Existing client?

Client Portal

Get Support

Insights

Make a Payment

(860) 656-7810

EVERNET Consulting
Schedule a Call

ADA Website Requirements: What the Law Expects and What Recent Lawsuits Cost

By EVERNET Consulting · · 11 min read

Computer screen showing an accessibility settings pop-up

In 2025, a website accessibility lawsuit was filed in federal court roughly every three hours. Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 of them, a 27% jump over the year before, and that number doesn’t include state-court cases or the demand letters that settle quietly before anyone files. Most of the businesses on the receiving end never thought of their website as a legal risk.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was signed in 1990, before most businesses had a website, and it never spells out technical requirements for one. Courts, the Department of Justice and state legislatures have filled that gap over the past two decades. Here is what they expect today, what recent cases have actually cost, and what an accessible website requires in practice.

What the ADA requires of websites

Title III of the ADA prohibits discrimination by “places of public accommodation,” which covers most businesses open to the public: stores, restaurants, hotels, banks, medical offices and law firms. The Department of Justice has long taken the position that Title III applies to these businesses’ websites, and federal courts generally agree when the website is connected to a physical location.

Businesses that exist only online are on less settled ground. In Robles v. Domino’s Pizza (2019), the Ninth Circuit held that the ADA covers websites with a “nexus” to a physical place. In Martinez v. Cot’n Wash (August 2022), a California appeals court held that a retail website with no physical location is not a place of public accommodation at all. Plaintiffs have followed the case law: New York saw 1,021 federal website accessibility lawsuits in 2025 and Florida 961, while California had just four.

Government websites have a firm rule

Title II covers state and local governments, and here the rules are specific. In April 2024 the DOJ adopted WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for their websites and mobile apps. An interim final rule effective April 20, 2026 moved the compliance dates back a year, to April 26, 2027 for entities serving 50,000 people or more and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special districts. The standard itself didn’t change. Municipalities can read more in our ADA Title II website compliance guide.

What’s at stake for businesses

There is no equivalent regulation for private businesses under Title III. That doesn’t mean there is no standard; it means courts, settlements and DOJ agreements fill the gap, and nearly all of them point to WCAG.

A private plaintiff suing under Title III can win an injunction and attorney’s fees, but not money damages. The DOJ can seek civil penalties of up to $118,225 for a first violation and $236,451 for later ones (2025 inflation-adjusted amounts). The money in private lawsuits usually comes from state law. California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act sets damages of no less than $4,000 per violation, and New York’s state and city human rights laws allow compensatory damages.

WCAG 2.1 AA: the standard everyone points to

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), are the benchmark in DOJ regulations, settlements and court orders. WCAG 2.1 Level AA, published in June 2018, is the level the Title II rule adopts and the most common target in settlements. WCAG 2.2, published on October 5, 2023, adds nine success criteria and is a sensible target for new builds; we compare the two in WCAG 2.1 vs 2.2.

WCAG is organized around four principles. Content must be perceivable, with text alternatives for images, captions for video and enough color contrast (4.5:1 for normal text at Level AA). It must be operable, meaning everything works with a keyboard, focus is always visible and people have enough time to finish a task. It must be understandable, with clear labels, predictable navigation and helpful error messages. And it must be robust, built with code that assistive technology such as a screen reader can interpret reliably.

Demand letters tend to cite the same practical failures: images without alternative text, form fields without labels, menus and buttons a keyboard can’t reach, low-contrast text, videos without captions, and checkout, booking or intake forms a screen reader user can’t complete.

What recent cases have cost

Most website accessibility cases settle quietly, for amounts that are never made public. The cases below are exceptions: decisions and settlements with public figures that show what an inaccessible website can cost.

Laptop and a judge’s gavel on a desk

Alcazar v. Fashion Nova: a $5.15 million class settlement

A blind shopper sued Fashion Nova in 2020, alleging its website couldn’t be used with screen-reading software. In 2025 the parties agreed to a $5.15 million class settlement that offered California class members who submitted claims up to $4,000 each under the Unruh Act, about $2.52 million in attorney’s fees and a commitment to WCAG 2.1 conformance. In February 2026 the DOJ filed a statement of interest opposing the deal, arguing the promised website fixes were “not meaningful” and lacked any enforcement mechanism, and noting that the settlement’s own website wasn’t accessible. As of this writing, we have not found a public ruling on final approval.

Robles v. Domino’s Pizza: $4,000 and a court-ordered fix

Guillermo Robles, who is blind, couldn’t order a pizza on Domino’s website or app with his screen reader. After the Ninth Circuit ruled in his favor in January 2019 and the Supreme Court declined Domino’s appeal that October, Robles won summary judgment in 2021, including $4,000 in Unruh Act statutory damages and an order to make the website conform to WCAG. The parties settled in June 2022 on undisclosed terms.

National Federation of the Blind v. Target: the case that set the price

The first major website accessibility class action ended in August 2008 with Target creating a $6 million fund for California class members and agreeing to make Target.com accessible. It remains the reference point for what these claims can cost a national retailer.

