Answers

Do accessibility overlays like AudioEye make a website ADA compliant?

No overlay, plugin or other tool can make a website ADA compliant on its own. Accessibility means meeting every requirement, and automated tools find and fix only part of them; content, design and how the site actually works with a keyboard or screen reader still need people. Sites with overlays may show fewer automatically detected errors, but they are still sued: about 1,400 of the 5,114 US website accessibility lawsuits counted in 2025 were against sites with a widget.

We make Fixlight, a free WordPress accessibility plugin, so we're not neutral. Every number below has its source, and facts about other products come from their own pages.

What the record shows

Lawsuits: UsableNet, which also sells accessibility services, counted 5,114 US website accessibility lawsuits in 2025, about 1,400 of them against companies using a widget on their site.
Regulators: in April 2025 the FTC finalized an order requiring accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims that its AI widget could make any website WCAG-compliant, and barring such claims without competent and reliable evidence.
Detected errors: in WebAIM's 2024 scan of the top million home pages, sites with AudioEye averaged 36.9 detected errors, against 56.8 for all home pages. Automated tests can't detect every failure, so fewer detected errors doesn't mean a page is accessible.
Practitioners: in WebAIM's 2021 survey of 758 accessibility practitioners, 67% rated overlays and similar tools not very or not at all effective (72% of respondents with disabilities).

How AudioEye describes itself

AudioEye's WordPress plugin calls it a "path to compliance" with the ADA and other laws, and needs an AudioEye subscription; its pricing page lists the plans without prices. Its managed plan includes limited financial protection against demand letters, under its own terms.

What works instead

Fix problems in the site's own code, so they work for every visitor with no script: skip links, keyboard focus, form labels, button names, alt text.
Have a person check what tools can't: alt text meaning, colours, menus and forms with a keyboard and a screen reader.
Publish an accessibility statement with a way to report problems, and answer reports quickly.

We make Fixlight, a free WordPress plugin that does the first part. More: overlays vs fixes in your HTML.

Sources

Checked on October 22, 2026.

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