Industry ReportMarch 22, 2026

The State of ADA Web Compliance 2026

We scanned 6,693 websites across 34 industries and scored each against 9 WCAG accessibility criteria. 55.5% fail. The average score is 49.6 out of 100. This is the most comprehensive cross-industry ADA web compliance study published in 2026.

n = 6,693 sites|34 industries|51 states + DC|9 violation categories

The Big Picture

6,693

Websites scanned

55.5%

Overall fail rate

42%

Have critical violations

49.6

Average score (of 100)

Industries analyzed

4.6%

Perfect score (100)

Two out of three websites fail basic ADA compliance. More than half have at least one critical violation. The median score is 60, and only 4.6% scored a perfect 100. The gap between industries is wide: e-commerce averages 23.3, while education averages 58.1.

The Lawsuit Landscape

ADA web lawsuits have grown consistently since 2018. An estimated 5,062 web-related lawsuits were filed in 2025, based on Seyfarth Shaw data showing 8,667 total ADA Title III federal filings. E-commerce accounts for roughly 70% of all web accessibility lawsuits, followed by food service at 21%.

ADA Web Lawsuit Filings by Year

Source: UsableNet Year-End Reports + Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III

2025 figure is Seyfarth Shaw federal filings (8,667 total ADA Title III, ~58% web-related estimate)

ADA Web Lawsuits by Industry

Source: EcomBack 2024 Annual ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuit Report

New York leads with 2,847 filings, followed by California (1,423) and Florida (987). Source: Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III News & Insights, 2024 filing data

Cross-Industry Comparison

E-commerce is the worst-performing industry by a wide margin, with an average score of 23.3 and an 80% fail rate. Healthcare (60.2) and education (58.1) lead the pack. Government sites, which face a hard compliance deadline on April 24, 2026, average 54.3.

Average Score by Industry

6693 sites across 32 industries, sorted worst to best

Below 40 (high risk)40-59 (moderate)60+ (better)

Industry	Sites	Avg Score	Median	Fail Rate	Critical Rate
Ecommerce	904	23.3	0	80%	73.5%
News-media-batch	334	36.9	20	67.4%	57.8%
Canada-healthcare	61	42.4	30	62.3%	54.1%
Religious	70	44.1	47.5	65.7%	50%
Hospitality	59	44.8	50	62.7%	49.2%
Nonprofit	79	45.4	50	59.5%	49.4%
Fashion	62	45.5	52.5	58.1%	46.8%
Personal-services-batch	193	47.7	60	61.7%	41.5%
Food-beverage-batch	253	48.2	60	58.9%	43.9%
Construction-trades-batch	169	48.7	60	58.6%	44.4%
Canada-businesses	138	49.5	60	55.1%	42.8%
Canada-universities	91	49.5	60	57.1%	45.1%
Travel-airlines-batch	188	51.1	70	49.5%	41%
Medical	102	52.4	60	60.8%	35.3%
Entertainment-batch	313	52.9	70	47.9%	36.4%
Professional-services-batch	252	52.9	60	54%	37.7%
Saas-tech-batch	449	53.9	75	47.9%	37%
Automotive	31	54	70	48.4%	35.5%
Government	297	54.3	65	53.2%	35.4%
Dental	65	55.8	60	58.5%	27.7%
Financial	83	56.6	80	43.4%	36.1%
Government-expanded-batch	542	56.6	65	50.6%	32.3%
Insurance	64	56.7	70	50%	34.4%
Real_estate	46	57.1	75	41.3%	34.8%
Retail	54	57.1	75	46.3%	35.2%
Legal	71	57.3	65	50.7%	32.4%
Education	787	58.1	70	46.8%	32.9%
Government_county	62	58.8	70	48.4%	33.9%
Fitness	53	60	70	49.1%	30.2%
Healthcare	234	60.2	70	45.3%	30.3%
Restaurant	430	62.9	75	44%	25.8%
Canada-government	157	64.8	80	36.9%	26.1%

Title II Compliance Deadline

The DOJ's Title II web accessibility rule requires state and local government websites to meet WCAG 2.1 AA by April 24, 2026. We scanned 297 city government websites. 158 are currently failing, serving a combined population of 29.2 million people.

