Weebly Accessibility Checker

Weebly, now owned by Square, powers millions of small business websites and online stores. Its drag-and-drop simplicity appeals to solopreneurs, local businesses, and small retailers who want a web presence without hiring a developer. But that simplicity comes with a hidden cost: most Weebly sites have never been tested for accessibility.

Since Square acquired Weebly in 2018, platform development has slowed — Weebly's builder hasn't received major accessibility improvements in years. Meanwhile, accessibility laws have expanded. The ADA applies to all commercial websites serving U.S. customers, the European Accessibility Act covers EU-facing businesses, and the ADA Title II April 2026 deadline puts pressure on the entire web ecosystem. Weebly site owners need to know where they stand.

Weebly's aging builder and theme system produce specific accessibility problems that CompliScan consistently detects:

• Themes with non-semantic HTML structure — many Weebly themes were built before accessibility was a priority and use <div> elements where <nav>, <main>, and <section> should be, stripping the page of navigational landmarks for screen reader users.
• Image elements without alt text — Weebly's image element includes an alt text field, but it's not prominently displayed in the editor and most users never discover it. Gallery and slideshow elements compound the problem with multiple images per block.
• Button elements with insufficient contrast — Weebly's button styles use theme colors that often fail WCAG contrast requirements. The "Light" button variant on light backgrounds is a frequent offender.
• Embedded elements creating focus traps — Weebly's embed code element and third-party integrations (appointment booking, chat widgets) can create situations where keyboard focus gets trapped inside an iframe with no way to escape.
• Footer navigation links too small for touch targets — Weebly footers with dense link lists often fail WCAG 2.5.5 (Target Size) with clickable areas smaller than 24x24 pixels.

Weebly's editor provides limited customization, but targeted fixes can significantly improve your compliance score. Run a CompliScan scan first to identify your specific issues.

For alt text, click any image element in the Weebly editor, go to the image settings, and find the "Alt text" or "Description" field. Write descriptive text for every content image. For decorative images (pure design elements), leave the field empty — this tells screen readers to skip them. For contrast, use Weebly's theme color settings to choose darker text colors and ensure buttons have sufficient contrast against their backgrounds.

For heading structure, use Weebly's text element with the Heading 1, Heading 2, and Heading 3 options in logical order — don't skip levels for visual effect. For embedded content, test third-party embeds with keyboard-only navigation. If you get trapped, consider replacing the embed with a simple link to the external service. CompliScan's reports rank issues by severity and indicate which fixes are possible within Weebly's editor versus which require platform-level changes.

Weebly is in maintenance mode. Square has shifted development focus to Square Online, and Weebly's builder receives minimal updates. This creates a growing accessibility gap as standards evolve but the platform doesn't. If your Weebly site is critical to your business, you should seriously evaluate migration.

Square Online is the natural successor and offers a migration path from Weebly with better accessibility features and active development. Squarespace and Wix offer more sophisticated builders with stronger accessibility tooling. WordPress provides maximum control but requires more technical knowledge.

Before deciding, run a CompliScan audit on your current Weebly site. If the issues are fixable within the editor, remediation may be more practical than migration. If the problems are platform-level (non-semantic HTML, missing landmark roles, inaccessible core components), migration gives you a better foundation. Either way, the audit provides your accessibility baseline and helps you measure improvement on whatever platform you choose.