ADA Website Lawsuits: Is Your Small Business at Risk?

The short answer: website accessibility lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) hit a new high in 2025, with more than 3,000 filed in federal court alone, and online stores and small businesses are a big share of them. Most of the problems these suits point to are common and fixable: low-contrast text, images without descriptions, forms a screen reader can’t use. A quick self-check can show you where you stand, and an “accessibility widget” is not the shortcut it claims to be.

A quick note: this post is general information, not legal advice. If you’ve received a demand letter or lawsuit, talk to an attorney.

Picture this: a letter shows up saying your website can’t be used by people who are blind, and you’re being sued under the ADA. For a lot of business owners it’s the first time they’ve heard that the ADA applies to websites at all. Here’s what’s happening, why small businesses get caught up in it, and what you can check on your own site this week.

How many ADA website lawsuits are being filed?

A lot, and the number went back up in 2025:

3,117 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in U.S. federal courts in 2025, up 27% from 2,452 in 2024, according to the law firm Seyfarth Shaw, which tracks these filings every year (Seyfarth Shaw, ADA Title III blog).
Most were filed in New York (1,021), Florida (961) and Illinois (585). But where a case is filed isn’t where the business has to be. An online store in Michigan can be sued in New York.
Those numbers don’t include suits filed in state courts or the demand letters that get settled before anyone goes to court, so the real total is higher.
In the first half of 2025, 69% of digital accessibility lawsuits targeted e-commerce sites, and only 36% of the companies sued had more than $25 million in yearly revenue, according to the accessibility firm UsableNet (UsableNet). In other words, most were smaller businesses.

Why does the ADA apply to websites?

Title III of the ADA says businesses open to the public must give people with disabilities equal access to their goods and services. The U.S. Department of Justice has said plainly that this includes goods and services offered on the web (ADA.gov).

And it isn’t a small group of people. More than 1 in 4 U.S. adults has some type of disability, according to the CDC (CDC). That includes people who are blind and use screen readers, people who can’t use a mouse and navigate with a keyboard, people with low vision who zoom in, and people who are Deaf or hard of hearing and need captions. If they can’t use your site, they can’t buy from you.

There’s no official federal rule for private business websites yet. The Justice Department’s guidance points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as a helpful standard, and in practice WCAG Level AA is what lawsuits, settlements and most accessibility audits measure against.

Is the law getting stricter?

Yes, in a few places at once:

State and local governments. In 2024 the Justice Department set firm web accessibility rules for public entities under Title II of the ADA. In April 2026 it extended the deadlines by a year: April 26, 2027 for governments serving 50,000 people or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller ones and special districts (Federal Register). If you build sites, apps or online forms for a city, county or school district, those rules will reach you through your contracts.
Selling into Europe. The European Accessibility Act has been enforceable since June 28, 2025. It covers things like online stores and e-books sold to people in the EU, including by businesses based outside it. The smallest service businesses (fewer than 10 employees and under €2 million in turnover) are exempt from some of its requirements (Travers Smith).

What problems do these lawsuits point to?

Mostly the same handful of things. Every year the nonprofit WebAIM scans the home pages of the top million websites. In its 2026 report, 95.9% of home pages had detectable WCAG failures, with an average of 56 errors per page (WebAIM Million 2026). The most common problems:

Low-contrast text that’s hard to read: 83.9% of home pages
Images with no alternative text, so screen readers can’t describe them: 53.1%
Form fields with no labels: 51%
Empty links that don’t say where they go: 46.3%
Empty buttons with no name: 30.6%
No page language set, which trips up screen readers: 13.5%

The good news is that these are code and content problems, and they can be fixed for good.

