpret that to include commercial websites.

Settlements often require:

• WCAG 2.1 AA conformance
• Third-party audits
• Ongoing monitoring for 2–3 years
• Attorney’s fees

Attorney’s fees alone can run $10,000 to $30,000 in smaller cases. Defense costs can exceed that.

Some businesses gamble. They wait for a demand letter.

Others build accessibility into their development process from the start. That costs less over time. But it requires discipline: design reviews, code reviews, manual testing with screen readers like NVDA or JAWS, and periodic audits.

Accessibility is not a plugin. It’s not a one-time scan. It’s a process.

final notes on compliance

Automated tools typically catch 20–30% of WCAG failures. The rest require manual review. That’s not marketing copy. That’s what shows up in audits.

The top ten violations above account for the majority of accessibility complaints filed in federal court over the last five years. They are also the easiest to fix if addressed early in development.

Ignore them, and the risk compounds. Fix them, and your site works better for everyone — including people using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, or low-vision settings.

That’s the reality.