Digital accessibility means designing and building websites so that everyone can use them — including people with visual, hearing, mobility, or cognitive disabilities.
In practice, accessibility ensures that individuals who rely on assistive technology — such as screen readers, voice navigation, or keyboard controls — can easily browse, read, and interact with your website.
Making your website accessible benefits both your users and your business:
👉 Learn more: Is Digital Accessibility Legally Required?
Digital accessibility is not optional. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal law that prohibits businesses from discriminating against individuals with disabilities.
While the ADA originally focused on physical spaces, courts and regulators now interpret it to include digital spaces such as websites and mobile apps.
If your business serves the public in any way, your website is considered part of that public experience — and it must be accessible.
(U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, ADA Chapter 2)
Accessibility laws apply broadly to nearly every business that offers goods or services to the public, including:
If your website represents a public-facing business, it is expected to be accessible. Ensuring compliance not only fulfills a legal obligation but also demonstrates your company’s commitment to inclusivity and equal access.
Digital accessibility is no longer a theoretical obligation—it’s an actively enforced area of law.
According to industry reporting, in 2023 alone, an estimated 250,000 demand letters relating to website accessibility were sent to businesses. (Foremost Media)
These numbers underscore the truth: businesses of all types and sizes are facing legal pressure to ensure their websites are accessible.
👉 Next read: How to Protect Your Business Through WBAG Certification
Today, most business owners trying to make their websites accessible are left to choose between three common approaches: following WCAG guidelines, using accessibility widgets, or hiring private developers.
While each of these solutions aims to improve accessibility, none provide complete protection or practical certainty. Understanding their limitations is the first step toward finding a reliable, long-term solution.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, are the global standards for digital accessibility. They were developed to help make web content usable for people with disabilities.
However, WCAG was originally written for plain HTML websites, not modern website builders such as WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace. This means many of its instructions are difficult to apply to the templates and components used in today’s platforms.
In addition, WCAG is not a certification system — there’s no official organization that reviews your site and declares it “WCAG compliant.” Business owners are left to interpret the guidelines themselves, often with conflicting advice and no clear way to confirm if their website is actually compliant.
Finally, WCAG does not provide step-by-step instructions. It describes what to achieve but rarely explains how to achieve it — leaving non-technical business owners unsure where to start.
Many businesses turn to accessibility “widgets” or “overlays” that promise one-click compliance. These are software tools that add features like text resizing or high-contrast toggles to a website.
While these widgets may look like an easy fix, they do not make a website fully accessible. In some cases, they can even interfere with assistive technologies, making the experience worse for users who rely on screen readers or keyboard navigation.
Even more importantly, using a widget does not protect your business from legal action. Websites with widgets installed have still received ADA demand letters and lawsuits because the underlying accessibility issues remain unresolved.
Another approach is to hire a private developer or agency to make your website accessible. This can work for large organizations with dedicated budgets — but it’s often prohibitively expensive for small and medium-sized businesses.
Even after paying for a professional accessibility overhaul, your business remains legally responsible for ongoing compliance. Accessibility is not a one-time project — it requires continuous monitoring, updates, and documentation as web content evolves.
In other words, while private development can improve accessibility, it does not transfer liability or guarantee protection from future claims.
To make accessibility practical for modern businesses, DAPEN.org developed WBAG, the Website Builder Accessibility Guidelines.
WBAG is a structured framework that translates complex accessibility standards into clear, actionable steps for today’s most common website builders — including WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, and Webflow.
It helps business owners and developers achieve a more accessible website without needing advanced technical knowledge. By following WBAG, businesses can align with proven accessibility best practices while ensuring their websites are easier for everyone to navigate.
For business owners who want to ensure full compliance and long-term protection, DAPEN.org offers WBAG Certified — the most comprehensive and dependable solution for digital accessibility.
Through this program, a DAPEN.org Accessibility Developer will personally update and configure your website to meet every WBAG requirement. Once your site meets the framework standards, it becomes WBAG Certified, meaning DAPEN.org takes full legal responsibility for your website’s digital accessibility under the terms of the certification agreement.
If any accessibility-related legal action is brought against your business, DAPEN.org stands by its certification — covering all related legal expenses, settlements, or remediation necessary to resolve the claim.
WBAG Certified delivers complete digital accessibility protection, combining verified technical compliance, legal coverage, and ongoing support into one affordable, all-inclusive program. It allows business owners to operate with total confidence, knowing that accessibility has been professionally managed — and that DAPEN.org stands behind their website every step of the way.
👉 Explore certification: What is WBAG Certified?
Digital accessibility is now a core part of responsible business practice. WBAG and WBAG Certified make that responsibility achievable, verifiable, and secure.
Every website should meet accessibility standards that protect both the business and its visitors. With WBAG, DAPEN.org provides the first modern, certifiable framework designed specifically for website builders — and with WBAG Certified, that framework becomes complete protection.
Make your website accessible. Protect your business. Promote inclusion.
