Manual ADA Website Audit — WCAG 2.1 AA
A $249 Audit. Or a $15,000 Settlement. Your Choice.
3,117 federal ADA web lawsuits were filed in 2024, up 27% year over year. The average settlement runs $5,000–$25,000 before legal fees. A manual audit of your website identifies the exact issues a plaintiff’s attorney would find — before they find them first.
Free ADA Scanners Catch 30% of Violations. Demand Letters Are Filed for the Other 70%.
Tools like WAVE, Lighthouse, and automated accessibility checkers catch what machines can catch — missing alt text, color contrast failures, obvious form label gaps. They miss what a human using a screen reader finds: broken navigation flows, inaccessible modals, keyboard traps, PDFs that can’t be read. Plaintiffs’ attorneys test your site the way a disabled user would. They don’t run a scanner.
federal ADA web lawsuits filed in 2024
average settlement before legal fees
of violations caught by free scanners
3,117 lawsuits filed in 2024 · $5K–$25K average settlement · 30% caught by free scanners
What’s In Your Audit Report
- 1Full manual review of your homepage, contact page, product pages, and checkout (up to 10 pages)
- 2WCAG 2.1 AA criterion-by-criterion checklist with pass/fail for each tested element
- 3Screenshot documentation of every violation found
- 4Severity ratings: Critical / Major / Minor
- 5Developer-ready remediation notes — exactly what to fix and how
- 6A signed letter documenting that a good-faith audit was conducted on [date]
The signed letter matters. A documented good-faith remediation effort carries legal weight if a claim is filed after the audit. A scanner printout does not.
This Is Not an Automated Scan
What WAVE finds
- Color contrast
- Missing alt text
- Empty links
What Lighthouse finds
- Basic ARIA labels
- Some keyboard issues
What our auditor finds
- All of the above, plus:
- Screen reader navigation
- Keyboard-only testing
- Interactive element flows
- PDF accessibility
- Cognitive load issues
- Mobile-specific barriers
Fixed Price. No Sales Call. Delivered in 3–5 Days.
Manual ADA Accessibility Audit
- Up to 10 pages audited
- WCAG 2.1 AA criterion checklist
- Screenshot documentation of violations
- Developer remediation notes
- Severity ratings
- Signed audit letter
- Delivered in 3–5 business days
Need more than 10 pages or an e-commerce site? Email us for a custom quote.
We Audit Sites in These Industries Most Frequently
Each industry has specific accessibility patterns we know to look for. Dental and medical sites commonly fail on PDF intake forms. Law firms on multi-step contact flows. Restaurants on menu PDFs and reservation widgets.
Common Questions
- What is WCAG 2.1 AA and why does it matter?
- WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2.1 Level AA is the technical standard most ADA website lawsuits reference. Courts have increasingly held that websites must be accessible to people with disabilities under Title III of the ADA. WCAG 2.1 AA is the most commonly cited compliance benchmark.
- How is this different from a free accessibility checker?
- Free checkers are automated — they find maybe 30% of issues. Our audit is manual. A real person navigates your site using a keyboard, screen reader, and structured testing protocol. That’s what catches the issues that get cited in demand letters.
- Does this guarantee I won’t be sued?
- No audit or service can guarantee that. What it does is (1) fix the real issues on your site and (2) document that you made a good-faith effort to audit and remediate. Both matter if a claim is ever filed. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice.
- Do I need an ADA website compliance consultant?
- For most small businesses, a full consultant engagement is more than the problem requires. ADA website compliance consultants make sense for large organizations that need ongoing programs, training, and formal documentation. If you need to know what is wrong with your site and exactly how to fix it, a scoped manual audit covers the same ground: an expert review against WCAG 2.1 AA with developer-ready remediation notes, at a fixed $249.
- How long does it take?
- Report delivered within 3–5 business days of order.
- What do I do if I’ve already received a demand letter?
- Contact an attorney immediately — don’t ignore it. An audit is still useful to understand what the attorney found and to remediate before any settlement discussion. See our guide: What to Do If You Get an ADA Demand Letter.
This report identifies technical accessibility issues based on WCAG 2.1 AA criteria. It is not legal advice, does not constitute legal counsel, and does not certify compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act or any other law. ADA Audit Service is not a law firm. Consult a qualified attorney for legal advice or if you have received a demand letter.