ADA Title II Web Accessibility Deadline

State and local government websites must comply with WCAG 2.1 AA by April 24, 2026

Days

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

158

cities failing

53.2%

fail rate

29.2M

population at risk

54.3

avg gov score

Top failing cities (score = 0):

Phoenix, AZ (pop. 1650K)Jacksonville, FL (pop. 986K)Austin, TX (pop. 980K)Indianapolis, IN (pop. 888K)Washington, DC (pop. 679K)Boston, MA (pop. 676K)Las Vegas, NV (pop. 661K)Long Beach, CA (pop. 467K)

Source: OnePageAudit scan data + ADA.gov Title II Web Accessibility Rule (28 CFR Part 35)

Methodology

Scanning method:Sites were scanned using OnePageAudit's regex-based HTML analysis engine (not axe-core or any browser-based auditing tool). The scanner fetches raw HTML and checks for 9 WCAG-aligned accessibility criteria:

Missing lang attribute on <html>
Images without alt text
Missing <title> element
Missing viewport meta tag
Empty links (no accessible text)
Unlabeled form inputs
Missing skip navigation link
Missing or broken heading structure (no H1)
Autoplaying media elements

Scoring: Each criterion is weighted. Scores range from 0 (all violations present) to 100 (no violations detected). The pass threshold is 70. Scores reflect detectable HTML-level violations only. Manual testing, color contrast, and dynamic content analysis were not performed.

Statistical methods: Standard deviation, quartile analysis, Pearson correlation, Jaccard similarity for co-occurrence, k-means clustering (k=5, silhouette score 0.296), and multivariate linear regression (R2 = 0.413).

Limitations: Regex-based analysis catches fewer issues than browser-based tools. The 9 rules cover a subset of WCAG 2.1 AA criteria. Results represent a point-in-time snapshot. Small sample sizes for some states and industries should be treated as directional.

Sources

UsableNet 2024 Year-End ADA Web Lawsuit ReportAnnual lawsuit counts 2018-2024

Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III News & Insights2025 federal filing count, state-level filing data

EcomBack 2024 Annual ReportIndustry breakdown of ADA web lawsuits

WebAIM Million 2025Referenced for context (94.8% failure rate across 1M pages)

ADA.gov Title II Web Accessibility RuleApril 24, 2026 deadline, WCAG 2.1 AA requirement

Industry Deep Dives

Each industry has a distinct compliance profile. E-commerce has the highest volume (904 sites) and the worst scores. Government and legal sites cluster in the middle. Healthcare and education perform best overall but still show meaningful failure rates.

Industry Deep Dives

23.3

avg score

median

80%

fail rate

73.5%

critical violations

34.7

standard deviation

20%

passing rate

Score position (0-100)

pass

Violation Patterns

Violations do not appear in isolation. Skip navigation (bypass) and form labels co-occur on 228 sites (Jaccard 0.423). Image alt and form labels co-occur on 203 sites. These pairs represent systemic gaps, not one-off omissions.

Violation Co-occurrence Matrix

How often violations appear together on the same site (count of sites, n=1,342)

Diagonal = sites with that individual violation. Off-diagonal = shared count.

	Lang attr	Image alt	Doc title	Viewport	Link name	Form labels	Skip nav	H1 heading	Autoplay
Lang attr	426	125	203	228	48	72	413	252	24
Image alt	125	2225	31	81	996	1168	1793	100	462
Doc title	203	31	259	172	8	4	257	235	0
Viewport	228	81	172	341	65	29	335	248	6
Link name	48	996	8	65	2261	1212	1732	62	451
Form labels	72	1168	4	29	1212	2809	2117	30	579
Skip nav	413	1793	257	335	1732	2117	5220	562	888
H1 heading	252	100	235	248	62	30	562	579	8
Autoplay	24	462	0	6	451	579	888	8	1184

LowHigh co-occurrenceIndividual frequency (diagonal)

Top Co-occurring Violation Pairs

Ranked by Jaccard similarity (intersection / union). Higher Jaccard = violations that almost always appear together.

Violation 1	Violation 2	Co-occurrences	Jaccard
Lang attr	Viewport	228	0.423
Lang attr	Doc title	203	0.421
Doc title	Viewport	172	0.402
Doc title	H1 heading	235	0.390
Viewport	H1 heading	248	0.369
Form labels	Skip nav	2117	0.358
Lang attr	H1 heading	252	0.335
Image alt	Skip nav	1793	0.317
Link name	Form labels	1212	0.314
Image alt	Form labels	1168	0.302

Violation Clusters

K-means clustering (k=5) grouped the 6,693 sites by violation profile. The resulting clusters range from near-zero average scores (cluster with image alt + link name + label violations) to 80+ (sites with mostly skip nav issues but otherwise clean).

