Association websites

What your website is for

Your association's website is the public shop window: an overview of the community, contact information, a meeting calendar, maybe a copy of the rules. It is not the same thing as an owner portal, the password-protected space covered in Owner portals, where individual owners look up their own account, ballots, or architectural applications. Treat the two as separate systems with separate obligations, even if one vendor sells them as a single bundle.

The public website is what a prospective buyer, a lender doing a resale check, or a search engine finds first. That is exactly why the next two sections matter: what shows up on that public page, and what a state statute requires you to put behind a login, are both live compliance questions, not just design choices.

An inaccessible website is a real exposure

A resident who cannot navigate your website with a screen reader is not just having a bad experience, it can be a federal disability-rights problem under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which reaches businesses open to the public.

"A website with inaccessible features can limit the ability of people with disabilities to access a public accommodation's goods, services, and privileges available through that website."

Source: Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA, U.S. Department of Justice

There is no single required technical standard: as the Department of Justice puts it, "The Department of Justice does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards," though it points boards toward the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a widely used benchmark, as a reference point. Treat an inaccessible site as a real exposure even though there is no single pass or fail test you can point to. Check what conformance target your own counsel recommends.

Some states require specific content on your site

Some states go further and mandate what your website has to carry, not just how accessible it is. Florida is the example this course has verified: associations above a size threshold must post specified documents, and that posting cannot just sit on the open public page.

"By January 1, 2025, an association that has 100 or more parcels shall post the following documents on its website or make available such documents through an application that can be downloaded on a mobile device," and that website or application "must contain a subpage, web portal, or other protected electronic location that is inaccessible to the general public and accessible only to parcel owners and employees of the association."

Source: Florida Statutes section 720.303, Florida Legislature

An owner asking for access has to receive "a username and password," not a generic link. This is a Florida-specific, parcel-count-triggered rule, and it pairs directly with the login side of your site covered in Owner portals. If you are outside Florida, or under 100 parcels, check your own state's statute for a website or portal-posting duty; this research base does not confirm what other states require here.

Posting is not the same as answering a records request

A common but incorrect assumption is that putting a document on the website automatically satisfies an individual owner's request to inspect or copy that record. A statutory duty to post records on a website and a statutory duty to respond to an individual inspection or copy request are typically separate obligations, and satisfying one does not automatically satisfy the other.

Where a records statute also lets an owner request a specific format, electronic or otherwise, that request lives in your response process, not on your homepage; see Digital records. Treat the website as one communication channel among several, not a self-service desk that closes out every request on its own.