A 15-minute accessibility self-check

You don’t need special training to spot the biggest problems. Open your website on a computer and try these:

Put the mouse away. Press the Tab key to move through your home page. Can you reach every link, menu and button, in a sensible order? Can you open your menu and get back out of it?
Watch for the focus outline. As you tab, can you always see where you are? If the outline disappears, keyboard users are lost.
Try to buy or book something with the keyboard only. Fill out your contact form, add a product to the cart, or start a booking. If you get stuck, so do your customers.
Zoom to 200%. Press Ctrl and + (or Cmd and + on a Mac) a few times. Does the text stay readable without overlapping or getting cut off?
Check your contrast. Is any light gray text on white, or white text on a pale photo? If it’s hard for you to read in sunlight, it fails for people with low vision.
Look at your forms. Does every field have a visible label (not just gray placeholder text that disappears when you type)? When you leave a required field blank, does the error message say what’s wrong in words, not just a red outline?
Check your images and videos. Do important images have alt text describing them? Do your videos have captions?
Run a free scan. WebAIM’s free WAVE tool will flag missing alt text, labels and contrast problems on any page. Automated tools only catch part of the problem, but they’re a great start.

If you hit problems on two or three of these, you’re in the same spot as most websites, and it’s worth a closer look.

Will an accessibility widget or overlay protect me?

This is the one we most want small business owners to hear: an accessibility overlay is not a fix. Overlays are the toolbars or little wheelchair icons added with a line of code that promise to make your site “compliant” automatically. They sit on top of your site but don’t fix the code underneath, so screen reader and keyboard users still hit the same barriers.

In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission said one of the best-known overlay makers, accessiBe, misled businesses by claiming its AI tool could make any website WCAG compliant. The company agreed to pay $1 million to settle the charges (FTC). Businesses with overlays installed keep getting sued, and many blind users say overlays make sites harder to use, not easier.

If you’re paying for one, don’t panic, but don’t count on it either. The real protection is fixing the site itself.

What to do if your site has problems

Start with what customers use most. Your home page, contact form, booking flow and checkout matter more than an old blog post.
Fix the code, not just the symptoms. Add real labels, alt text and keyboard support. Most fixes on WordPress and Shopify sites are small once someone knows where to look.
Test with real tools. Use a keyboard and a screen reader as well as automated scans.
Publish an accessibility statement that says what you’re working toward and how people can reach you if something doesn’t work.
Keep it up. Every new page, plugin or product can bring new problems, so check again when things change.
If you’ve already received a demand letter, call an attorney first, then get an audit so you know exactly what needs fixing.

How Trevi Web Co. can help

At Trevi Web Co., making websites work for everyone is one of the main things we do. Our accessibility audits test your site against WCAG 2.2 AA with automated tools and by hand, using a keyboard and a screen reader. You get a plain-English report with every issue ranked by severity, the exact code fixes, and a retest once the fixes are in. We can make the fixes ourselves or hand them to your developer. Audits start at $1,250, and you can see every option on our pricing page.

Not sure where your site stands? Book a free 20-minute call or call (248) 509-4250, and we’ll tell you where your biggest risks are.

Frequently asked questions

Can a small business really be sued over its website?

Yes. More than 3,000 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in U.S. federal courts in 2025, and online stores are the most common target. Most of the companies sued are not large corporations. Being small doesn’t take you out of the ADA, though the details of any specific case are a question for an attorney.

Does the ADA require my website to meet WCAG?

There’s no federal regulation that names WCAG for private business websites yet. The Justice Department’s guidance points to WCAG as a helpful standard, and WCAG Level AA is what most lawsuits, settlements and audits measure against. Government websites do have a specific requirement under the Title II rule.

Will an accessibility widget make my site compliant?

No. Overlay widgets don’t fix the underlying code, and the FTC fined one well-known overlay maker $1 million in 2025 over claims that its tool made sites compliant. Businesses using overlays still get sued. Fixing the site itself is what actually helps.

What is WCAG 2.2 AA?

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the international standard for accessible websites, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Version 2.2 is the newest, and Level AA is the middle level, which is the target most laws, settlements and audits expect.

Can I check my own website for accessibility?

You can catch a lot yourself: tab through your site with the keyboard, zoom to 200%, check your forms and contrast, and run a free scanner like WAVE. Automated tools only catch part of the problem, so a full audit adds hands-on testing with a screen reader.

How long does it take to fix an inaccessible website?

It depends on the size of the site. A small business site can often be audited in one to three weeks, and many fixes are quick once they’re identified. Larger stores with lots of products and forms take longer.

ADA Website Lawsuits Are Rising. Is Your Small Business at Risk?