In 2025, 3,948 ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed in the US, according to EcomBack. That is a 23.84% increase from 2024, showing the number of cases is still rising.
For federal court context, Seyfarth reported 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits in 2025, up 27% from 2,452 in 2024. That is a narrower federal-only view, but it points in the same direction: website accessibility litigation is still active.
The simple point is the same: if your website blocks people with disabilities from using your website, it can become a legal risk. Many smaller businesses and e-commerce sites can be exposed, not just large corporations.
By the end of this guide, you’ll know exactly what triggers an ADA lawsuit, how much it typically costs, which industries are most at risk, and the steps you can take right now to protect yourself.
What is an ADA website lawsuit?
An ADA website lawsuit is a legal claim that your website is hard or impossible to use for people with disabilities.
Under Title III of the ADA, businesses must not discriminate in places open to the public. Courts now treat many websites as connected to those public-facing goods and services, especially when the website is part of how people shop, book, order, apply, or get information.
Two key rulings shaped this:
- NFB v. Target (2006): The court allowed a lawsuit because Target’s website blocked access to its store services, showing websites tied to physical businesses must be accessible.
- Robles v. Domino’s (2019): The Ninth Circuit confirmed the ADA applies to websites and apps, even without specific technical rules listed in the law.
In simple terms, if your website blocks access, you can be sued.
Here’s how it usually happens:
- A user visits your site using a screen reader or keyboard.
- They hit a barrier, like missing labels or broken navigation.
- They file a complaint or send a legal notice.
Most cases start with a demand letter asking for a settlement and a fix.
To understand whether your business needs to comply at all, read our guide on who is exempt from ADA website compliance.
How many ADA website lawsuits are filed?
In 2025 alone, 3,948 ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed, according to EcomBack. That is a 23.84% jump from 2024 (3,188 cases).
Seyfarth’s federal court filing data adds another useful view. It reported 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits in 2025, up 27% from 2,452 in 2024. Because Seyfarth tracks federal filings, it is best used as federal court context alongside EcomBack’s broader annual report.
In EcomBack’s 2025 dataset, most cases were concentrated in a few states:
- New York: 1,108 (28.06%)
- Florida: 950 (24.06%)
- California: 787 (19.93%)
- Illinois: 576 (14.59%)
- Minnesota: 160 (4.05%)
- Pennsylvania: 101 (2.56%)
- Missouri: 85 (2.15%)
- All other states: 181 (4.58%)
Interestingly, 251 plaintiffs filed all 3,948 lawsuits, but just 33 plaintiffs accounted for 50.10% of them (1,978 cases). In other words, a small group of repeat or “serial” plaintiffs is driving a large share of ADA website litigation.
Thankfully, the legislative landscape is responding to curb abusive or high-volume filings.
In April 2026, Missouri’s General Assembly unanimously passed Senate Bill (SB) 907, the Act Against Abusive Website or Web Content Access Litigation. It gives businesses 90 days to fix issues after a noncompliance notice. Only after that can a lawsuit proceed.
That said, this is just one state. Businesses in other states still do not have this kind of buffer. If more states follow, it could change how these lawsuits are filed and handled.
How much does an ADA website lawsuit cost?
The cost of an ADA website lawsuit depends heavily on how the claim is resolved.
A business may settle after a demand letter, before a lawsuit is filed. It may settle out of court after a lawsuit is filed, or fight the case and end up with a court judgment. In larger cases, it may face a class action settlement. Legal defense fees can add substantial expense at any stage.
According to the Accessibility.build lawsuit tracker, reported lawsuit-related costs can look like this:
| Resolution Type | Average | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Demand letter (no lawsuit) | $5,000 | $1K – $25K |
| Out-of-court settlement | $30,000 | $5K – $150K |
| Court judgment | $85,000 | $10K – $500K |
| Class action settlement | $400,000 | $50K – $6M+ |
| Legal defense fees (even if you win) | $30,000 | $5K – $125K |
Treat those figures as directional, not as a promise of what your case will cost. ADA website lawsuit costs vary by jurisdiction, plaintiff strategy, the specific barriers alleged, attorney involvement, remediation scope, settlement posture, insurance coverage, and whether the case settles early or moves deeper into litigation.
Also, these figures do not cover the full cost on their own.
A business may also need to pay for an accessibility audit, developer remediation, and ongoing monitoring. In other words, the lawsuit cost is only one part of the total expense. The cost to actually fix the site and make it accessible can add thousands more.
That is why prevention is cheaper. It costs less to find and fix accessibility issues early than to pay legal costs first and remediate under pressure later.
Which industries are most at risk?
According to the EcomBack 2025 ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits Annual Report, restaurants, food, drinks, and beverages were the most targeted industry in 2025. That category accounted for 1,368 lawsuits, or 34.65% of all filings.
Other heavily targeted industries included:
- Lifestyle, fashion, clothing, and apparel: 1,025 lawsuits or 25.96%
- Beauty and personal care: 317 lawsuits or 8.03%
- Home, furniture, and decor: 303 lawsuits or 7.67%
- Health and medical: 283 lawsuits or 7.17%
These numbers point to a clear trend.
E-commerce-driven and transaction-heavy industries face exposure because they rely on product browsing, visual content, forms, carts, reservations, and checkout flows. If those journeys break for keyboard users or screen reader users, the page has not just failed a technical test. It has failed the customer.
If you run an online store, our guide to e-commerce accessibility explains the checkout, product-page, and navigation issues worth checking first.
What should you do if you receive an ADA demand letter?
The first thing to know is that a demand letter is not a lawsuit. It’s a formal notice alleging your site has accessibility barriers and demanding remediation and/or compensation.
