Federal Disabled Access Credit

Some of what you spend on access may come back.

There is a federal tax credit for small businesses that spend money making things usable by people with a disability. It has existed for decades, it is claimed on a one-page form, and a great many independent practices have never heard of it. Here is how it works, in plain English, with the parts most people get wrong.

A clinician explaining a document to a seated patient across a desk.
We can document what was done. Only your CPA can decide what qualifies.
Short answer

What is the Disabled Access Credit?

It is a federal tax credit under Section 44 of the tax code, claimed on IRS Form 8826. An eligible small business gets back 50% of qualifying accessibility spending above $250, up to a maximum credit of $5,000 a year. A practice may meet the size test if last tax year it had gross receipts of $1 million or less or no more than 30 full-time employees — either one, not both. Some website accessibility work may count. Whether yours does is a decision for your CPA, not for us and not for a website.

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  • 50% of qualifying spend over $250
  • Up to $5,000 back, every year you qualify
  • $1M in receipts or 30 full-time staff — either one
  • Claimed on IRS Form 8826
The Arithmetic

How much is it actually worth?

The credit is half of what you spend, after taking off the first $250, and it stops counting spending above $10,250. That is what produces the $5,000 ceiling.

The formula

Take off $250, then halve it.

(qualifying spend − $250) × 50%

So if a tax professional decides that $2,000 of accessibility work qualifies:

($2,000 − $250) × 50% = $875

The first $250 never counts. Spending above $10,250 does not count either — which is why the most anyone can get in one year is $5,000.

The catch worth knowing

It reduces tax owed. It is not a cheque.

This is a nonrefundable credit. It lowers what you owe, and it will not pay you money if you owe nothing. It is part of the general business credit, so how much of it you can use in a given year depends on your tax bill.

  • Unused amounts can generally be carried back one year and forward up to twenty
  • A dollar used for this credit cannot also be claimed as a deduction or another credit
  • Your CPA handles all of that. It is normal, and it is their job.
The Size Test

Most independent practices are small enough.

People assume they earn too much to qualify. Usually they have misread the test — it is not both conditions, it is either one.

The lit storefront of an independent eyecare and optometry practice at dusk.
Either test. Not both. That is the part that surprises people.
Meet either one

Last tax year, the practice had:

  • Gross receipts of $1 million or less, or
  • No more than 30 full-time employees
  • An employee generally counts as full time at 30 hours a week for 20 or more weeks in the year
  • Practices under common ownership may have to add their numbers together
What that means in practice

A busy practice can still qualify.

  • A practice billing $1.5 million with 10 full-time staff fails the receipts test — and may still qualify on headcount
  • A newer practice under $1 million may qualify on receipts even with a larger team
  • You elect the credit for the year you claim it. It is not automatic and nobody applies it for you.
What Kind Of Work

Which website costs might count?

Expenses may qualify when they are reasonable, necessary, and actually incurred to give people with a disability access. That is a narrower idea than "we paid for a website."

May potentially qualify

Accessibility work you can point at

These are the kinds of things that are specifically about access, and that leave a record showing what was found and what was fixed.

  • Accessibility audits, testing, and human review by a person rather than a scanner
  • Making the site work with a keyboard alone, and with screen readers
  • Accessible forms, colour-contrast corrections, alternative text for meaningful images
  • Captions and transcripts for video
  • Fixing documents and PDFs so they can be read aloud
  • Correcting barriers an audit turned up, then testing that the fix worked
A clinician in scrubs holding a tablet that shows accessibility icons, including a wheelchair symbol and a sign-language symbol.
A practice receptionist handing a card across the front desk to a patient. Probably won't

The ordinary running of a website

Being bundled into the same monthly invoice does not make something an accessibility expense.

  • Hosting
  • Marketing and SEO
  • Ordinary content writing and posting
  • General upkeep unrelated to access

This is why an itemised invoice matters so much.

A patient information form on a clipboard beside a padlock symbol. Every year, not just year one

Ongoing work may count again

The accessibility part of a monthly service may qualify in each year you incur it. The ceiling resets — up to $5,000 a year.

  • Automated testing and human audits
  • Written accessibility reports
  • Fixing barriers found that month
  • Checking new pages and new content
  • Verifying that corrections actually work

Paying a recurring fee does not by itself create a credit. The work has to have been done.

An empty exam lane with a chair and phoropter, ready for the next patient. What to keep

Paperwork your CPA will ask for

A credit is only as good as what backs it up. Hold on to:

  • Itemised invoices, with accessibility work listed separately
  • Accessibility audit reports
  • A record of the barriers that were found
  • A record of what was fixed
  • Testing and verification results
  • Proof of payment
Worked Through

What this could look like on an OptiSite build.

OptiSite is $2,000 to set up and $299 a month, so a first year comes to $5,588. Not all of that is accessibility work — hosting, content, Pulse and search work are not. Here is how the accessibility part gets separated out, and what it would be worth if your CPA agreed with the whole of it.

How we separate it

The method, not a flat percentage.

  • The invoice lists accessibility work on its own lines — the audit, the manual keyboard and screen-reader testing, the remediation, the verification that the fix held.
  • Hosting, search work, content and Pulse sit on separate lines. They are not accessibility expenses and we do not dress them up as any.
  • Each accessibility line ties back to a named check in the report — the barrier found, the correction made, the date it was verified.
  • We do not publish a fixed split, because the honest split depends on what your site actually needed. A site with 1,000 undescribed images takes more accessibility work than one with fifty.
The arithmetic, on an assumption

Where the $869 figure comes from.

  • Say your CPA looks at the itemised accessibility lines for year one and agrees $1,988 of it qualifies.
  • Take off the first $250. Halve what is left.

