May 25, 2026 · reala11y team

Why we built reala11y after the FTC v. accessiBe ruling

On April 21, 2025 the FTC ordered accessiBe to pay $1M. We built reala11y to be the honest alternative.

On April 21, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission entered a final order requiring accessiBe to pay $1,000,000 and submit to 20 years of reporting obligations. The order prohibits accessiBe from claiming its automated AI overlay makes websites WCAG-compliant without evidence supporting the claim.

This was not a niche regulatory action. It was a clear signal: the overlay era of accessibility marketing is over.

We built reala11y to be the opposite of an overlay widget. Where accessiBe injects a floating JavaScript layer that does not modify the underlying HTML, reala11y registers WordPress filters that modify the page before it leaves your server. Screen readers, crawlers, and audit tools see the fixed page.

We do not — and will never — claim our tool makes any website WCAG-compliant. Automated tools, including ours, typically detect 30–40% of WCAG failures by criteria. The remainder requires human review. That is the honest math, and we built our marketing around it.

This is post one. More to follow.