Does your small business website need to be ADA accessible? A Florida guide

This article is general information, not legal advice. If you've received a demand letter or lawsuit, talk to a Florida attorney.

Most small business owners have never heard of website accessibility — until a demand letter arrives. Florida is consistently one of the states with the most federal website accessibility lawsuits, and small businesses such as restaurants, shops and service companies are frequent targets.

What is website accessibility?

An accessible website can be used by people with disabilities: people who are blind and use screen readers, people who can't use a mouse and navigate with a keyboard, people with low vision who zoom in or need strong contrast, and people who are deaf and need captions on videos.

Does the ADA apply to my website?

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses open to the public to be accessible. The law was written before the internet, and courts don't all agree on exactly when it covers websites — but plaintiffs regularly file suits against business websites, and many cases settle. There's no federal regulation that sets a technical standard for private business websites; complaints and settlements usually point to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 or 2.2, Level AA.

The practical takeaway: whether or not your business would ultimately lose in court, an inaccessible website creates risk — and it also turns away real customers.

The most common problems we see

• Images without alternative text (screen readers can't describe them).
• Low contrast — light gray text on white backgrounds.
• Forms without labels, so screen-reader users don't know what to type.
• Menus, sliders or pop-ups that don't work with a keyboard.
• Links that say "click here" with no context.
• Videos with no captions.
• PDFs (like menus) that aren't readable by assistive technology.

Practical steps to reduce your risk

1. Run a free check. Tools like WAVE or Lighthouse (built into Chrome) flag many common issues.
2. Fix the basics: alt text, contrast, form labels, keyboard navigation and headings in a logical order.
3. Replace PDF menus and documents with regular web pages.
4. Caption your videos.
5. Publish an accessibility statement that explains your commitment and gives people a way to report problems — then respond quickly when they do. (Here's ours.)
6. Be wary of "one-line fix" overlay widgets. Automated overlays don't fix underlying code problems, and websites using them have still been sued.
7. Re-check after changes. New pages, plugins and photos can introduce new problems.

Accessibility is also good business

Accessible websites tend to be faster, clearer and better for SEO, because the same things that help screen readers — headings, alt text, descriptive links — also help Google understand your page. And roughly one in four U.S. adults reports having some type of disability, according to the CDC. That's a lot of customers.