Web Accessibility Lawsuits: Trends, Risks, and How to Protect your Business

Author: Level Access

Web accessibility lawsuits filed under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are at near-record levels in the United States. While businesses of all sizes and across industries have been targeted, those that adopt a proactive, continuous approach to accessibility—and document their efforts— face significantly less legal risk than those that do nothing.

Web accessibility litigation is intensifying. Digital accessibility lawsuits filed under the ADA are climbing again after two years of decline, and litigation is expanding into new states and industries. For businesses of every size, maintaining an accessible website is not only the right thing to do by users, but also critical to mitigating risk.

Key insights

• Federal web accessibility lawsuits filed under Title III of the ADA reached 3,117 in 2025—a 27% increase from 2024 and the second-highest annual total on record.
• When state court filings are included, the total number of 2025 web accessibility lawsuits filed exceeded 5,000.
• No industry is exempt from legal action: recent cases span online retail, food service, hospitality, and home goods.
• Courts typically reference the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA as the benchmark for ADA compliance; however, conformance with WCAG 2.2 AA is considered best practice.

Litigation trends: What the data shows

The volume of web accessibility litigation is rising, and the pattern of who gets sued—and where—is shifting fast. Web accessibility lawsuits filed under ADA Title III in federal and state courts have more than tripled since 2017, making digital access one of the fastest-growing areas of ADA litigation.

According to Seyfarth Shaw‘s most recent analysis, plaintiffs filed 3,117 federal web accessibility lawsuits in 2025—a 27% jump over 2024’s total of 2,452, nearly reversing the 14% and 13% declines observed in 2023 and 2024. Website accessibility lawsuits accounted for 36% of all ADA Title III federal filings in 2025, up from 28% the prior year. When state court filings are included, the combined total exceeds 5,000 website accessibility lawsuits annually.

Where are web accessibility lawsuits filed?

ADA website lawsuits and digital accessibility claims can be filed wherever users access your website, not just where your business is based. Research by our Legal Intelligence Group found that New York, Florida, and California continue to dominate in terms of the volume of digital accessibility lawsuits. However, new hotspots are emerging in Illinois, Missouri, and Minnesota. In fact, over 300 businesses in Missouri and Minnesota were targeted by digital accessibility lawsuits in 2025, pointing to a broader geographic spread of ADA-related litigation.

Part of the reason that New York and California remain hubs for legal action is that both states have laws with parallel requirements to the ADA that carry steep consequences for non-compliance:

• The New York State Human Rights Law (NYSHRL) and the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) allow for monetary damages, attorneys’ fees, and, under the NYCHRL, even punitive damages.
• Under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act (UCRA), a plaintiff can recover $4,000 for each statutory violation. Courts have interpreted an inaccessible site as a one-time violation of $4,000.

Businesses that serve customers in New York and California can be held accountable under these state laws, even if they are headquartered elsewhere.

Which industries are at risk?

No industry is exempt from ADA website accessibility lawsuits. However, e-commerce and food service have historically experienced the heaviest filing activity, a trend that has continued. Notable cases from 2025 include:

• Frost v. Lion Brand Yarn Co.: A Minnesota federal court found that an online-only yarn retailer qualified as a place of public accommodation with no physical presence required.
• Wilkins v. Smashburger: A Pennsylvania court ruled that accessibility barriers on a fast-casual restaurant chain’s website violated the ADA.
• Brown v. Jennifer Adams Brands: A New York court held that a home goods brand’s website was covered by Title III even without a brick-and-mortar location.
• Herrera v. Grove Bay Hospitality Group: A Florida court found that a restaurant could not pass ADA liability to its website vendor.

Which law firms are driving the surge?

Given the sheer volume of digital accessibility lawsuits filed each year, you might expect a similarly large number of firms to be responsible. However, the majority of cases are filed by just a handful of highly prolific firms. In fact, the sharp rise in litigation in Illinois was driven almost entirely by just one firm, the Equal Access Law Group, which filed over 600 federal lawsuits in the state in in 2025.

While some firms prioritize the genuine needs of users with disabilities, many are built for volume, pursuing quick settlements rather than courtroom proceedings. Our Legal Intelligence Group found that firms like Stein Saks, Gottlieb & Associates, and Mizrahi Kroub have each filed hundreds to over 1,000 accessibility cases annually in recent years—with some sanctioned by courts for boilerplate filings that fail to allege standing.

If your organization is targeted by a demand letter or lawsuit, understanding which firm is behind a complaint can meaningfully inform legal strategy and settlement decisions.

