ADA website lawsuits — what they claim and what to do

Uxerfy is not a law firm and this is not legal advice. If you have received a demand letter or a complaint, talk to a lawyer who handles ADA cases.

Why websites get sued under the ADA

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses open to the public to give people with disabilities equal access to their goods and services. The Department of Justice has said plainly that this includes websites. The law lets anyone who meets a barrier take the business to court.

That combination explains the numbers. Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal website lawsuits in 2025, up about 27% on the year before, and that excludes state courts. Website cases now make up more than a third of all ADA Title III suits filed in federal court.

The full picture of who the law covers is in our page on ADA website compliance.

What these lawsuits claim

Complaints are long, but the barriers they describe repeat across thousands of cases:

• Images without alternative text, so a blind customer using a screen reader hears nothing, or a file name, where the product photo should be.
• Buttons and links with no name: “button, button, button” instead of “Add to cart”.
• Forms that cannot be completed: fields with no label, errors only shown in red, a card form that does not announce what is wrong.
• Keyboard traps and missing focus: a menu or a cookie banner that cannot be closed without a mouse, or focus that disappears so the customer cannot tell where they are.
• Low contrast text that people with low vision cannot read.
• Pop-ups and carousels that move focus or cannot be paused.

Almost every one of these is something an automated test detects. That is also how many plaintiffs’ firms find their targets.

Who gets targeted

Online shops are the most frequent target; restaurants, hotels, healthcare and financial services appear often too. Size is not a defense: many suits name small and mid-sized businesses, often filed by the same firms against many companies at once, because most cases settle early.

New York and Florida lead federal filings. California’s state law adds statutory damages, which draws cases into its courts as well.

If you receive a demand letter or a complaint

1. Do not ignore it, and do not argue with it yourself. Forward it to a lawyer with ADA experience. Deadlines in a filed case are short.
2. Do not change your site in a panic and erase the record. Talk to your lawyer first about documenting what the site looked like when the letter arrived.
3. Get an objective picture of the barriers. Run an accessibility test on the pages named in the letter, especially the checkout or booking flow. You and your lawyer need to know which allegations are accurate.
4. Make a plan with dates. Fix what blocks a purchase first, then the rest, and record each fix. A documented remediation plan is usually part of how these cases are resolved.
5. Do not buy a widget as the answer. An overlay does not change the code the complaint is about. The FTC ordered one vendor to pay $1 million for claiming otherwise.

How to lower the risk before anyone writes

The cheapest lawsuit is the one that never has a reason to exist.

• Test your key journeys against WCAG 2.2 AA (which includes 2.1 AA, the standard used in settlements): home, product page, cart, checkout, signup, contact.
• Fix the blockers first. Unlabeled form fields, unnamed buttons, keyboard traps and missing alt text on products cover most complaints.
• Publish an accessibility statement with a working contact, so a customer who meets a barrier can reach you before they reach a lawyer.
• Re-test after every redesign, theme update or new app. Most regressions arrive with a new feature.

Our WCAG 2.2 checklist lists every criterion in plain language, and the free checker shows in about 15 seconds which ones your page fails today.