How does the $12/year ($1/month) price work?

The Starter plan is $12 billed once a year, which works out to $1 per month. It covers 1 website with multi-page scans, weekly re-scans with an email report, the assistive widget, and a hosted accessibility statement. Cancel anytime, with a full refund within 14 days.

Can Accessibility Shield stop me from getting an ADA demand letter?

No tool can promise that. Accessibility Shield helps you find and fix the issues automated scans detect, keep a dated public accessibility statement, and give visitors a direct way to report barriers. Automated testing covers only part of WCAG, so manual checks still matter. We are not a law firm; if you receive a demand letter, talk to a licensed attorney.

How is Accessibility Shield different from accessiBe or UserWay?

Overlay widgets change the page in the visitor's browser with JavaScript, and their entry plans start around $490/year. Accessibility Shield costs $1/month and shows you what to fix in your own source code. Its optional widget is about 8 KB (about 3.3 KB gzipped) and only offers reading preferences and a barrier report form.

Will the widget slow down my website?

Its effect is very small. The widget is about 8 KB minified (about 3.3 KB gzipped), has no external dependencies, and loads asynchronously without blocking page rendering.

Terms of Service | Accessibility Shield

Welcome to Accessibility Shield (accessibilityshield.org). By registering an account, installing our on-site assistive widget, or using our automated auditing and reporting services, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not use the platform.

These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("Customer," "User," or "you") and Accessibility Shield ("Accessibility Shield," "we," "our," or "us").

1. Description of the Service

Accessibility Shield provides digital accessibility testing and compliance support software, including:

Automated WCAG Audits: Automated scanning engines evaluating public websites against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA criteria.
Hosted Accessibility Statements: Publicly hosted accessibility statement pages documenting testing methodology, accessibility commitments, and remediated standards.
On-Site Assistive Widget: An ultra-lightweight (about 8 KB minified) client-side toolbar enabling website visitors to personalize text sizing, high-contrast views, and dyslexia-friendly typography, while providing a direct intake channel for reporting accessibility obstacles.
Monitoring & Alerting: Periodic automated re-scans and email notifications alerting administrators to accessibility regressions.

2. Important Legal & Compliance Disclaimer

[!IMPORTANT] Accessibility Shield is a software and technical documentation tool, NOT a law firm, legal counseling service, or certified auditing body.

No Guarantee of Legal Immunity: Use of our automated audits, on-site widget, or hosted statements does not guarantee compliance with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the European Accessibility Act (EAA), or any federal, state, or local accessibility regulations.
Automated Testing Limitations: Automated accessibility engines detect a significant portion of programmatically verifiable WCAG criteria (such as contrast ratios, unlabelled forms, and missing image alternative text). However, no automated software can detect 100% of accessibility issues. Achieving full compliance requires combining automated scans with manual assistive technology testing (such as screen readers and keyboard navigation) and accessible design practices.
Customer Responsibility: You remain solely responsible for your website's source code, digital content, and regulatory compliance. We do not guarantee that your website will be protected against lawsuits, demand letters, or enforcement actions.

3. Account Registration & Security

Eligibility: You must be at least 18 years of age and authorized to bind your organization to these Terms.
Account Confidentiality: You are responsible for safeguarding your authentication credentials. Passwords must meet our minimum complexity standards (at least 12 characters). You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized account activity.
Accuracy of Information: You agree to maintain accurate, current, and complete registration information.

4. Acceptable Use & Domain Authorization

When using Accessibility Shield, you agree to the following obligations:

Authorization to Scan: You represent and warrant that you own or have explicit authorization from the owner to initiate accessibility audits on any domain or URL you submit to the service.
Prohibited Activities: You agree not to:
- Use the service to probe, scan, or attack internal, private, or non-public network IP ranges (including private RFC 1918 addresses and cloud metadata endpoints).
- Interfere with or disrupt the integrity, performance, or availability of our servers or networks.
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or extract source code from the platform beyond the open-source client-side widget.
- Use automated scrapers, bots, or harvesting tools to abuse platform APIs or bypass subscription limits.
- Resell, sublicense, or white-label the service unless explicitly permitted under an authorized Agency plan.

We reserve the right to immediately suspend or terminate accounts that violate this Acceptable Use Policy.

