2026 is on pace for a record year of ADA website lawsuits
5,114 ADA website accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025. Is your site next?
Lawsuits over inaccessible websites are filed every day, and most target companies with under $25 million in revenue. Run a free scan to see the barriers a plaintiff’s attorney could find on your site today.
Run my free scan Call (949) 446-1716
Free, automated, and the report is emailed to you. Lawsuit figures: UsableNet 2025 Year-End Report and 2026 midyear analysis.
What an ADA website claim can cost
Fixing accessibility issues early is far cheaper than any of these outcomes. A typical demand-letter settlement is a few thousand dollars. Court judgments and class actions run much higher, and even a defense with no damages can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
The bars below use a logarithmic scale from $1,000 to $6 million so the smaller amounts stay visible next to the $6 million maximum. Each bar shows the median. The marker shows the average. The range is listed in text.
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Demand Letter SettlementMedian $3,500
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Out-of-Court SettlementMedian $18,000
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Court JudgmentMedian $55,000
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Class Action SettlementMedian $225,000
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Legal Defense (No Damages)Median $18,000
View as table
| Outcome | Median | Average | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demand Letter Settlement | $3,500 | $5,000 | $1,000–$25,000 |
| Out-of-Court Settlement | $18,000 | $30,000 | $5,000–$150,000 |
| Court Judgment | $55,000 | $85,000 | $10,000–$500,000 |
| Class Action Settlement | $225,000 | $400,000 | $50,000–$6,000,000 |
| Legal Defense (No Damages) | $18,000 | $30,000 | $5,000–$125,000 |
Source: Internet Technology Services compilation from published court records and litigation reports.
Are website lawsuits going up?
Yes. Federal website accessibility lawsuits rose from 814 in 2017 to 3,117 in 2025, almost four times as many. Filings jumped 27% in 2025 alone.
Show the chart data as a table
| Year | Lawsuits |
|---|---|
| 2017 | 814 |
| 2018 | 2,258 |
| 2019 | 2,256 |
| 2020 | 2,523 |
| 2021 | 2,895 |
| 2022 | 3,255 |
| 2023 | 2,794 |
| 2024 | 2,452 |
| 2025 | 3,117 |
How common are ADA website lawsuits?
Very common, and rising. Plaintiffs filed about 14 digital accessibility lawsuits per day in 2025, and the first half of 2026 was the busiest stretch on record.
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5,114
ADA digital accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025, in federal and New York and California state courts
Source: UsableNet, 2025 -
64%
of those 2025 cases named companies with less than $25 million in annual revenue
Source: UsableNet, 2025 -
45%
of 2025 federal filings (1,427 cases) hit companies that had already been sued before
Source: UsableNet, 2025 -
21%
of 2025 digital accessibility lawsuits targeted the food service industry, second only to e-commerce
Source: UsableNet, 2025 -
95.9%
of the top one million home pages had detectable WCAG failures in February 2026
Source: WebAIM Million, 2026 -
$4,000
minimum damages per offense under California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, plus attorney’s fees
Source: Cal. Civil Code § 52
“About 14 per day” is our math: 5,114 lawsuits divided by 365 days. UsableNet’s 2026 midyear analysis says filings are on track to pass 6,000 this year, a projection, not a final count.
Case study: what happened when Domino’s was sued over its website?
Domino’s fought a blind customer’s website lawsuit for six years, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and still ended up settling. It is the best-known restaurant website accessibility case in the country.
- 2016The lawsuit. Guillermo Robles, who is blind, sued Domino’s in federal court in Los Angeles. He said he could not order food on its website or app with his screen reader.
- Jan 2019The appeal. The Ninth Circuit held that the ADA applied to Domino’s website and app because they connect customers to its restaurants.
- Oct 2019The Supreme Court. The Court declined to hear Domino’s appeal, so the ruling stood.
- 2021The ruling. The trial court found the website was not fully accessible and awarded $4,000 in Unruh Act damages. It also said a phone line with a 45-minute wait does not replace an accessible website.
- Jun 2022The settlement. The parties settled after six years. The terms were not made public.
Sources: Ninth Circuit opinion, Supreme Court docket 18-1539, Seyfarth Shaw on the settlement, BOIA.
It isn’t just big chains
Small and local burger restaurants are being sued too. These are public court filings:
- Bongo Burger, Berkeley, CA. A single local restaurant, sued on July 8, 2025, over its website. Accessibility.com
- Jackson Hole Burger, New York. A family-owned restaurant group, sued on February 10, 2025. Accessibility.com
- Burger King, Florida. Sued in federal court on February 20, 2025, over keyboard and screen-reader barriers on bk.com. Docket Nexus
- St. Louis restaurants. In 2025, one attorney filed at least 70 website suits for one plaintiff, many against independent restaurants. One chef described demands of “$5,000 to $15,000.” St. Louis Magazine
How does a website demand letter happen?
