Website accessibility statistics
Public measurements of how often home pages fail automated WCAG checks, how often U.S. websites are sued, and what overlay widgets have (and have not) prevented. Each row leads with a sentence you can quote, then the source URL. Last updated September 23, 2026. These are not Complience.app customer numbers.
| Figure | What it measures | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 95.9% | In February 2026, the WebAIM Million found a detectable WCAG 2 failure on 95.9% of the top 1,000,000 home pages. Home pages with a detectable WCAG 2 failure (WebAIM Million 2026) Automated WAVE findings on the top 1,000,000 home pages. Full WCAG A/AA conformance is lower because many barriers are not machine-detectable. | WebAIM Million, February 2026 |
| 94.8% | In the 2025 WebAIM Million, the same home-page measure was 94.8%. Same measure one year earlier (WebAIM Million 2025) The 2026 analysis reversed six years of small improvements. | WebAIM Million, 2025 |
| 56.1 | The February 2026 WebAIM Million recorded 56.1 detected errors per home page on average. Average detected errors per home page in 2026 Up 10.1% from 51 errors per page in the 2025 analysis. Errors are WAVE-detected barriers with a high likelihood of WCAG 2.2 A/AA failure. | WebAIM Million, February 2026 |
| 83.9% | Low-contrast text showed up on 83.9% of home pages in the February 2026 WebAIM Million. Home pages with low-contrast text (2026) Still the most common automatically detected failure type, ahead of missing alt text and unlabeled inputs. | WebAIM Million, February 2026 |
| 3,117 | Seyfarth counted 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025. Federal website accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025 A 27% increase from 2,452 federal website cases in 2024. Counts depend on search methodology and exclude most state-court filings. | Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III report, March 2026 |
| 5,000+ | UsableNet reviewed more than 5,000 federal plus New York and California digital-accessibility lawsuits in 2025. Federal plus NY/CA state digital-accessibility lawsuits reviewed in 2025 UsableNet also reviewed more than 4,000 such cases in 2024 (about 2,400 federal and 1,600 state). Different trackers use different court sets. | UsableNet 2025 Year-End Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Report |
| 1,023 | UsableNet counted 1,023 companies sued in 2024 while an accessibility widget was already on the site. Companies sued in 2024 while an accessibility widget was live A widget on the page is not evidence that source HTML, keyboard access, or assistive technology actually work. | UsableNet 2024 Year-End ADA Web Lawsuit Report |
| $1 million | On 22 April 2025 the FTC approved a final order requiring accessiBe to pay $1 million. FTC monetary relief in the accessiBe consent order The Commission alleged that accessWidget did not make websites WCAG-compliant despite marketing claims that it could make any site compliant. | U.S. Federal Trade Commission, final order April 22, 2025 |
How to read these numbers
Automated checkers, including WAVE (used in the WebAIM Million) and axe-core (used by Complience.app), only catch a subset of WCAG failures. A page with “no detected errors” can still be unusable with a keyboard or a screen reader.
Lawsuit counts are not a compliance score. Different firms count different courts. Seyfarth’s 3,117 figure is federal website cases in 2025. UsableNet’s 5,000+ figure adds selected state courts. Neither number tells you what a specific site owes under the ADA or the European Accessibility Act.
Overlay widgets sit on top of a page. They do not rewrite the source the way a developer fix does. UsableNet counted 1,023 widget-equipped sites that were still sued in 2024. The FTC’s accessiBe order is about marketing claims, not a ban on overlays.
For a live check on a public URL, use the free accessibility checker. For method notes, see what an accessibility checker covers. Pair colors on the color contrast checker. Machine vs manual items: the WCAG checklist.
Questions
- Do these numbers come from Complience.app customers?
- No. This page only cites public sources such as the WebAIM Million, UsableNet and Seyfarth lawsuit trackers, and Federal Trade Commission orders. Complience.app does not publish customer counts or review scores here.
- Does a 95% WCAG failure rate mean my site will be sued?
- No. Automated failure rates describe detectable issues on large samples of home pages. Lawsuits are a separate legal process. A checker can document machine-testable issues; it cannot predict litigation or certify compliance.
- Do overlay widgets stop accessibility lawsuits?
- Public trackers have counted more than a thousand digital-accessibility lawsuits in a single year against sites that already had an overlay widget installed. The FTC also ordered accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims that its widget made any website WCAG-compliant.
Check a public URL
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