Fewer Than 15 Employees? Does Your Website Still Need ADA Compliance?

We hear this question from businesses of all sizes, and often wonder why they ask, because the law is so well defined… However, there exists a common misconception that if you have fewer than 15 employees, or are a certain type of organization, that you are exempt from complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The truth is that this is a common misconception about the requirements of the ADA. Regardless of your type of organization or scale, your digital properties must be compliant with regards to accessibility.

Where does this confusion come from?

Well, it comes from people publishing opinions online without doing the proper research, for one! But, it really comes from a misunderstanding of a provision of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

*NOTE* This article is for educational purposes only and is not intended to be legal advice.

What Does the Law Say?

To understand better, let’s look at some specific portions of the ADA.

Title I:

Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits private employers, State and local governments, employment agencies and labor unions from discriminating against qualified individuals with disabilities in job application procedures, hiring, firing, advancement, compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.

The ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, including State and local governments. It also applies to employment agencies and to labor organizations.

This provision basically says that all employers who have more than 15 employees, are barred from discriminating in their hiring practices on account of an applicant’s disability. However, there are some important points to know about this.

• Title I applies to employers with 15 or more employees working for them at least 20 weeks in the current or previous year.
• Applies to private employers, state and local governments, and labor unions.
• Enforced by the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
• Statue of Limitations is 180 days or 300 days if covered by a state and local law.

Now, Title II:

Title II applies to State and local government entities, and, in subtitle A, protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of disability in services, programs, and activities provided by State and local government entities.

This provision bars discrimination of those with disabilities in relation to the reception of services from state and local entities. Some important points about Title II:

• The Department of Justice issued a final rule on Title II in April of 2024 defining ADA compliance for websites and digital assets to be WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
• There are different deadlines for complying with the above rule.
• Applies to all public entities including schools, local governments, and libraries.

And finally, Title III:

Title III prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in the activities of places of public accommodations (businesses that are generally open to the public and that fall into one of 12 categories listed in the ADA, such as restaurants, movie theaters, schools, day care facilities, recreation facilities, and doctors’ offices) and requires newly constructed or altered places of public accommodation—as well as commercial facilities (privately owned, nonresidential facilities such as factories, warehouses, or office buildings)—to comply with the ADA Standards.

This is an important provision, basically stating that any place of public usage is required to have an accessible, equitable experience for all users of the service or facility.

So how does any of this apply to websites and mobile applications? Simply put, courts have determined that digital properties are covered by Title III as places of public accommodation.

And what about the 15 employee limit? The only mention of this is in Title I, where it is basically indicating that a company with less than 15 employees MAY be exempt from making employment decisions based on an employees disability.

The reason for this possible exemption is that the law is recognizing that a business – with only a few employees – may not have the ability to provide a reasonable accommodation to someone with a disability.

Wondering about what laws may apply to your business or organization?

Checkout our free ebook Accessibility Laws: A Guide for Businesses for information about the legal landscape of accessibility laws in the U.S. and which laws may apply to you!

A Practical Example

Let’s put this all together by taking a look at an example in real life.

Your locally-owned coffee shop employs 12 people. This means that in employing their workforce they may be allowed to not provide an accommodation if one of their employees is or becomes disabled. However, they are not exempt from complying with Title II or Title II of the ADA.

This means they are still liable to ensure that all customers can utilize their facilities in a fair and equitable way. As such, their facility must allow for easy entry, navigation of the premises, adjustment of all facilities and similar to allow members of the public with various disabilities to utilize the business.

And yes, this includes their website.

Small businesses that do business online are particularly vulnerable to lawsuits and demands made by members of the public who determine their websites to not be accessible. Automated solutions such as overlays have been ruled to be non compliant.

There is no quick, easy and cheap way to be compliant if your site was already built and is non-conforming. In that case, you need to audit your site, page-by-page, remediate, and re-audit to ensure that all changes were completed properly.

How to Conform With the Law

Remember, that any question about complying with the ADA should be directed to a lawyer.
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