If you run a nonprofit in the United States, the ADA almost certainly applies to your website. The Department of Justice has been clear about it. Federal courts have ruled on it consistently. Over 4,000 ADA website lawsuits hit federal court every year, and the demand letters never make the news because most organizations quietly settle.
Nonprofits are not exempt. We've seen small advocacy groups get demand letters. We've seen mid-sized charities settle for $25,000 plus remediation. The plaintiffs know nonprofits often have less budget to fight, which sometimes makes them easier targets, not harder.
Most of the calls we get about this start the same way. A board member forwards an article, or a funder asks about it in a grant application, and someone in the office Googles ADA compliance and ends up on a vendor's site that promises a $50 per month widget will solve everything. It will not. We'll get into why.
Here is what the ADA actually requires for your website in 2026, how Section 508 fits in if you take federal money, and a practical checklist you can use to figure out where you stand.
What the ADA actually requires
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. Title III covers places of public accommodation, which is the section that matters for most nonprofit websites. The law itself does not name websites specifically because the internet barely existed when it was written. Federal courts have been filling in that gap for two decades.
The consistent ruling: websites that provide services to the public count as places of public accommodation. The 2019 Domino's Pizza case at the Supreme Court was a turning point. The Court declined to hear Domino's appeal, leaving in place a Ninth Circuit ruling that the ADA does apply to websites. Other circuits have followed.
The technical standard everyone references is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. The ADA itself does not name WCAG, but the Department of Justice has repeatedly identified WCAG as the de facto benchmark, and so do most courts. If your site meets WCAG 2.1 AA, you have a strong defense. If it does not, you are exposed.
The penalty side is what gets attention. Title III does not allow monetary damages for individuals, but it does allow attorney's fees and injunctive relief. That means plaintiffs' lawyers can recover their costs even when their client gets nothing, which is why this is a viable business model for a certain class of firm. Typical nonprofit settlements run $5,000 to $50,000 plus remediation costs. Some go higher.
Section 508 if you take federal money
Section 508 is the other piece many nonprofits don't realize applies to them. If your organization receives federal funding or contracts with the federal government, Section 508 applies. The technical standard is the same WCAG 2.0 Level AA, but the compliance regime is different. Federal agencies are required to procure accessible technology, and that requirement passes through to grantees.
If you have federal grants, ask your program officer whether Section 508 compliance is in your award terms. Often it is, and nonprofits discover this years into a relationship. The reporting requirements are real, and noncompliance can affect future funding decisions even if no one sues you.
Why accessibility overlays are not a defense
You've seen them. The little blue icon in the corner of websites that opens a panel offering high contrast mode, larger fonts, dyslexia-friendly fonts, and so on. The vendors selling them often promise WCAG compliance, ADA protection, or some variation on that pitch.
The selling proposition is false in two ways.
First, the technology problem. The W3C, which writes WCAG, has publicly stated that overlay widgets do not constitute WCAG compliance. The overlay fact sheet at overlayfactsheet.com is signed by over 800 accessibility professionals and clearly explains why. These tools often conflict with the actual assistive technology that disabled users rely on, like JAWS or NVDA screen readers. Keyboard navigation breaks. Modal traps appear. Users get worse outcomes, not better.
Second, the legal problem. There have been multiple ADA lawsuits where defendants had installed overlay widgets and still lost. Plaintiffs' attorneys often specifically target overlay-equipped sites because the underlying violations are unchanged and the existence of the overlay does not prove compliance. In some cases, plaintiffs have argued the overlay itself created new accessibility barriers.
The legal exposure is the same whether you have a widget installed or not. The exposure is in your actual code, your content, your forms, your media. That's where the work has to happen.
The actual ADA compliance checklist
This is the work. It is not a widget. Once it's done properly, ongoing maintenance is light, but the initial pass is real.
1. Text alternatives for every image
Every meaningful image on your site needs alt text that describes what it conveys. Decorative images get empty alt. Logos get the organization name. Photos that carry information get descriptions. Icons that act as buttons need alt text describing the action.
Where nonprofits fail: stock photos with auto-generated alt like IMG_2847, donor logos with no alt, infographics that show information no screen reader user can access.
2. Captions and transcripts for media
Pre-recorded video needs accurate captions, not auto-generated ones. Pre-recorded audio needs a transcript. Live video should have real-time captions where reasonably possible. Embedded YouTube videos count, and YouTube's auto-captions usually do not meet the standard.
Where nonprofits fail: gala highlight reels with no captions, podcast episodes published with no transcripts, annual fundraising videos where the audio is the entire message and the deaf community cannot access it.
