Regulations that apply
Real Estate sits at the intersection of general digital-accessibility law and sector-specific obligations. The most relevant items to track:
- ADA Title IIIUS
Real-estate platforms named in many ADA settlements.
- EAAEU
Consumer-facing property listings covered.
The accessibility risks specific to Real Estate
Every industry has its own failure pattern. The combination below is what audits, complaints, and lawsuits in this sector keep returning to. Fixing them clears the most-cited issues without touching every page.
- Map search without keyboard support2.1.1
Listings only filterable by mouse on the map.
- Listing carousels without alt text1.1.1
Property photos with empty alt or filenames as alt.
- Virtual tour iframes without title4.1.2
360 tour iframes embedded without title attribute.
A short remediation checklist
Most Real Estate teams do not need a 200-item audit before they fix anything. They need an ordered list of the highest-impact moves. Start with these and re-audit after each pass.
- Provide a list-based alternative to map search
- Caption every virtual tour iframe
- Audit listing detail pages individually
Run a free Certvo scan against your homepage and one task-flow URL (login, checkout, booking). It pinpoints which of the issues above apply to you, and how often.
Scoping an audit for Real Estate
Real Estate carries 2 distinct obligations to satisfy — ADA Title III, EAA — spanning US and EU. An auditor prices the work by how many of those regimes are in scope and how many distinct task flows carry them, not by page count.
The 3 failure patterns above map to 2.1.1, 1.1.1, 4.1.2. Every one of those is machine-detectable, which means a scan can clear them before an auditor starts charging by the hour. What remains for manual review is the judgement work: whether map search without keyboard support actually functions end to end for a screen-reader user.
- Scan first, audit second
Clearing the 3 automated patterns above shortens the manual pass to the flows that need a person.
- Scope by template, not by page
A site with thousands of pages usually has fewer than twenty distinct templates. Price the templates.
- Re-test after remediation
The conformance claim rests on the re-test, not the first report.
- Evidence for US
Keep dated scan history — it is what turns a conformance claim into something a regulator accepts.