Violation Clusters (k-means, k=5)

Sites grouped by violation patterns. Bubble size = number of sites.

1706

Image Alt + Bypass + Label

Avg score: 16.9 | 1706 sites

Image alt: 100%Skip nav: 100%Form labels: 54.9%

E-commerce: 393Government: 148Saas-tech: 131Education: 126Entertainment: 112News-media: 105Restaurant: 78Food-beverage: 77Professional-services: 65Travel-airlines: 58Construction-trades: 57Personal-services: 54Canada_business: 51Canada_education: 30Healthcare: 28Canada_healthcare: 24Canada_government: 23Medical: 23Religious: 21Dental: 13Retail: 13Hospitality: 11Automotive: 9Real_estate: 9Fashion: 8Financial: 8Fitness: 8Insurance: 8Nonprofit: 6Legal: 5Government_county: 4

1159

Label + Link Name + Image Alt

Avg score: 43.7 | 1159 sites

Form labels: 59.7%Link name: 45.6%Image alt: 37.3%

Education: 216Government: 154E-commerce: 140Healthcare: 76Restaurant: 64News-media: 55Nonprofit: 37Legal: 31Financial: 30Food-beverage: 30Personal-services: 26Professional-services: 25Government_county: 23Saas-tech: 23Fashion: 22Entertainment: 20Insurance: 20Canada_business: 17Canada_government: 17Construction-trades: 17Hospitality: 17Medical: 14Canada_education: 13Fitness: 13Retail: 12Religious: 11Travel-airlines: 11Canada_healthcare: 10Dental: 9Real_estate: 5Automotive: 1

2963

Bypass + Label + Link Name

Avg score: 62.5 | 2963 sites

Skip nav: 100%Form labels: 39.7%Link name: 30.5%

Government: 473Education: 392E-commerce: 313Saas-tech: 244Restaurant: 198Professional-services: 135Entertainment: 127News-media: 117Food-beverage: 105Canada_government: 98Healthcare: 85Travel-airlines: 82Personal-services: 77Construction-trades: 76Canada_business: 48Medical: 46Canada_education: 44Financial: 31Legal: 30Real_estate: 26Government_county: 25Canada_healthcare: 24Insurance: 24Religious: 22Fashion: 20Hospitality: 20Nonprofit: 20Dental: 18Fitness: 17Retail: 16Automotive: 10

558

Bypass + Page Has Heading One + Html Has Lang

Avg score: 66.1 | 558 sites

Skip nav: 98.7%H1 heading: 96.8%Lang attr: 48.2%

Restaurant: 74Entertainment: 52E-commerce: 47News-media: 37Saas-tech: 37Travel-airlines: 30Personal-services: 29Government: 28Food-beverage: 26Canada_business: 19Dental: 19Healthcare: 19Medical: 17Construction-trades: 15Professional-services: 15Automotive: 10Canada_government: 10Religious: 10Fitness: 9Education: 8Fashion: 7Retail: 7Insurance: 6Nonprofit: 6Hospitality: 5Real_estate: 5Government_county: 4Financial: 3Legal: 2Canada_healthcare: 1Canada_education: 1

State Risk Rankings

New York is the highest-risk state with a risk score of 84.4, driven by 2,847 lawsuits and a 52.9% fail rate. California follows at 62.7. States with dedicated accessibility laws (Unruh Act, NYCHRL, WLAD) carry additional enforcement risk.

State Risk Rankings

Click column headers to sort. Risk score combines fail rate, lawsuit volume, and state law presence.