It’s not legally binding, but ignoring it gives the plaintiff grounds to file an actual lawsuit.
Here’s what to do:
- Don’t reply to the plaintiff yourself. Forward the letter to an ADA-experienced attorney immediately. Your attorney will review the complaint and advise you on the next steps.
- Commission an accessibility audit. Verify whether the claimed barriers actually exist on your site. Start with automated testing using a tool like WebYes Accessibility.
- Fix the issues. If your site is inaccessible, make it accessible. This is the right thing to do, and it strengthens your legal position.
- Publish an accessibility statement. This signals that you take accessibility seriously. You can create one in minutes using the WebYes Accessibility Statement Generator.
- Respond before the deadline. Your attorney responds formally to the plaintiff’s counsel, typically within 30 to 60 days, and handles any settlement negotiation on your behalf.
One important note: remediating your site doesn’t automatically end the case. The plaintiff may still seek compensation for the period your site was inaccessible. But it significantly improves your position and reduces the risk of future claims.
For a detailed look at legal defence strategies, read our guide on how to fight and win an ADA website lawsuit.
How to reduce your risk of an ADA website lawsuit
You reduce the risk of an ADA website lawsuit by removing easy lawsuit signals first, then fixing the deeper accessibility barriers behind them.
Start with these five steps.
Step 1: Ditch the overlay
Remove accessibility overlays and widgets as a legal shortcut. They do not fix the underlying code issues on your site, and they can make your business look like it knew there was a problem but chose a surface-level fix instead. That can increase scrutiny instead of reducing it.
Step 2: Fix all automatically detectable issues
Fix the issues that automated scanners catch first, because that is exactly how many plaintiff firms identify targets at scale. Start with common accessibility issues like missing alt text, low color contrast, empty form labels, vague link text, and missing button labels.
Tip: You can use WebYes Accessibility to find and fix these accessibility issues.
Step 3: Conduct a full accessibility audit and fix the remaining barriers
Run a full accessibility audit, then fix the issues it uncovers across templates, components, and user journeys. Automated tools can miss keyboard traps, confusing focus order, screen reader problems, unclear error messages, and checkout barriers that only show up when a person actually uses the site.
That is why manual accessibility testing matters. Test your navigation, forms, search, product pages, cart, checkout, account flows, and any other journey that affects access to your goods or services.
Do this not just to reduce legal exposure, but because your visitors and customers deserve a site they can actually use. That is the standard that matters most.
Step 4: Publish an accessibility statement
Publish a clear accessibility statement that explains your commitment, your current status, and how people can report barriers. It helps show good faith, and it removes one of the signals that can make a site appear unprepared.
Tip: You can generate one quickly with the WebYes Accessibility Statement Generator.
Step 5: Monitor accessibility on an ongoing basis
Keep monitoring your site as content, templates, and features change over time. New accessibility issues can appear with routine updates, product launches, and third-party integrations. Ongoing scanning and review help you catch problems early before they turn into legal risk.
Keep records too. Save audit results, remediation notes, accessibility statement updates, and monitoring history. Documentation will not make an inaccessible site compliant, but it can show that accessibility is part of your normal website operations.
Do accessibility overlays protect you from lawsuits?
No. Accessibility overlays do not protect you from lawsuits, because they don’t fix the underlying accessibility issues on your site.
In fact, they can increase your risk, since an overlay may signal that a business knew accessibility needed attention but relied on a shortcut instead of fixing the code-level barriers. That can make the site more attractive to serial plaintiffs, not less.
The latest lawsuit data reinforces the same point.
According to EcomBack’s 2025 ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits Annual Report, 983 lawsuits were filed against websites with an accessibility widget present. That represented 24.90% of all 3,948 ADA website lawsuits, up from 722 lawsuits or 22.65% in 2024.
The broader caution is also supported by current enforcement activity. In 2025, the FTC issued an order involving accessiBe that addressed unsupported claims that automated technology could make any website WCAG-compliant or ensure ongoing automatic compliance.
The bottom line: accessibility widgets are overlays are not a compliance solution.
For the full case against overlays, read our article on why accessibility widgets don’t make your website accessible.
FAQs on ADA website lawsuits
It depends on your jurisdiction and how your website connects to your goods or services. Some courts are more open to claims against online-only businesses than others. If your site sells or provides services to the public, treat accessibility as a real risk area and ask counsel for jurisdiction-specific advice.
The six most common WCAG failures are: missing alt text, low colour contrast, missing form input labels, empty links, missing document language, and empty buttons. According to the WebAIM Million Report 2026, these six issues account for 96% of all detected WCAG errors.
They use automated website accessibility testing tools to process thousands of sites at once. They also look for four specific signals: accessibility widget (which signals awareness without real fixes), no accessibility statement, and prior lawsuit history.
It can help, but it does not protect you on its own. An accessibility statement gives users a contact path and shows intent, but real barriers still need to be fixed.
Yes. Settlement ends one lawsuit, not your future exposure. If the same barriers remain, or new barriers appear after updates, the site can create new risk.
The ADA doesn’t explicitly name WCAG 2.1 AA. But courts, the DOJ, and plaintiff attorneys consistently treat it as the operative standard. Achieving WCAG 2.1 AA compliance is the clearest way to demonstrate your site is accessible under the ADA.
AUTHOR
Melwyn holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and has been writing professionally for over 4 years. He has a strong background in SEO and is certified in web accessibility from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). When he's not writing about website optimisation, you can find him enjoying a game of FIFA or exploring the open world of GTA.
Melwyn Joseph 
