Got an ADA Website Demand Letter? What a Small Business Should Do

It arrives by email or post, usually from a law firm you've never heard of. It says a person with a disability tried to use your website and couldn't, that this violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that the matter can be resolved if you pay a settlement and fix the site. There may be a deadline. For a small business owner, it's a frightening thing to open.

This article is not legal advice, and we're not lawyers. If you've received a letter, speak to an attorney, ideally one who has handled ADA matters. What we can do is explain the website side: what the claims usually mean, what's worth checking, and what to avoid, so you go into that conversation informed.

Why these letters exist

The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities by businesses open to the public. Courts in different parts of the country have disagreed about how, and how far, that applies to websites, and there is no single federal technical standard for private businesses' websites written into the law. That uncertainty is part of why demand letters are common: some firms send large numbers of similar letters to businesses whose sites have obvious, machine-detectable problems.

Arizona owners may remember a wave of ADA lawsuits here in the mid-2010s, mostly about parking and physical access, many from a single filer. Website claims follow a similar pattern elsewhere in the country. That doesn't make every letter frivolous, and it doesn't make the underlying problems unreal. Many websites genuinely are hard or impossible to use for people who are blind, have low vision, or can't use a mouse.

What not to do in the first week

What the letter's claims usually mean

Most letters list problems found by automated tools, sometimes with a screen-reader user's account of trying to use the site. The usual items are:

Checking your own site

You can get a rough picture yourself in half an hour. Free browser tools such as WAVE and the accessibility audit built into Chrome's Lighthouse will flag many machine-detectable problems. Then try the human tests: put the mouse aside and use only the Tab and Enter keys to navigate and submit your contact form; zoom the page to 200 per cent and see whether anything breaks; turn on your phone's screen reader and try to find your phone number.

Automated tools only catch part of the picture. A clean report doesn't prove a site is accessible; it means the obvious problems are gone. A proper review combines tools with manual testing.

The standard to aim for

The benchmark most often referenced in settlements and guidance is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG, at level AA. The Department of Justice adopted WCAG 2.1 AA as the technical standard for state and local government websites in 2024; that rule covers public bodies, not private businesses, but it shows where expectations are heading. Many remediation agreements with private businesses name WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA too.

Your attorney will advise on what the letter specifically requires. From the website side, fixing the site to WCAG 2.2 AA, documenting what was done, and setting up regular checks is the practical goal.

Fixing it properly

Real fixes happen in the site's code and content, not in a toolbar on top. On a well-built site, most are straightforward: describing images, labelling form fields, adjusting colours, making menus work with a keyboard, captioning videos and replacing PDF-only information with real pages. On a site built with a heavy template or page builder, some problems are baked in and can only be fixed by rebuilding the affected parts.

Keep records. A written log of the problems found, the dates they were fixed and the testing done afterwards is useful to your attorney and shows good faith. Publishing an accessibility statement with a way for people to report problems is good practice too; we publish one on this site.

Preventing the next one

Accessibility isn't a one-time fix. Every new page, photo, form and PDF can reintroduce a problem. Make it part of how the site is maintained: descriptions written whenever an image is added, contrast checked whenever colours change, and an automated scan every month or two with a manual check now and then.

It also happens to be good business. In a region with as many retirees as ours, a site that's easy to read, easy to navigate and works with larger text serves a large share of your actual customers better.

If you've received a letter, or want to avoid one, our accessibility add-on audits an existing site against WCAG 2.2 AA with automated checks and hands-on testing, fixes what it finds and gives you a written accessibility statement. No audit makes a site immune, and we aren't lawyers, but it leaves you with the fixes and the record. Talk to your attorney first, then talk to us.