Duda is built for agencies and designers who ship a lot of sites quickly from shared templates. That speed is the risk: A template can appear polished and still include low-contrast text, images without descriptions, and a heading order chosen for appearance rather than structure. None of that is Duda’s doing, and none of it is fixed for you.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance is an obligation that sits with you as the site owner. It does not sit with Duda, with your host, or with any app you install. The UserWay Accessibility Widget addresses many common Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) issues automatically and supports your ADA compliance efforts from the day you install it. It is a starting point, not an end state. This guide covers both halves: what you are responsible for, and how to get the Widget running on your Duda site in a few minutes.
Is Duda ADA compliant?
No. Duda is not ADA compliant by default, and ADA compliance is not a setting you can switch on. Duda gives you the design surface; the accessibility of the finished site depends on the template you start from and the content and choices you add on top of it.
WCAG 2.2 Level AA has been the current Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation since October 2023. In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) set WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for state and local government websites under ADA Title II; private-sector settlements most commonly reference WCAG 2.1 Level AA.
No automated tool or accessibility widget can make a Duda site fully ADA compliant or fully WCAG conformant on its own. That is true of every vendor in this category, including us. Full conformance requires fixing issues in the underlying template and content, which is work automation cannot do alone. The UserWay Accessibility Widget addresses many common WCAG issues and supports your ADA compliance efforts; manual audits surface the code-level issues automation cannot detect.
How to make your Duda site ADA compliant
There is no checklist that ends in a certificate. No government body certifies a website as ADA compliant, and no vendor can confer one. What follows is the work that moves a Duda site toward conformance with WCAG 2.2 Level AA and other accessibility standards, in the order most site owners find manageable.
Start from a clean template.
Duda templates vary in how carefully they handle contrast and structure. A restrained template is a stronger starting point than a heavily styled one, and it is the single decision with the widest downstream effect.
Fix alternative text on every image.
Duda exposes the alt field in the image widget. Describe what the image shows for someone who cannot see it; give purely decorative images empty alt text so screen readers skip them.
Check color contrast in the Duda editor.
Body text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background, and large text at least 3:1, to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA. Light-grey captions and low-contrast buttons on white backgrounds are the usual offenders, and Duda’s style controls fix most of them without code.
Fix your heading structure.
One H1 per page, headings in order, used for document structure rather than for sizing text. Duda lets you set heading levels per widget, so it is easy to break the order by accident.
Test with a keyboard alone.
Accessible websites support full keyboard navigation. Move through the site with Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter and the arrow keys. Flag menus, pop-ups and galleries that cannot be opened or dismissed, and focus that disappears.
Label every form field.
Placeholder text is not a label—it disappears the moment someone types. Each field needs a visible, programmatically associated label, and error messages that say what went wrong and how to fix it.
Audit third-party widgets.
Embedded apps and widgets inject markup you did not write and are a frequent source of keyboard traps, unlabeled controls, and other accessibility issues that may impact users of assistive technologies.
Book a manual audit against accessibility standards.
Automated tooling cannot judge whether alternative text is meaningful or whether a layout is usable end to end. A manual audit by accessibility specialists surfaces the code-level issues that automation cannot detect.
Publish an accessibility statement.
State the standard you are working toward, what you have done, what is still outstanding, and how someone can reach you if they hit a barrier. The UserWay dashboard generates one for you.
Keep checking accessibility issues.
Every template change, new section, new page and new image can introduce a fresh barrier. Accessibility is a maintenance practice for website owners, not a launch task.
How to install the UserWay Accessibility Widget on the Duda platform
The UserWay Accessibility Widget addresses many common WCAG issues automatically and supports your ADA compliance efforts from day one. It also gives visitors personalization controls—text sizing, contrast adjustment, spacing, and a screen-reader-friendly mode. Installation only takes a few minutes.
There are two paths to install the Widget: via the Duda App Store, or manually. We’ll cover both.
Install UserWay from the Duda App Store
The fastest way to add the UserWay Widget to your Duda website is to install it from the Duda App Store. Use the following steps to complete your installation.
Step 1: Install the UserWay App from your Duda website editor
In your Duda website editor, on the left menu at the bottom, click “App Store.” You will redirect to a new page. From there, type “UserWay” at the search bar at the top. Click Enter, and wait for the results to appear.
