Churches are generally exempt from the ADA's public accommodation rules as religious organizations, so this is not framed around legal exposure. It is framed around who actually visits a church website: a wide age range, people with low vision, people using a phone one-handed, people who rely on a screen reader. Every item below can be checked without writing code.
1. Every meaningful image has alt text
A screen reader announces an image's alt text, or announces nothing at all if it is missing. Staff photos, the building exterior, event flyers, that all needs a short description. Purely decorative flourishes can be left blank on purpose, but photos carrying real information cannot.
The fix: Whatever platform built the site, image fields almost always have an "alt text" or "description" box. Fill it in with what the image actually shows.
2. Text has enough contrast to read
Light gray text on a white background looks elegant on a designer's monitor and is genuinely hard to read in bright sunlight on a phone, which describes a lot of church website traffic on a Sunday morning.
The fix: Free contrast checker tools exist online; paste in your text and background color. Body text should pass at minimum for normal-size text. Headlines can get away with slightly less.
3. Sermon and livestream videos have captions
YouTube and Facebook both generate automatic captions, and both get names, denominational terms, and Scripture references wrong constantly. A five-minute pass to correct the auto-captions on your most-watched sermons helps far more people than the time it costs: not just anyone hard of hearing, but anyone watching with the sound off.
4. Forms have visible labels, not just placeholder text
A giving or contact form where the field label disappears the moment you click into it is a common pattern that causes real problems. Once someone starts typing, or if a screen reader skips the placeholder entirely, there is no longer any indication of what the field is for.
The fix: Each field should have a label that stays visible, not just faint placeholder text inside the box.
5. The site holds up when someone zooms in
Older visitors commonly increase their browser's text size or zoom level. If that causes text to overlap, buttons to disappear off-screen, or the layout to break, those visitors get pushed away exactly at the moment they are trying to read your service times or find the giving page.
The fix: Zoom your own site to 200% on a laptop and see what happens. If it still works, you are in good shape.
Where to start if you only fix one thing. Alt text on your homepage images and captions on your most-watched sermon video. Both take under an hour combined and reach the widest group of people.
A reasonable order of operations
- Add alt text to every meaningful image on the homepage.
- Run your body text and background colors through a contrast checker.
- Correct the auto-captions on your most-watched sermon or livestream.
- Check that every form field has a visible, permanent label.
- Zoom your site to 200% and confirm nothing breaks.