The exemptions small businesses ask about are real and they are not the ones people hope for. The ADA's small business provisions are about tax credits and about readily achievable barrier removal in physical premises; there is no headcount below which a website is exempt, and no revenue floor. What there is, at small scale, is a much smaller site: the same standard against forty pages and three templates is a fraction of the worked example's 401 issues and $15,872.
What the exemptions actually are
Under fifteen employees changes an employer's duties under Title I; it does not change Title III, which is the part about serving the public. There is a tax credit for eligible small businesses against the cost of access improvements, which is worth asking your accountant about, and there is a general readily-achievable test that has mostly been applied to physical barriers rather than to web pages.
What the fix costs on a small site
Put your own numbers in: forty pages, three templates, sixty images without alt text and one form is a very different programme from the worked example's 240 pages and nine templates. The per-page figure is the useful one to compare, because it makes a $15,872 estimate on a large site and a small site's quote comparable.
The three things worth doing whatever the size
Fix the templates, make the contact and enquiry paths work by keyboard, and publish a statement with a real feedback route. On a small site that is usually a fortnight of work, and it covers what a complaint would name.
Questions people ask about ada compliance for small business
Are small business websites exempt from the ADA?
No. The employee-count threshold applies to employment duties, not to serving the public.
Is there help with the cost?
Eligible small businesses can claim a tax credit for access expenditures; ask your accountant, and keep the invoices.
Where do we start with no budget?
The scanner, the templates and the keyboard pass on your contact form. That is free apart from time and it removes most of what a scan-based complaint would find.