Website Accessibility for Plano Small Businesses: A Plain-English ADA Checklist

Website accessibility means building your website so everyone can use it, including people who are blind and use screen readers, people who can't use a mouse, and people with low vision or hearing loss. It matters for local businesses: according to the CDC, more than 1 in 4 U.S. adults (28.7 percent) have some type of disability. This guide from Web Designer Plano explains what accessibility is, why it matters for DFW small businesses, and how to fix the most common problems.

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

Why Website Accessibility Matters for Small Businesses

There are three good reasons to care.

Customers. If a quarter of adults could struggle with your site, you may be losing calls and sales without knowing it.
The law. The Department of Justice's guidance on web accessibility and the ADA says the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to businesses that are open to the public, and that those businesses must provide "full and equal enjoyment" of their goods and services to people with disabilities. The guidance gives businesses flexibility in how they comply.
Lawsuits. Law firm Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits filed in federal court in 2025, a 27 percent increase from 2024. Those cases made up 36 percent of all ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal court that year.

There's a bonus, too. Many accessibility fixes, like clear headings, descriptive image text, and readable layouts, also help search engines understand your pages.

The Six Most Common Website Accessibility Problems

Every year, the nonprofit WebAIM tests the home pages of the top one million websites. Its 2026 WebAIM Million report found that 95.9 percent of home pages had detectable accessibility failures, averaging 56.1 errors per page. Most errors fall into six types:

Low-contrast text (83.9 percent of home pages): light gray text on a white background, or text placed over busy photos.
Missing alternative text for images (53.1 percent): images with no written description for screen readers.
Missing form labels (51 percent): contact form fields with no label telling the visitor what to enter.
Empty links (46.3 percent): links, often icons, with no text explaining where they go.
Empty buttons (30.6 percent): buttons that a screen reader can't describe.
Missing page language (13.5 percent): a missing setting that tells screen readers which language to read the page in.

The good news: these are fixable problems, and most small business sites can address them without a full rebuild.

A Plain-English Website Accessibility Checklist

Work through this list on your homepage, your main service pages, and your contact page first.

Make text easy to read

Use dark text on a light background, or the reverse. Avoid pale gray text.
Don't put important text directly on top of photos without a solid or darkened background behind it.
Make sure visitors can zoom in without the layout breaking.

Describe your images

Give every meaningful image short alt text that describes what it shows, such as "Technician repairing an AC unit in a Plano backyard."
Decorative images can use empty alt text so screen readers skip them. Our image SEO guide covers how to write good alt text.

Fix your forms

Every field needs a visible label, like "Phone number," not just gray placeholder text that disappears when someone starts typing.
Error messages should explain what went wrong in words, not just turn a box red.

Label links and buttons

Use link text that makes sense alone: "See our pricing" instead of "Click here."
Social media icons and menu buttons need hidden text labels that screen readers can announce.

Test with a keyboard

Put your mouse aside and press the Tab key. Can you reach every menu, link, and button? Can you see where you are on the page?
Can you fill out and submit your contact form without a mouse?

Add captions and an accessibility contact

Add captions to videos with speech.
The DOJ guidance lists offering a way for visitors to report accessibility problems as a helpful practice. A short line in your footer with an email or phone number works.

How to Check Your Own Site for Free

WAVE. WebAIM's free WAVE tool highlights many of the problems above directly on your page.
Lighthouse. Built into the Chrome browser, its Accessibility score flags common issues.
Keyboard and phone test. Spend 10 minutes using your site with only a keyboard, then on a phone with the text size turned up. Our mobile-friendly website checklist pairs well with this.

Remember that automated tools only catch part of the picture. WebAIM notes its results reflect only automatically detectable issues, so real accessibility is usually lower than a scan suggests. A quick plug-in or widget can't replace fixing the underlying problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the ADA apply to my small business website?

The Department of Justice's guidance says the ADA applies to businesses open to the public, including the goods and services they offer on the web. Whether and how it applies to your situation is a legal question, so ask an attorney if you're unsure.

What standard should my website follow?

The DOJ guidance points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a helpful reference. WCAG is the widely used set of technical guidelines for accessible websites.

Will an accessibility widget make my site compliant?

A widget can add features like text resizing, but it can't fix missing labels, poor structure, or inaccessible forms in your site's code. Fixing the site itself is the more reliable approach.

Does website accessibility help SEO?

Many fixes overlap. Clear headings, descriptive alt text, and meaningful link text help both screen reader users and search engines understand your pages.

Need help making your website accessible to every customer in DFW? Web Designer Plano builds fast, SEO-ready websites for small businesses across Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney and the rest of DFW. We handle the technical side so you can focus on running your business.