3. Color contrast that meets the standard
Body text needs a 4.5 to 1 contrast ratio against its background. Large text (18 points or 14 points bold) needs 3 to 1. The most common failure on nonprofit sites is light gray text on white backgrounds, which usually fails. Brand colors on buttons frequently fail too.
Where nonprofits fail: minimalist designs with light gray body copy, brand-colored buttons that look great but fail contrast, text overlaid on photos without enough contrast.
4. Keyboard navigation
Every interactive element on the site has to be reachable and operable using only a keyboard. Tab through your homepage right now. Can you get to every link, every form field, every button? Can you see where focus currently sits? Can you close menus and modals without a mouse?
Where nonprofits fail: dropdown menus that only work on hover, modals that trap focus or cannot be closed with the keyboard, mobile hamburger menus that mouse users love but keyboard users cannot escape.
5. Forms that actually work
Every form field needs a visible label. Required fields cannot rely on color alone to indicate required status. Error messages need to be specific, programmatically associated with the field, and announced by screen readers. Submission confirmations need to be perceivable without a mouse or visual scan.
Where nonprofits fail: donation forms with placeholders instead of real labels, contact forms that just flash a red border when something's wrong, multi-step forms with no announcement when the step changes.
6. Proper page structure and headings
Pages need a logical heading hierarchy. One H1. H2s for major sections. H3s under H2s. Headings selected based on document meaning, not because the designer wanted text at a certain size.
Where nonprofits fail: visual designs where H1s are picked for size, multiple H1s on a single page, headings used as decoration rather than structure.
7. Link text that makes sense in isolation
Screen reader users routinely pull up a list of all links on a page. If twelve of them say click here or learn more, that list is useless. Link text needs to describe where the link goes, even when read out of context.
Where nonprofits fail: blog index pages with identical read more links, donation buttons that just say click here, footer link blocks with vague labels.
8. Accessible PDFs and documents
PDFs linked from your site also have to be accessible. Tagged structure, real text not scanned images, alt text on images within the PDF, logical reading order. Annual reports are the single worst offender we see. So are grant filings reposted from the IRS or state agencies.
Where nonprofits fail: scanned annual reports with no OCR, beautifully designed reports exported from InDesign with zero accessibility tags, board meeting minutes uploaded as image PDFs.
9. Compatibility with assistive technology
The site needs to work with screen readers, screen magnifiers, voice control software, and switch devices. This is the bucket where ARIA labels, focus management, dynamic content announcements, and live regions all live.
Where nonprofits fail: custom built mega-menus with no ARIA roles, single page applications where route changes are not announced, carousels and image sliders that screen reader users cannot understand or navigate.
10. A public accessibility statement
You should publish an accessibility statement on your site. It tells visitors what standard you aim to meet, acknowledges any known issues, provides a contact path for accessibility feedback, and signals that the organization takes this seriously. It is also useful evidence of good faith if you ever do face a complaint.
Where nonprofits fail: no accessibility page at all, page exists but no one can find it, statement copied verbatim from another organization with no actual commitment behind it.
How to actually audit your site
You cannot test ADA compliance with a single tool. Anyone selling you that is selling you false security.
Automated scanners like axe DevTools, WAVE, Lighthouse, and accessibility insights catch maybe 30 to 40 percent of issues. They are great for finding missing alt text, contrast failures, and structural problems. They cannot judge whether your alt text actually describes the image, whether your keyboard flow makes sense, whether your form errors are understandable in context.
The other 60 percent is manual. Tab through every page using only a keyboard. Use a screen reader like NVDA on Windows or VoiceOver on Mac for at least one full session on the site. Test with someone who actually uses assistive technology if you can.
If you do not have anyone in-house who can do this work, hire someone. Most nonprofits underestimate the depth and overestimate what their existing web vendor can deliver. Web developers are not automatically accessibility experts. Many are not.
When to hire help
For most nonprofits the right move is to hire an accessibility partner for the initial audit and remediation, then handle ongoing maintenance internally once your team is trained on what to look for.
A proper manual ADA audit on a typical nonprofit site is two to five days of professional work. Remediation depends on the current state of the site. A modern, recently built site might need a week or two of fixes. An older site that has not been touched since 2018 may need a substantial rebuild. Most agencies price audits between $2,500 and $7,500 depending on scope.
Pragmatica has been building and auditing accessible websites for nonprofits and healthcare organizations for over 20 years. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the baseline on every site we build, not an add-on. We work with US nonprofits as well as Canadian ones, and we know how to coordinate with US legal counsel when there is an active demand letter or complaint to respond to.
If you want to know where your site actually stands, see what our accessibility services cover or get in touch and we will take a look.
