What are accessibility overlays and why should they be avoided?

Throughout the process of understanding web accessibility and improving your website's accessibility, you likely encountered accessibility overlay as a possible solution. But are they a solution?

Accessibility overlays are tools where, by simply adding a line of code to your site, you will get a slick widget that will:

1. make your website instantly accessible, and
2. provide a widget to customise your site for easier access to its content

Sounds great, right?

Not so fast. They're more problematic than you think, and this post explains why.

The problems with accessibility overlays

Here's a list of problems with accessibility overlays and why they should be avoided:

1. Ineffective solutions

Overlays often provide superficial fixes that don't address the underlying accessibility issues in a website's code and structure. They may change the appearance or add features, but they don't fix fundamental problems like improper heading structure or missing alt text.

While the site may appear more accessible, it remains fundamentally flawed.

2. Interference with assistive technologies

Many overlays conflict with screen readers and assistive technologies, creating more problems than they solve. For example, an overlay might add its own navigation elements that confuse screen readers or change the content presentation, breaking the logical reading order.

This can make the site less accessible for those who rely on these technologies.

3. User experience degradation

Overlays can significantly alter the website's layout and functionality, leading to a poorer user experience for disabled and non-disabled people. They introduce unfamiliar interfaces, change navigation, or add distracting elements, making the site harder to use for everyone and undermining the goal of improving accessibility.

4. False sense of compliance

Website owners may think they've achieved WCAG compliance with an overlay, but they're still far from meeting legal requirements. Compliance involves more than what it can provide, including proper semantic structure, keyboard navigation, and consistent design.

Relying on an overlay can lead to a misleading sense of security and potential legal issues.

5. Privacy concerns

Some overlays collect user data, raising privacy issues and potentially violating regulations like GDPR. They may track interactions or store accessibility preferences, raising ethical concerns and risking website owners violating privacy laws (Opens in a new window) .

6. Performance impact

Overlays can slow website loading times, affecting site performance and harming SEO metrics. They often require additional JavaScript, significantly increasing page load times. This can lead to a poor user experience and negatively impact search engine rankings, as page speed is a factor in SEO.

7. Limited one-size-fits-all customisation

One-size-fits-all solutions rarely work for accessibility, as each website has unique needs. Overlays typically offer predefined solutions that do not address specific issues of a particular site. This lack of flexibility can result in inadequate improvements and introduce new problems.

8. No long-term benefits

Overlays don't encourage organisations to develop in-house accessibility expertise or implement sustainable, long-term solutions. By relying on a temporary solution, companies miss the opportunity to build a culture of accessibility and integrate it into their development processes.

This leads to ongoing issues as the website evolves.

9. Potential legal risks

Relying solely on overlays does not protect companies from accessibility-related lawsuits, as many legal experts argue they don't provide sufficient compliance (Opens in a new window) , and some using them have still faced legal action. True compliance requires a more comprehensive approach to accessibility.

10. Inconsistent results

The effectiveness of overlays varies by website and individual needs, leading to unpredictable outcomes. What works on one page might not work on another, and what helps one person might hinder another. This inconsistency frustrates people with disabilities.

11. Overriding personal preferences

Overlays may override the customised settings that disabled people have configured in their browsers or assistive technologies. This can be problematic for those who have carefully set up their devices to suit their needs.

By imposing new settings, they make the site less accessible and interfere with their customisation.

12. Maintenance issues

As websites evolve, overlays may become incompatible or require constant adjustments, creating ongoing maintenance challenges. This can lead to periods where the overlay doesn't function correctly, potentially rendering the site inaccessible.

This will then add extra layers of complexity to website maintenance.

13. Cost inefficiency

While overlays may seem like a quick and cheap fix, they often result in higher long-term costs due to their limitations and the need for proper remediation. Companies end up paying for both the overlay and the necessary accessibility improvements, making it a more expensive solution in the long run.

14. Negative impact on SEO

Some overlay solutions can interfere with search engine crawlers, harming a website's rankings. They alter the site's HTML structure or add elements that search engines struggle to interpret, leading to lower visibility in search results and impacting the site's overall reach and effectiveness.

But implementing accessibility solutions properly can lead to improvement in SEO performances.

15. Ethical concerns

Relying on overlays rather than addressing core accessibility issues is a superficial approach that does not truly prioritise inclusivity. It indicates a willingness to apply a temporary fix rather than addressing the root causes of inaccessibility.

This approach fails to demonstrate a genuine commitment to creating an inclusive digital environment for everyone.

Final thoughts: are overlays really worth it?

Many accessibility experts have voiced extreme concerns (and for some of them, distaste) about the intention and value of accessibility overlay companies. There are too many to list but the website Overlay Fact Sheet (Opens in a new window) is the best place to learn more about them and view the hundreds of people who have signed up to:

1. …never advocate, recommend, or integrate an overlay which deceptively markets itself as providing automated compliance with laws or standards
2. …always advocate for the remediation of accessibility issues at the source of the original error
3. …refuse to stay silent when overlay vendors use deception to market their products
4. …advocate for the removal of web accessibility overlays and encourage the site owners who've implemented these products to use more robust, independent, and permanent strategies to making their sites more accessible

There is also a separate  website, Overlay False Claims (Opens in a new window) , which very clearly outlines the "false claims at the expense of customers and persons with disabilities.". It list real evidence and examples of overlay companies that have presented claims which are not only debunked, but the customers have been sued as a result of inaccessible website despite having overlays.

But unfortunately, those very same overlay companies are strong on their marketing and possess huge funds (often tens of millions of dollars, much more than all genuine accessibility companies). As someone who has worked in marketing and digital experience for 15 years, I can tell you that they're good at convincing us all that their tool is a solution, especially with their slick website, finely-tuned sales funnel and an attractive digital experience, all designed to bring you in and get you to sign up.

So for a layperson who is unaware, it's easy to see the appeal of this. It's quick, simple, initially quite cheap and appears to solve a problem. That's why I am never critical of those who are unaware and signed up for this.

But if you are aware and have signed up and/or refuse to stop using it, that's another. It's a clear sign that we are not the right fit for each other.

You may think that I have a personal gripe about overlays and widgets. There is strong evidence that they are highly ineffective. According to WebAIM (Opens in a new window) :

A strong majority (67%) of respondents rate these tools as not at all or not very effective. Respondents with disabilities were even less favourable, with 72% rating them not at all or not very effective, and only 2.4% rating them as very effective.

One accessibility expert, Adrian Roselli, has been sent a cease and desist by one overlay company because he has created strong evidence on how they are hugely ineffective and will get you sued. They eventually dropped the lawsuit against him (Opens in a new window) , but imagine telling someone to stop sharing real evidence on how ineffective they are.

That alone should be a huge red flag, as well as listening to people who have expressed frustrations. Like Haben Girma, a renowned blind disability advocate, author and law graduate from Harvard University, in the video below:

This situation is not about me and the accessibility experts. It's about the people with disabilities who will suffer even more as a result of this. By avoiding their tool and instead focusing on building real solutions into the core of your website, you create a more inclusive, user-friendly, and legally compliant digital presence.

So if you want to transition away from them, we can help with that.

Whatever you decide to do, avoid signing up with the accessibility overlay companies for technical, social and moral reasons.