5. Billing, Subscriptions, & Merchant of Record

Merchant of Record: All paid subscriptions and payment transactions are processed by Polar (Polar Software Inc.), our authorized Merchant of Record. Polar is responsible for payment card processing, tax collection, invoicing, and subscription billing.
Annual Billing: Subscriptions are billed annually on a recurring basis until cancelled. Current rates ($12/year for Starter Shield, $29/year for Business Shield, $99/year for Agency Shield) are displayed at checkout and within your dashboard.
Cancellation: You may cancel your subscription at any time via the Polar billing customer portal linked in your dashboard or by emailing our support desk. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you retain access through that period.
14-Day Money-Back Guarantee: If you are not satisfied with your subscription, you may request a 100% full refund within 14 calendar days of your initial purchase. See our Refund Policy for complete details.

6. Intellectual Property & Widget License

Platform Ownership: Accessibility Shield and its licensors retain all right, title, and interest in and to the platform, including software, scanning algorithms, user interfaces, documentation, logos, and trademarks.
Widget License: Subject to active subscription status, Accessibility Shield grants you a non-exclusive, revocable, worldwide license to embed and display the Accessibility Shield on-site widget script on authorized domains.
Your Content: You retain all rights to your websites, branding, and submitted content. You grant Accessibility Shield a limited license to fetch, scan, and parse public web pages solely to deliver requested accessibility audit reports.

7. Availability, Maintenance, & Service Levels

We strive for high platform availability and reliability. However:

The platform is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis.
We do not warrant that service operation will be uninterrupted, error-free, or compatible with every browser or third-party web framework.
We may periodically conduct scheduled maintenance, platform upgrades, or system optimizations that cause temporary downtime.

8. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

In no event shall Accessibility Shield, its directors, employees, partners, or suppliers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, goodwill, data, legal defense fees, settlements, or court judgments arising out of or in connection with the use or inability to use the service.
The total aggregate liability of Accessibility Shield for any and all claims arising under or related to these Terms shall not exceed the total amount actually paid by you to Accessibility Shield in the twelve (12) months preceding the incident giving rise to liability.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Accessibility Shield, its officers, directors, employees, and agents from and against any third-party claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with:

Your violation of these Terms.
Your submission of domains or URLs without appropriate authorization.
Any content, goods, or services provided on your monitored websites.
Your failure to comply with applicable accessibility or disability regulations.

10. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Delaware, United States, without regard to its conflict of law principles. Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms shall be resolved through confidential, binding arbitration or in state or federal courts located in Delaware.

11. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms periodically. If we make material modifications, we will notify you through your account dashboard or via email prior to the effective date. Your continued use of the platform following notification constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms.

12. Contact Information

If you have questions regarding these Terms of Service:

Email: accessibilityshieldorg@gmail.com
Organization: Accessibility Shield
Address: 1309 Coffeen Avenue STE 1200, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States

These Terms constitute a legally binding agreement between you ("Customer," "User," or "you") and Accessibility Shield ("Accessibility Shield," "we," "our," or "us").

1. Description of the Service

Accessibility Shield provides digital accessibility testing and compliance support software, including:

Automated WCAG Audits: Automated scanning engines evaluating public websites against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA criteria.
Hosted Accessibility Statements: Publicly hosted accessibility statement pages documenting testing methodology, accessibility commitments, and remediated standards.
On-Site Assistive Widget: An ultra-lightweight (about 8 KB minified) client-side toolbar enabling website visitors to personalize text sizing, high-contrast views, and dyslexia-friendly typography, while providing a direct intake channel for reporting accessibility obstacles.
Monitoring & Alerting: Periodic automated re-scans and email notifications alerting administrators to accessibility regressions.

2. Important Legal & Compliance Disclaimer

[!IMPORTANT] Accessibility Shield is a software and technical documentation tool, NOT a law firm, legal counseling service, or certified auditing body.

No Guarantee of Legal Immunity: Use of our automated audits, on-site widget, or hosted statements does not guarantee compliance with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the European Accessibility Act (EAA), or any federal, state, or local accessibility regulations.
Automated Testing Limitations: Automated accessibility engines detect a significant portion of programmatically verifiable WCAG criteria (such as contrast ratios, unlabelled forms, and missing image alternative text). However, no automated software can detect 100% of accessibility issues. Achieving full compliance requires combining automated scans with manual assistive technology testing (such as screen readers and keyboard navigation) and accessible design practices.
Customer Responsibility: You remain solely responsible for your website's source code, digital content, and regulatory compliance. We do not guarantee that your website will be protected against lawsuits, demand letters, or enforcement actions.