FTC v. accessiBe: $1 million over compliance claims

Not every penalty lands on a website owner. In January 2025 the Federal Trade Commission ordered accessiBe, maker of an AI-powered accessibility widget, to pay $1 million for claiming its tool could make any website compliant with WCAG. The final order, approved on April 22, 2025, bars the company from claiming its automated products can make or keep a website compliant without evidence to back it up.

Defendants do win: Thurston v. Omni Hotels

In 2021 a California appeals court upheld a jury verdict for Omni Hotels because the plaintiff never intended to book a room. Unruh Act plaintiffs must show a genuine intent to use the business’s services, not just a visit to test the website.

The cost that rarely appears in a decision is the defense itself: your own lawyer, the plaintiff’s fees and the remediation you would have needed anyway.

How we use accessiBe, and why a widget isn’t enough on its own

Accessibility widgets, sometimes called overlays, are scripts that add a toolbar and apply automated adjustments to a page. Used well, they give visitors useful controls, such as larger text, higher contrast, extra spacing or paused animations. EVERNET uses accessiBe on our own website for exactly that reason.

What a widget can’t do is guarantee compliance. It can’t write meaningful alt text for every image, repair a third-party booking tool or make an untagged PDF readable, and some screen reader users turn widgets off. The FTC’s order was about exactly that kind of claim. So we fix the site itself first, add accessiBe as an extra layer of visitor controls, and keep testing both.

Automated scanners have the same limit. They are good at catching missing alt attributes and contrast failures, but many WCAG requirements need a person to judge: whether alt text is meaningful, whether a form makes sense when read aloud, or whether a checkout can be finished with a keyboard alone. Use tools to find problems quickly, and people to confirm the site actually works.

How to make your website ADA compliant

Whether you are planning an accessibility project or checking the work of the team that maintains your site, the path looks like this:

  1. Set a standard in writing. Adopt WCAG 2.1 AA as the minimum, WCAG 2.2 AA for new work, and put it in your website contracts.
  2. Audit with tools and with people. Run an automated scan, then test with only a keyboard, a screen reader, 200% browser zoom and a contrast checker. Our guide to keyboard and screen reader testing walks through it.
  3. Fix the templates first. Headers, menus, forms and footers repeat on every page, so fixing them removes the most barriers for the least effort.
  4. Prioritize the paths that matter. Contact and intake forms, scheduling, checkout, client portals and payments come before the blog archive.
  5. Caption video and fix documents. See how to write alt text and PDF accessibility.
  6. Check third-party tools. Chat widgets, booking systems and payment forms are part of your website to a visitor, and to a plaintiff.
  7. Publish an accessibility statement with a phone number and email so anyone who hits a barrier can still reach you. Use our accessibility statement template.
  8. Keep it accessible. Retest after redesigns and plugin updates, and train the people who publish content.
Woman using a wheelchair works on a laptop at her desk, seen from above

For law firms, bar associations and other professional practices, an inaccessible intake form is both a legal risk and a lost client; our guide to law firm website accessibility covers the specifics. EVERNET builds accessibility into its website design and development work and offers website accessibility audits that review an existing site against WCAG 2.1 AA. Schedule a call to talk it through.

Frequently asked questions

Does my website need to be ADA compliant?

If your business is open to the public, plan as if it does. Courts and the DOJ apply Title III to the websites of businesses with physical locations, online-only businesses still face lawsuits in several states, and state and local governments must meet WCAG 2.1 AA under Title II by April 2027 or April 2028, depending on size.

Can I be sued if my website is not ADA compliant?

Yes. More than 3,000 federal website accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025, and many more claims are filed in state courts or settled after a demand letter. Most target businesses open to the public, from retailers and restaurants to professional offices.

What websites are exempt from ADA compliance?

Title III doesn’t apply to private clubs or religious organizations. Some courts, including California’s appeals courts, have held that websites of online-only businesses aren’t covered, but other courts disagree, so being online-only is not a safe harbor. Government websites fall under Title II, which has its own limited exceptions for archived content, older documents and certain third-party posts.

What are the ADA website requirements for 2026?

There is still no Title III regulation that sets a technical standard for business websites; WCAG 2.1 AA remains the benchmark. For state and local governments, the April 2026 interim final rule moved the Title II deadlines to April 26, 2027 and April 26, 2028.

How much does it cost to make a website ADA compliant?

It depends on the size of the site, how many templates and documents it has, whether problems sit in the theme or the content, and whether you are fixing an existing site or building accessibility into a redesign. An audit is the way to scope it.

Will an accessibility widget protect me from a lawsuit?

Not on its own. A widget such as accessiBe, which we use, adds helpful controls for visitors, but it doesn’t repair every issue in the underlying code and content. Pair it with an audit, real fixes and ongoing testing.

This article is general information, not legal advice. For advice about your organization’s obligations, talk to an attorney.

Sources

Related reading

Website services that support accessibility

Back to insights

Let’s talk about what comes next.

Bring the challenge. We’ll help you explore the right scope and a practical next step.

Schedule a Call