Repeat defendants: When one settlement isn’t enough

It’s common for organizations that have already been involved in accessibility-related legal action to be sued again for the same issues. That’s because organizations often implement one-time fixes in response to a settlement, rather than investing in sustainable, long-term measures to ensure ongoing accessibility.

As a result, new updates to code or content introduce new issues—or reintroduce old ones. And since plaintiff’s firms actively track prior ADA compliance failures, businesses that settle without changing their process to prevent regression are easy to find again.

Regulatory updates: New accessibility standards signal intensified scrutiny

Three regulatory developments have materially raised the stakes for digital accessibility compliance in 2026.

1. ADA Title II final rule: In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a rule defining WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the ADA Title II compliance standard for websites and mobile apps. ADA Title II specifically covers state and local government programs and services. The original compliance deadline for large government entities was April 2026. On April 20, 2026, the DOJ issued an Interim Final Rule extending that deadline by one year. However, the ADA obligation itself has not changed—government entities can still face ADA related lawsuits regardless of where the deadline sits.
2. HHS Section 504: A parallel rule from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), finalized in May 2024, establishes WCAG 2.1 AA as the standard for web and mobile accessibility under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The rule applies to healthcare and social services organizations receiving federal financial assistance. The HHS compliance deadline has also been extended by one year to May 2027.
3. European Accessibility Act: For businesses operating in the European Union (EU), the European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into force on June 28, 2025. It requires e-commerce platforms, banking applications, and other digital services to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust for people with disabilities. The best way to demonstrate compliance is to conform with EN 301 549 standards, which incorporate WCAG 2.1 AA. Non-compliant products can be barred from EU markets—a legal requirement that domestic regulatory changes do not affect.

What does a web accessibility lawsuit cost?

The costs associated with a web accessibility lawsuit vary. Settlements alone can range from several thousands of dollars to millions in high-profile cases: for example, a recent class action lawsuit targeting Fashion Nova that was settled for $5.15 million.

Beyond settlement costs, organizations should also account for attorney’s fees and the costs of remediation itself.

How to reduce web accessibility lawsuit risk

If your business has a public-facing website, the legal exposure is real regardless of your industry, size, or whether you operate physical locations. So, what can you do to mitigate risk? The following steps reflect the accessibility practices that are most cited in settlement agreements.

1. Conform with WCAG 2.1 AA (and aim for WCAG 2.2): Courts handling ADA Title III cases typically use WCAG 2.1 AA as the compliance benchmark for web and mobile accessibility. Meeting this standard is the clearest way to reduce the risk of ADA website litigation. However, while WCAG 2.1 AA is the “floor” for compliance in most courts, conforming to the most recent version, WCAG 2.2, demonstrates a deeper commitment to best practices,
2. Initiate manual testing and user testing: Automated tools have advanced, but they still cannot detect all accessibility issues. Manual testing by experts and user testing by native users of assistive technologies are essential to surface issues automated tools may miss.
3. Implement accessibility training: Developers, designers, and content authors all have a unique part to play in addressing, and preventing, accessibility issues. Role-specific training sets teams up to fix and avoid errors in their day-to-day work.
4. Build accessibility in from the start: Building accessible digital experiences is more efficient and cost-effective than reactively fixing a live product. Embedding checks into your design, development, and content creation process means issues are caught before they go live, preventing the same problems from reappearing in every new release.
5. Establish ongoing monitoring: Accessibility is not a one-time fix. Even when accessibility is built into the development life cycle, new content, features, and third-party integrations can introduce fresh accessibility issues. Ongoing monitoring ensures that maintaining compliance doesn’t fall through the cracks between audits, and creates the documented record that courts and plaintiffs seek out when evaluating how seriously a business takes its accessibility requirements.
6. Publish an accessibility statement: Document the standard you follow, give website owners a channel to report problems, and commit to a response time. Courts have cited accessibility statements in early-stage rulings, and they demonstrate that a business treats accessibility compliance as an ongoing priority.
7. Prepare a demand letter response plan: Have legal counsel identified, document your accessibility work, and know how you will respond if a demand letter arrives. Businesses that act quickly and credibly typically settle for less and face fewer legal challenges down the road.

Take a proactive approach to web accessibility compliance

ADA website accessibility lawsuits have surpassed 3,000 federal filings for two of the last four years, and the litigation landscape shows no sign of slowing down. Inaccessible websites don’t just create legal risk; they exclude customers with disabilities from the accessible experiences your competitors are increasingly making available to them.

The right accessibility program can significantly reduce that exposure. Explore the Accessibility Risk Reduction Playbook for a step-by-step framework you can use to gain clarity on your true compliance posture, prioritize the fixes that matter most, and build a defensible accessibility program.