Most restaurant owners understand that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to brick-and-mortar “places of public accommodation.” If you deny service to someone who uses a wheelchair, you might face a hefty lawsuit (as one Tennessee restaurant chain learned in July 2024).
But digital accessibility barriers can be just as impactful for people with disabilities — and those barriers are also covered by Title III of the ADA.
The restaurant industry is a frequent target for ADA web accessibility lawsuits. And while compliance is important, it’s not the only factor to consider: About 25% of U.S. adults live with some form of disability. If your restaurant's website isn’t accessible, you’re missing an opportunity.
Most restaurant websites are relatively simple (at least when compared with eCommerce sites and other dynamic content. However, a specific type of content tends to contain serious barriers that lock out users: menu pages.
Here’s how to make sure that your menus work for all of your customers (and limit your chances of a lawsuit).
1. Don't rely on PDF menus
We understand why restauranteurs often provide “download our menu" links: You’ve already paid a designer to make your menu look great. Why go through the work of creating a separate web page?
For starters, web-delivered documents — and specifically, PDFs — aren’t easy to use. You’ll need to do extra work to make them accessible to screen readers (software that converts text to audio), and even with proper tags and structure, they don’t provide a great experience.
PDFs might introduce other issues that affect your audience, regardless of the technologies they use:
- People might be less familiar with the controls of their PDF viewer than their web browser.
- PDFs may not display properly on certain screens.
- PDFs are often relatively large files, and some users may not want to spend their data downloading restaurant menus.
- If PDFs contain images of text — rather than just text — people can’t copy the text, translate it to other languages, or modify it to make it readable.
- PDFs may not be readable for search engines. Learn why accessibility helps with search engine optimization (SEO).
The bottom line: You don’t want your customers to fight against your website when placing their orders. Providing a simple text menu helps them get the information they need as quickly as possible.
Related: 7 Basic Steps to Making PDFs More Accessible
2. Don't use images alone to convey information
You can (and should) use images of your menu items. However, some customers have limited vision or no vision — and they shouldn’t have to guess when placing their orders.
Keep these tips in mind:
- Include everything that a customer might need to know about each menu item. Imagine that you’re describing the food over the phone.
- Provide appropriate alternative text (alt text) for each image. However, you don’t need to repeat all of the information from the menu entry; the name of the menu item should be sufficient.
- Make sure that images appear next to their descriptions.
Finally, avoid using images of text unless it’s absolutely necessary. Use real text wherever possible — as we’ve discussed, it’s more robust and better for users.
Related: Why Is It Important for Accessibility to Use Actual Text Instead of Images of Text?
3. Pay attention to color contrast on menu pages
Color contrast is vital for digital accessibility. People may have trouble reading text when it’s too similar in color to its background.
That’s true for all customers. For people with vision disabilities, however, low-contrast text may be completely unreadable (in which case, your menu page will just look like a blank screen).
While this is one of the most common web accessibility issues, it’s also one of the easiest to fix. WCAG requires that normal text maintain a minimum 4.5:1 color contrast ratio with its background. Use AudioEye’s free Color Contrast Checker to test your menu’s colors and make sure that it falls within WCAG’s thresholds.
4. Make sure online ordering portals are accessible with a keyboard alone
Many people use a keyboard alone to browse the internet. If your ordering system isn’t keyboard accessible, that’s a big problem; people won’t be able to complete orders, and you’ve effectively denied them service.
You can test your ordering portal by navigating with the Tab and Shift-Tab keys. Make sure that you can select different options and complete an order without picking up the mouse.
Additionally, you should make sure that the keyboard focus moves in a way that makes sense. For example, if pressing Tab causes the focus to jump halfway down the page, then back to the top, that’s not a great experience.
For additional guidance, read: Give Yourself an Accessibility Test: Don't Use a Mouse
5. Test your website against WCAG regularly
Digital accessibility is an opportunity, and for restaurants, it can be a key differentiator. If people can easily find your menu, read it, and place an order, you’re in a great position — and most businesses won’t need to do much work to meet that goal.
Testing your content against WCAG can help you find accessibility barriers and fix them before they impact real customers. Learn how AudioEye tests content for hundreds of common WCAG failures to improve compliance with the ADA and other laws.