Find the UserWay App. Click on “Install,” and a pop-up will appear. Next, click “Add,” and you’ll get a success message.
On the resulting page, you’ll receive a notification asking you to verify your email. Go to your inbox, where you should have an email from UserWay that contains your verification code. Copy this code, and paste it to the Duda Website Editor.
In the left panel, navigate to Widgets. Move the HTML widget into your site and paste it into your code.
If you’ve already verified your email with UserWay, the verification message will not appear. If you don’t receive a message from UserWay, check your Spam folder.
Step 2: Preview your Duda website for customization options
You can now preview your Duda website to ensure that your UserWay Widget is installed and working properly. You can also access customization options for your accessibility icon on the Duda platform.
To customize your Duda Widget, scroll down to change the type, size, color, and position of your icon or button.
Once you’ve selected your customization options, click “Save Settings” before you leave the icon customization area.
Install the UserWay Accessibility Widget on Duda manually
Step 1: Register your Duda website with UserWay
First, register your website at UserWay.org by clicking on the blue “Start Free Trial” button at the top right of the homepage.
Next, follow the registration steps to receive your unique code snippet. You can copy the text to your clipboard or save it as a text file. You can also find the code in the welcome email you received when registering your website with UserWay.
If you’ve already registered a website with UserWay, there’s no need to re-register. You can simply add this website to your list and use the same unique code you used with your previous website.
To find your code, you can check your welcome email or log into your UserWay dashboard and click on “My Embed Script” in the top right menu. Here, you will find your unique code, which you can copy and paste into your site to get your Duda plugin.
If you have trouble signing into your UserWay dashboard, your login credentials can be found in your welcome email sent to you upon registration.
Step 2: Paste your unique code in the Duda website editor
After you’ve grabbed your unique code snippet, go to your Duda website editor to paste the code. There are two ways to paste your code: via settings, or via Developer Mode.
Pasting your unique code via settings:
On the left menu of your Duda website editor, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Settings.” You’ll be prompted to a new page, where you’ll go to the nested navigation menu, mouse down to the middle of the list, and click on “Head HTML.”
On the resulting page, you’ll find the title: “Body end HTML,” where you’ll be able to paste your code in the first text field underneath the title. Next, on the bottom of the page, click “Save,” and then you’re all set.
Pasting your unique code via Developer Mode:
To paste your unique code via the Developer Mode, go to the top right-hand side of your Duda website editor, where you’ll find a horizontal list of icons. Scroll to find the Developer “code” icon: two pointy brackets with a forward slash inside. Select the icon.
You are now in the Developer Mode. To paste your code, scroll to the bottom of the page. On the left-hand menu, click “Site HTML/CSS,” where you’ll be prompted to a dropdown menu. Click “body-end.html.”
Next, you can paste the code in the text editor section on the right. Make sure you click the “Save” checkmark button by scrolling up to the top of the page of your Duda website editor.
Step 3: Publish, preview, and customize your Duda Widget
Now that you’ve followed all the above steps, you can preview your Duda website to ensure that your UserWay Widget is installed and working.
At this point, if you’d like to customize your Duda Widget, you can choose to sign in either directly through your Widget, or, you can go to UserWay.org and check your dashboard there. All your Widget customization options are available in either place.
Generating an accessibility statement for your Duda website
Now that you’ve explored your Accessibility Widget, you can create an accessibility statement. Accessibility statements typically have their own web page, are easy to navigate to, and detail the current status of your website’s accessibility along with other efforts your organization is making to improve accessibility.
To generate an accessibility statement for your Duda website, go back to the top menu (a long oval-ended bar at the top of the Settings page).
You’ll notice that you’re in the first tab, the “Your Widget” tab. Check the “Accessibility Statement” tab, where you can fill out your details and click the “Generate My Accessibility Statement” button.
Check your email for the accessibility statement sent to your inbox.
Get started improving Duda accessibility
Web accessibility has wide-reaching benefits beyond ADA compliance. An inclusive website can improve search engine optimization, brand reputation, and even sales. Start today by installing the UserWay Accessibility Widget. When you are ready to go further, talk to us about a manual audit that surfaces the code-level issues automation cannot detect.
