ADA website accessibility for Chicago small businesses
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Quick answer: WordPress Chicago, a service of 45Squared, makes Chicago small business websites accessible to people with disabilities, using WCAG 2.1 AA as the working standard. Start with our free automated audit, which emails the problems in plain English. We then fix them at a fixed price quoted before any work starts, and re-run the audit so you can see the result. This is practical help, not legal advice.
- Working standard
- WCAG 2.1 AA
- First step
- Free automated audit
- Fixes
- Fixed price before work starts
- After the fixes
- Audit re-run
Accessibility help for Chicago small businesses
WordPress Chicago is the Chicago service of 45Squared, a Midwest web studio that has built WordPress sites since 2015 and checks every one against WCAG 2.1 AA before launch. For an existing site, the first step is our free SEO and accessibility audit: enter your address and the report arrives by email in plain English, with no call. If you want help, we quote the fixes at a fixed price, do them, and re-run the audit. Send the form below to start.
What the ADA says about websites
The U.S. Department of Justice published guidance on web accessibility in March 2022. It says businesses open to the public must give people with disabilities full and equal enjoyment of their goods and services, and that this covers what they offer on the web. It also says the Department has no regulation setting detailed standards for businesses, so owners have flexibility in how they comply, and it names WCAG as helpful guidance. In 2024 the Department adopted WCAG 2.1 AA as the technical standard for state and local government sites. That rule doesn’t cover most private businesses, but it shows where the bar sits.
The barriers that block customers
The Justice Department’s guidance lists the problems that most often keep people out. They’re the same ones our audits find on small business sites:
| Barrier | Who it blocks | Typical fix |
|---|---|---|
| Low color contrast | People with low vision or color blindness | Darken text and button colors |
| Images without text alternatives | Blind visitors using screen readers | Add short, accurate alt text |
| Videos without captions | Deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors | Add captions |
| Forms without labels or error messages | Screen reader users, and everyone on a phone | Label each field, explain errors |
| No keyboard access | People who can’t use a mouse | Fix menus and pop-ups so Tab works |
How we fix an existing site
- Free audit. An automated crawl of your site, emailed in plain English.
- A person checks what tools miss. Keyboard use, meaningful alt text and form flow need a human test.
- Fixed quote. One price for the fixes, approved before any work.
- Fixes in the site itself, in the theme and content, not a widget on top.
- Audit re-run, so you can see what changed.
Many fixes are quick, like alt text, labels and contrast. Custom menus and pop-ups take longer. If your site isn’t on WordPress, we can still audit it, and moving it to WordPress is an option if the platform is the obstacle.
Accessibility is good for business
Customers browse with screen readers, keyboards instead of a mouse, or the page zoomed to 200 percent. A site they can’t use is a sale or a booking you lose. The same fixes help everyone: readable contrast in sunlight on a phone, forms that explain what went wrong, headings that make a page easy to scan. Clear structure also helps search engines and AI assistants understand your pages. For a deeper walk-through of the checks, read what a WCAG 2.1 AA audit checks.
Common questions
Does the ADA apply to my small business website?
If your business is open to the public, the Justice Department’s position is that the ADA’s requirements cover what you offer online too. Its guidance says it has no regulation with detailed technical standards for businesses, so businesses have flexibility in how they comply, and it points to WCAG as helpful guidance. For a legal answer about your own business, talk to a lawyer. We handle the practical side.
Isn't WCAG 2.1 AA only required for government websites?
The Justice Department’s 2024 rule makes WCAG 2.1 AA the technical standard for state and local government websites and apps, including some services a private company runs for a government. For other businesses, no detailed standard has been set, but WCAG 2.1 AA is the standard most widely used for websites, and it’s the one we build and test against. Meeting it is the clearest way to show you took accessibility seriously.
Will an accessibility overlay or widget fix my site?
Not on its own. A script that adds a toolbar doesn’t repair missing alt text, unlabeled form fields or a menu you can’t use with a keyboard. Those are problems in the site itself, and they have to be fixed there. We fix them in the theme and content, so the site works with the screen readers and keyboards your customers already use, with nothing extra to load.