($1,988 − $250) × 50% = $869

That is an example, not a quote. Change the assumption and the answer changes with it. We are showing you the arithmetic so you can check it — not telling you what your accessibility lines will add up to, because we do not know that until we have audited your site.

Why this is not a discount. A credit is not money off our invoice. You pay $2,000 and $299 a month either way. What may happen afterwards is that some of the accessibility portion comes back through your tax return — decided by your accountant, on your numbers, in the year you spent it. If the answer is no, nothing about your website changes. Ongoing accessibility work may qualify again in each later year, and the ceiling resets at $5,000 annually.
Where We Stop

We write the invoice. Your CPA writes the return.

Plenty of accessibility companies wave this credit around as though it were a discount they control. It is not, and pretending otherwise would put you in a worse position than saying nothing.

A wall of eyeglass frames on display in an independent optical shop.
A credit you cannot document is not a credit. It is a hope.
Where website work fits

The law names five kinds of spending.

  • The one that fits a website best is money spent on "other effective methods of making visually delivered materials available to individuals with visual impairments." A web page is visually delivered material. Alt text, contrast and screen-reader support are methods of making it available.
  • There is also a catch-all for "other similar services, modifications, materials, or equipment."
  • A separate category covers removing communication barriers, which is the one people usually reach for first.
The two real conditions

Tied to a duty, and documented.

  • Spending only counts if it was to comply with the ADA. A tax court has denied the credit where the expense was not actually required for compliance — so the link between an obligation, a barrier and the fix is the whole ballgame.
  • It must be reasonable and necessary for that purpose. Nice-to-have redesign work is not.
  • This is exactly why a monthly audit that names the barrier, the fix and the verification is worth more here than an invoice that just says "website".
What we do

Give you something to hand over.

We describe the accessibility work that was performed, and we separate it on the invoice from hosting, content and anything else in the plan. You get the audit results, the list of what failed, what was corrected and the check confirming it holds. That is the paperwork a CPA needs to make a decision — and it is useful to you whether or not you ever claim a penny.

What we don't

Decide whether you qualify.

We are not tax advisers, we do not prepare returns, and we will not tell you what you will get back. The tax authorities have not said that every website, redesign, audit or monthly subscription qualifies — so anyone promising you $5,000 is telling you something they cannot know. Take the documentation to your CPA and let them make the call. If the answer is no, you have still got a website a patient with a disability can use, which was the point.

Read this part. This page is general information. It is not tax advice and it is not legal advice, and it does not create any professional relationship. Whether the Disabled Access Credit applies depends on your practice, your tax position, the exact services performed and how they are documented. The law has never been updated to say plainly how it treats websites, so this is a judgement call your CPA makes on your facts — not something a vendor can decide for you. Confirm eligibility before claiming it. IRS Form 8826, Disabled Access Credit (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
Questions, Answered

More on this page's topic

Where does the $869 figure come from?
It is a worked example, not a quote. OptiSite is $2,000 to set up and $299 a month, so a first year is $5,588. Not all of that is accessibility work. The example assumes a CPA looks at the itemised accessibility lines and agrees $1,988 of the first year qualifies: ($1,988 − $250) × 50% = $869. Change the assumption and the answer changes. OptiSite does not publish a fixed split, because the honest split depends on what your site actually needed — a site with a thousand undescribed images takes more accessibility work than one with fifty.
Our practice bills more than $1 million. Are we out?
Not necessarily. The size test is either-or, and most people misread it. A practice that fails the $1 million receipts test may still meet the requirement on headcount if it had no more than 30 full-time employees last tax year. A practice billing $1.5 million with 10 full-time staff is the standard example. An employee generally counts as full time at 30 hours a week for 20 or more weeks in the year.
Can I claim it every year, or just once?
Every year you incur new qualifying accessibility expenses, up to $5,000 each year. That is why the ongoing side matters — monthly auditing, human testing and remediation are new work each year rather than a one-off. But paying a recurring fee does not by itself create a credit. The work has to have actually been performed that year and it still has to meet the requirements.
Does the whole $2,000 setup fee qualify?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who says it does. Some of a build is accessibility work and some of it is not. We itemise the invoice so the accessibility-specific portion is visible and separate, and your CPA decides what goes on the form. The tax authorities have not issued a ruling saying that a website build qualifies in full.
I heard new construction doesn't qualify. Does that kill a new website build?
Not automatically, and the rule is narrower than it sounds. The exclusion in the law applies to one specific category — money spent removing architectural, communication, physical or transportation barriers in connection with a facility first placed in service after November 1990. Website accessibility work sits more naturally in a different category, the one about making visually delivered materials available to people with visual impairments. That said, no ruling has settled how this applies to websites, so it remains a judgement call for your CPA on your facts.
Is this the same as the barrier removal deduction?
No, they are two different things. The Disabled Access Credit under Section 44 is a credit, which reduces tax owed directly. The barrier removal provision is a deduction, which reduces taxable income instead. They have separate rules and limits, and the same dollar cannot be used twice. Businesses too large for the credit sometimes look at the deduction. Your CPA will know which applies.
What if I owe no tax this year?
The credit is nonrefundable, so it will not pay out if you owe nothing. It is part of the general business credit, and unused amounts can generally be carried back one year and forward for up to twenty, subject to the usual rules. That is standard handling and your accountant deals with it routinely.
Will OptiSite fill in the form for me?
No. We give you the documentation — itemised invoices, audit reports, what failed, what was fixed, and the verification that it stayed fixed. Filing is Form 8826, plus Form 3800 where it applies, and that belongs to whoever prepares your return. We are not tax advisers and would not do you any favours by pretending to be.
Documented, Itemised, Yours To Keep

Build it right first. Ask about the credit second.

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