3. Account Registration & Security

Eligibility: You must be at least 18 years of age and authorized to bind your organization to these Terms.
Account Confidentiality: You are responsible for safeguarding your authentication credentials. Passwords must meet our minimum complexity standards (at least 12 characters). You must notify us immediately of any unauthorized account activity.
Accuracy of Information: You agree to maintain accurate, current, and complete registration information.

4. Acceptable Use & Domain Authorization

When using Accessibility Shield, you agree to the following obligations:

Authorization to Scan: You represent and warrant that you own or have explicit authorization from the owner to initiate accessibility audits on any domain or URL you submit to the service.
Prohibited Activities: You agree not to:
- Use the service to probe, scan, or attack internal, private, or non-public network IP ranges (including private RFC 1918 addresses and cloud metadata endpoints).
- Interfere with or disrupt the integrity, performance, or availability of our servers or networks.
- Reverse engineer, decompile, or extract source code from the platform beyond the open-source client-side widget.
- Use automated scrapers, bots, or harvesting tools to abuse platform APIs or bypass subscription limits.
- Resell, sublicense, or white-label the service unless explicitly permitted under an authorized Agency plan.

We reserve the right to immediately suspend or terminate accounts that violate this Acceptable Use Policy.

5. Billing, Subscriptions, & Merchant of Record

Merchant of Record: All paid subscriptions and payment transactions are processed by Polar (Polar Software Inc.), our authorized Merchant of Record. Polar is responsible for payment card processing, tax collection, invoicing, and subscription billing.
Annual Billing: Subscriptions are billed annually on a recurring basis until cancelled. Current rates ($12/year for Starter Shield, $29/year for Business Shield, $99/year for Agency Shield) are displayed at checkout and within your dashboard.
Cancellation: You may cancel your subscription at any time via the Polar billing customer portal linked in your dashboard or by emailing our support desk. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period; you retain access through that period.
14-Day Money-Back Guarantee: If you are not satisfied with your subscription, you may request a 100% full refund within 14 calendar days of your initial purchase. See our Refund Policy for complete details.

6. Intellectual Property & Widget License

Platform Ownership: Accessibility Shield and its licensors retain all right, title, and interest in and to the platform, including software, scanning algorithms, user interfaces, documentation, logos, and trademarks.
Widget License: Subject to active subscription status, Accessibility Shield grants you a non-exclusive, revocable, worldwide license to embed and display the Accessibility Shield on-site widget script on authorized domains.
Your Content: You retain all rights to your websites, branding, and submitted content. You grant Accessibility Shield a limited license to fetch, scan, and parse public web pages solely to deliver requested accessibility audit reports.

7. Availability, Maintenance, & Service Levels

We strive for high platform availability and reliability. However:

The platform is provided on an "as-is" and "as-available" basis.
We do not warrant that service operation will be uninterrupted, error-free, or compatible with every browser or third-party web framework.
We may periodically conduct scheduled maintenance, platform upgrades, or system optimizations that cause temporary downtime.

8. Limitation of Liability

To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law:

In no event shall Accessibility Shield, its directors, employees, partners, or suppliers be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, punitive, or exemplary damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, goodwill, data, legal defense fees, settlements, or court judgments arising out of or in connection with the use or inability to use the service.
The total aggregate liability of Accessibility Shield for any and all claims arising under or related to these Terms shall not exceed the total amount actually paid by you to Accessibility Shield in the twelve (12) months preceding the incident giving rise to liability.

9. Indemnification

Your violation of these Terms.
Your submission of domains or URLs without appropriate authorization.
Any content, goods, or services provided on your monitored websites.
Your failure to comply with applicable accessibility or disability regulations.

10. Governing Law & Dispute Resolution

11. Changes to Terms

12. Contact Information

If you have questions regarding these Terms of Service:

Email: accessibilityshieldorg@gmail.com
Organization: Accessibility Shield
Address: 1309 Coffeen Avenue STE 1200, Sheridan, WY 82801, United States