There is no federal regulation that tells a private business exactly how accessible its website has to be. There are still thousands of lawsuits every year claiming a website was not accessible enough. In 2025, UsableNet counted 5,114 digital accessibility lawsuits in federal and state courts. Its projection for 2026 is about 6,200, which would be a record.
Most of those cases are not filed against national brands. In the first half of 2026, 68% of defendants had under $50 million in revenue. If customers can buy, book, order or apply on your website, this applies to you. Here is what business owners need to know, and what to do about it.
Why the ADA applies to your website
The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed in 1990, before most businesses had a website. Title III prohibits discrimination by "places of public accommodation," which covers stores, restaurants, medical offices, law firms, contractors and nearly every business open to the public.
The Department of Justice has said for years that this includes what a business offers online. Its 2022 web accessibility guidance is still posted on ADA.gov. In Robles v. Domino's Pizza (2019), the Ninth Circuit held that the ADA covers a business's website and app when they connect customers to its physical locations, and the Supreme Court declined to review the case.
What DOJ has never done is publish a technical rule for private businesses. Courts fill that gap, and in practice they measure websites against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) at Level AA. There is no small-business exemption.
Who is getting sued, and where
- Ecommerce first. In the first half of 2026, 79% of digital accessibility suits targeted ecommerce sites and 14% targeted food service (UsableNet).
- Repeat defendants. In 2025, 45% of federal cases targeted companies that had already been sued. Settling without fixing the site does not end the exposure.
- New hot spots. Illinois led all states in the first half of 2026 with 463 filings, ahead of California, New York and Florida. Minnesota and Indiana are growing fastest (EcomBack).
Your headquarters matters less than you think. A plaintiff in New York or Illinois can visit a Texas company's website, and cases are filed where the plaintiff lives and browses. State laws add the money: California's Unruh Civil Rights Act sets a minimum of $4,000 in statutory damages per violation.
How plaintiffs find websites to sue
Most cases start with automated testing software, not a customer who got stuck. Plaintiff firms scan thousands of websites, sort them by the number of detectable errors, and send demand letters that list those errors. That makes the most common automated errors the ones that put you on the list.
WebAIM tests the home pages of the top one million websites every year. In 2026, 95.9% failed, with an average of 56.1 detectable errors per page. Six error types made up 96% of everything it found:
| Error | Share of home pages |
|---|---|
| Low contrast text | 83.9% |
| Missing image alt text | 53.1% |
| Missing form labels | 51.0% |
| Empty links | 46.3% |
| Empty buttons | 30.6% |
| Missing page language | 13.5% |
The good news is that most of these live in a handful of templates: the header, footer, navigation, product cards and forms. Fixing a template clears the same error on every page that uses it.
Why a one-line widget is not the answer
Accessibility overlays add a toolbar to your site and promise compliance with one line of code. They do not change the underlying code that screen readers read, so the errors a plaintiff's scanner finds are still there. In April 2025 the FTC finalized a $1 million order against overlay vendor accessiBe over claims that its product could make any website compliant. UsableNet counted 1,416 lawsuits in 2025 against websites that already had a widget installed.
What to do this quarter
- Audit the pages that matter. Start with your home page, top landing pages, contact and quote forms, booking, cart and checkout. Run a free automated scan, then try to complete your most important task with only a keyboard.
- Fix templates first. Clear the six common errors in shared components, then work through page content such as alt text, headings, link text, PDFs and video captions.
- Prioritize what blocks a customer. A checkout you cannot finish with a keyboard outranks a decorative image with a missing description.
- Publish an accessibility statement. State your target (WCAG 2.2 AA), known limitations, and a phone number and email for help. Link it in your footer.
- Document and monitor. Keep dated scan reports and a record of fixes, and re-scan monthly. Every new page, plugin and product can add new errors.
Small businesses with $1 million or less in gross receipts, or no more than 30 full-time employees, may also qualify for the federal Disabled Access Credit (IRS Form 8826), worth up to $5,000 a year. Ask your CPA whether your website work qualifies.
If a demand letter arrives
Do not ignore it, and do not reply yourself. Save the letter and a copy of your website as it looks today, call an attorney who handles ADA defense, and notify your insurance carrier, since some policies cover these claims and require prompt notice. Then get an independent scan so you know which listed errors are real, and start fixing and documenting the work.
Get the full playbook
This article covers the highlights. The Website Accessibility Playbook is our free 18-page guide with WCAG 2.2 in plain English, the fix for each common error, checkout and video requirements, a day-by-day demand letter plan, what is changing in 2026, and a 20-point self-audit you can run this week with free tools.
Want a second set of eyes? We will run a free Website Accessibility Scan on your key pages and send you the fixes, ranked by risk.
This article is general educational information, not legal advice.
