For wineries
Winery websites get sued over accessibility. Most of the fixes are small.
In 2021 and 2022, more than 50 California wineries were sued because blind visitors couldn’t use their websites. This month we checked 49 California winery homepages: 38 had at least one serious problem, and only 2 were clean.
What we find on winery sites
The share of the 49 homepages with each problem. Average score: 77 out of 100. We have since checked 330 winery homepages in seven regions: see the full report.
43%Text too faint to read
Light grey on white, white on pale gold: people with low vision, and anyone reading in the sun, struggle with it.
Fix: Darken the text or the background until the contrast is at least 4.5 to 1.
37%Links a screen reader can’t name
Icon links for Instagram, the cart or the logo. A blind visitor hears “link” and nothing else.
Fix: Give each one a short label, such as “Instagram” or “Your cart”.
16%Zoom switched off on phones
A single line in the page header stops people pinching to enlarge the text.
Fix: Delete that line. It takes a minute.
12%An age check nobody can hear
The “Are you 21?” pop-up has no name, so a screen reader can’t announce it, and every visitor has to get past it first.
Fix: Give the pop-up a label and make sure it can be answered with a keyboard.
12%Maps and embeds with no title
The directions map or booking widget is announced as an unnamed frame.
Fix: Add a title, such as “Map to our tasting room”.
10%Photos with no description
The screen reader skips them or reads out a file name like “Banner-Slide-1.jpg”.
Fix: Describe what the photo shows; mark purely decorative ones as decorative.
“We already have an accessibility widget”
Half of the worst-scoring sites we looked at closely have one: the little icon that opens a toolbar for bigger text or higher contrast. A widget changes how the page looks for someone who opens it. It doesn’t fix the code underneath, and that code is what screen readers use and what demand letters cite.
In April 2025 the Federal Trade Commission ordered one of the biggest widget makers to pay $1 million for claiming its widget made websites compliant. Read the FTC’s announcement.
You can keep the widget. Fixing the underlying problems is what actually protects you. More on widgets and lawsuits.
What we do
Step 1
The list
Free
We check your homepage and send you every problem in plain English, most important first, with what it means and how to fix it. Hand it to whoever runs your site, or keep it for the file.
Step 2
We fix it
From $750
Your homepage, age check and shop pages, usually within a week. Afterwards we run the check again, so you have a dated before-and-after report on file.
Step 3
We keep it fixed
$99 a month, optional
ClearShield re-checks the site every week, tells you when a new page or plugin breaks something, and keeps a dated record of every check and fix.
Run by Juan Serdiuk in Corona, California.
An automated check finds many common problems, not all of them, and no tool can promise you won’t receive a demand letter. What it gives you is a clear list to fix and a dated record that you did. This page is general information, not legal advice.