Accessibility overlays: the short, honest version
An overlay is a script that adds a floating icon with font-size, contrast and cursor options, and claims to make the site compliant. It doesn't.
What an overlay can't do
- Write alt text that actually describes your images.
- Connect labels to form fields or fix broken keyboard navigation in your own code.
- Make a carousel, menu or pop-up announce itself to a screen reader.
- Stop a lawsuit: hundreds of sites with overlays have been sued, and overlays have been cited in complaints.
What's documented
- Over 800 accessibility professionals and users signed the Overlay Fact Sheet asking site owners not to rely on overlays.
- In 2025 the US FTC ordered one overlay vendor to pay $1 million over misleading compliance claims.
- Screen-reader users widely report overlays interfering with the tools they already use.
Overlay Fact Sheet · checked Oct 2026
FTC press release, January 2025 · checked Oct 2026
What to do instead
- Scan the site and fix the findings in the code: alt text, labels, headings, link names.
- Check contrast and keyboard use by hand with the checklist.
- Publish an accessibility statement with a way to report problems, and answer them.
General information, not legal advice.