Does your website need to be ADA accessible?

There's no single official ADA web standard yet, but courts have increasingly treated business websites as "places of public accommodation," and demand-letter lawsuits targeting small business sites over accessibility gaps are a real, growing category — not just something large companies deal with.

The basics that cover most of the real risk:

• Alt text on images, so a screen reader can describe your project photos and logo to a visitor who can't see them
• Enough color contrast between text and background to be readable, not just on-brand
• A site that's fully usable with a keyboard alone, with no interactive element that only works by mouse
• Forms with properly labeled fields, so a screen reader announces what each one is actually asking for

This isn't exotic work. Most of it is covered automatically by a well-built theme or a developer who follows basic WCAG practices from the start, rather than something bolted on as a separate project after launch.

The honest risk assessment: full legal compliance is a moving target, and no small business site is likely to be airtight against every possible claim. But the four basics above close most of the practical gap, and they cost nothing extra when they're built in from day one instead of retrofitted after a complaint.