Law Firm Website Accessibility: ADA Requirements for Legal Websites

A prospective client finds your firm late at night, after a difficult day. They read about your practice areas, click into an attorney’s bio and decide to reach out. Then the intake form won’t let them past the first field, because their screen reader can’t tell what the field is for. They close the tab and call the next firm on the list.

That scenario plays out more often than most firms realize, and it carries two costs. The first is a lost client. The second, increasingly, is a demand letter. Law firms are not a special case under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and their websites face the same accessibility expectations as any other business open to the public.

Why the ADA applies to law firms

Title III of the ADA lists the places of public accommodation it covers, and the list names the “office of an accountant or lawyer” explicitly (42 U.S.C. 12181(7)(F)). If your firm serves the public, the ADA applies to your offices.

The statute doesn’t spell out website requirements for private businesses, so courts have filled the gap. In Robles v. Domino’s Pizza (2019), the Ninth Circuit held that a website connected to a physical place of public accommodation is covered, and other courts have gone further. The Department of Justice has long pointed to WCAG as the way to meet the ADA online, and WCAG 2.1 Level AA is the working standard.

The volume of claims is significant. Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits in federal court in 2025, with New York and Florida leading, and that count doesn’t include state-court cases or demand letters that settle before anyone files.

Where legal websites most often fall short

Law firm websites share a recognizable set of weak spots. We see them again and again when we review firm sites.

Intake and contact forms

This is the single most important page to get right. Missing labels, unclear error messages and CAPTCHA puzzles block screen reader users at exactly the moment they are trying to become clients.

Attorney bios

Headshots without alt text, practice areas shown only in images, and accordions or tabs that don’t work with a keyboard make it hard for visitors to learn who you are.

Brand colors

Traditional legal palettes of navy, gold and gray often fail contrast requirements for body text and buttons. A small adjustment to the global colors usually fixes the whole site at once.

Documents and video

Firm brochures, client guides and intake forms are often posted as untagged or scanned PDFs that screen readers can’t read. Attorney introduction videos and webinars are frequently posted without captions.

Third-party tools

Chat, scheduling, payment and client portal widgets are part of your website to a visitor. If they aren’t keyboard or screen reader accessible, neither is your site.

Keep accessibility claims accurate

For law firms in particular, what your website says about accessibility deserves the same care as any other statement about your practice. Avoid badges or phrases such as “fully ADA compliant” unless an evaluation supports them. There is no official ADA certification for websites.

A widget such as accessiBe, which EVERNET uses on its own site, can add helpful controls for visitors, but it isn’t a substitute for fixing the underlying code and content. An honest accessibility statement that names your standard, your known limitations and a way to reach you serves clients far better. Our guide on how to write an accessibility statement includes a template.

A checklist for your firm

If you want to get started this month, work through this list:

• Audit the home page, practice area pages, attorney bios, contact and intake forms against WCAG 2.1 AA.
• Test the full intake path with only a keyboard and with a screen reader.
• Fix color contrast in your brand palette and global styles.
• Add alt text to headshots and meaningful images, and caption your videos.
• Replace or remediate the PDFs clients need, such as intake forms and guides.
• Ask the vendors of your chat, scheduling, payment and portal tools for accessibility documentation.
• Publish an accessibility statement and assign someone to respond to feedback.
• Retest after redesigns, new practice pages and plugin updates.

Websites and IT for law firms

EVERNET designs, builds and maintains websites for law firms and bar associations, and provides IT support for legal practices. See our work on marketing and websites for law firms and IT for law firms, or start with a website accessibility audit. For the broader legal picture, read ADA website requirements and recent lawsuits.