State	Sites	Avg Score	Fail Rate	Lawsuits	State Law	Risk v
NY	87	52.1	52.9%	2,847	NYCHRL + State HRL	84.4 (Critical)
CA	139	57.7	46%	1,423	Unruh Civil Rights Act	62.7 (High)
IL	45	46.2	62.2%	356	IHRA	51.1 (High)
MA	31	59.7	38.7%	234	Ch. 151B	45.4 (Moderate)
CO	19	51.6	47.4%	-	CADA	44.5 (Moderate)
MT	2	10	100%	-	None	42 (Moderate)
MI	24	61.7	54.2%	-	ELCRA	41.5 (Moderate)
ND	2	15	100%	-	None	40.5 (Moderate)
MN	21	66.4	33.3%	-	MHRA	40.1 (Moderate)
SC	6	17.5	83.3%	-	None	39.8 (Moderate)
FL	38	71.7	31.6%	987	None	37.4 (Moderate)
RI	6	28.3	66.7%	-	None	36.5 (Moderate)
WA	23	80.7	17.4%	-	WLAD	35.8 (Moderate)
GA	20	41.2	65%	198	None	35.4 (Moderate)
TX	60	50.9	60%	298	None	33.9 (Moderate)
DE	6	37.5	66.7%	-	None	33.8 (Moderate)
KY	11	39.1	72.7%	-	None	33.3 (Moderate)
HI	4	40	50%	-	None	33 (Moderate)
AL	5	40	60%	-	None	33 (Moderate)
VT	2	42.5	50%	-	None	32.2 (Moderate)
PA	26	63.5	38.5%	412	None	31.8 (Moderate)
UT	8	47.5	50%	-	None	30.8 (Moderate)
CT	16	47.5	50%	-	None	30.8 (Moderate)
AK	3	48.3	66.7%	-	None	30.5 (Moderate)
NE	9	50.6	44.4%	-	None	29.8 (Low)
NJ	26	63.5	34.6%	267	None	29.7 (Low)
AZ	18	51.7	61.1%	-	None	29.5 (Low)
DC	16	51.6	50%	-	None	29.5 (Low)
VA	30	52.8	56.7%	-	None	29.1 (Low)
OH	43	65.1	34.9%	176	None	27.9 (Low)
MD	19	57.1	36.8%	-	None	27.9 (Low)
LA	8	56.9	75%	-	None	27.9 (Low)
NC	23	58.5	52.2%	-	None	27.5 (Low)
NM	4	60	50%	-	None	27 (Low)
MO	14	60	50%	-	None	27 (Low)
OK	7	61.4	42.9%	-	None	26.6 (Low)
TN	17	67.4	35.3%	-	None	24.8 (Low)
IN	7	67.9	28.6%	-	None	24.6 (Low)
ID	5	68	20%	-	None	24.6 (Low)
NV	7	70	42.9%	-	None	24 (Low)
WI	15	70	33.3%	-	None	24 (Low)
AR	8	71.2	37.5%	-	None	23.6 (Low)
IA	8	73.1	50%	-	None	23.1 (Low)
OR	16	74.7	25%	-	None	22.6 (Low)
KS	6	75.8	33.3%	-	None	22.2 (Low)
NH	2	87.5	0%	-	None	18.8 (Low)
SD	2	90	0%	-	None	18 (Low)
MS	3	93.3	0%	-	None	17 (Low)
ME	2	95	0%	-	None	16.5 (Low)
WV	1	100	0%	-	None	15 (Low)
WY	1	100	0%	-	None	15 (Low)

Sources: Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III News & Insights, 2024 filing data. Individual state statutes (Unruh Act, NYCHRL, WLAD, etc.).

What Predicts ADA Scores?

A multivariate linear regression model explains 41.3% of the variance in ADA scores. The strongest predictors are industry (e-commerce reduces scores by 15.9 points) and the number of violation types present (each type reduces by 17.5 points). Overlay widgets independently reduce scores by 7.8 points.

Predictive Model: What Drives ADA Scores?

Multivariate linear regression (n=6,693)

41.3%

variance explained (R2)

90.8

baseline score (intercept)

features tested

Per violation

-17.53

E-commerce

-15.86

Dental

+11.66

Nonprofit

-10.40

Restaurant

+10.34

Automotive

+9.56

News-media

-9.17

Fitness

+8.52

Has overlay

-7.76

Canada_healthcare

-6.80

Medical

+6.59

Financial

-5.91

Hospitality

-5.90

Fashion

-5.78

Education

+4.20

Canada_government

+4.11

Canada_education

-3.00

Healthcare

+2.71

Travel-airlines

+2.42

Insurance

-2.08

Real_estate

+1.66

Government

+1.61

Saas-tech

+1.33

Retail

-1.25

Construction-trades

+0.98

Food-beverage

-0.75

Legal

-0.68

Personal-services

+0.60

Entertainment

+0.56

Professional-services

+0.47

Religious

+0.31

Canada_business

-0.23

Government_county

+0.18

Coefficients show the estimated point impact on the 0-100 score. E-commerce sites score 17.6 points lower than baseline. Each additional violation type reduces the score by 15.9 points. Overlay widgets reduce by 5.6 points. Restaurant sites score 12.0 points above baseline.

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