It usually starts with someone who can’t use your site and ends with a request to fix it and pay attorney’s fees. Here is the typical path:
1. Your site gets checked
A screen-reader user, often working with a plaintiff’s firm, hits barriers like unlabeled forms or images with no description. Free automated tools can spot the same barriers in seconds.
2. A letter or lawsuit arrives
It asks you to make the site accessible and to cover the firm’s fees and costs. Unlike a wheelchair ramp claim, nobody has to visit your business to find these barriers.
3. Settle or fight
Some owners feel they have no choice but to settle. Domino’s fought for six years, ran up substantial legal fees, and still settled.
4. It can happen again
Settling doesn’t fix the website. 45% of 2025 federal filings named companies that had already been sued.
Sources: St. Louis Magazine, Seyfarth Shaw, Seyfarth on Domino’s, UsableNet.
What does the free scan check?
The scan tests your page against WCAG 2.2 Level AA and maps every finding to the laws and standards that rely on it:
- WCAG 2.2 AAThe technical standard courts and regulators point to
- ADAU.S. businesses (Title III) and state and local governments (Title II, WCAG 2.1 AA deadlines April 26, 2027 and 2028)
- Section 508U.S. federal agencies and their vendors
- EN 301 549The European accessibility standard
- AODAOntario, Canada
- EAA 2025European Accessibility Act, applies since June 28, 2025
Standards dates: U.S. DOJ, 2026 and European Commission.
You get a score, a count of unique issues, and the pages and elements where each one appears. The scan is automated and finds only some barriers, so it is a starting point, not a compliance certificate.
Free accessibility scan from Internet Technology Services
Enter a URL and an email address. Your summary appears right here on this page, and the full report link is emailed to you.
This is an automated scan against WCAG 2.2 Level AA. It is not a conformance claim. Automated tools find only some accessibility barriers. A manual review is required before any conformance statement.
Prefer to talk? Call (949) 446-1716 or email its@internettechnologyservices.com.
What happens after the scan?
If the scan finds problems, Internet Technology Services can run a full audit and fix them. Here is what that covers:
- Manual audit. We review your key pages against WCAG 2.2 AA by hand and with screen readers, beyond what automated tools can catch.
- Prioritized fix plan. Every issue gets a severity, an owner and a plain-English fix.
- Remediation. Our developers fix the code, contrast, forms and navigation, not a widget on top.
- Proof of work. You get a rescan, an accessibility statement and a VPAT-style report you can show customers.
Frequently asked questions
Can a small business really be sued over its website?
Yes. UsableNet found that 64% of the 2025 ADA digital accessibility lawsuits it tracked named companies with less than $25 million in annual revenue. Restaurants, shops and local service businesses with a website are common targets.
Does the ADA apply to my website?
Courts have increasingly said yes, especially when a website is connected to a physical location. In Robles v. Domino’s, the Ninth Circuit held in 2019 that the ADA applied to Domino’s website and app, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review that ruling.
Why are California businesses at extra risk?
California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act (Civil Code section 52) sets minimum damages of $4,000 per offense, plus attorney’s fees. An ADA violation can also be an Unruh Act violation, so the money at stake is higher than under the ADA alone.
Will an accessibility widget or overlay protect me?
No widget can guarantee that. UsableNet tracked more than 1,400 lawsuits in 2025 against companies that already used accessibility widgets, between 95 and 155 every month.
Does the free scan make my site compliant?
No. The free scan is automated, and automated tools find only some accessibility barriers. It shows you where to start; a manual audit and real fixes are what move a site toward WCAG 2.2 AA.
What should I do if I get a demand letter?
Don’t ignore it, and talk to an attorney about your legal options. Separately, get your site audited and fixed, because UsableNet found 45% of 2025 federal filings were against companies that had already been sued.
Sources
- UsableNet, 2025 Year-End Digital Accessibility Lawsuit Report (data through Dec. 15, 2025).
- Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Federal Court Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings Bounce Back in 2025, March 25, 2026.
- WebAIM, The WebAIM Million: 2026 report, February 2026 data.
- UsableNet, Inside the 2026 Midyear Numbers, July 8, 2026 (projection).
- California Legislative Information, Civil Code section 52.
- Justia, Robles v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, No. 17-55504 (9th Cir. Jan. 15, 2019).
- Supreme Court of the United States, Docket No. 18-1539, petition denied Oct. 7, 2019.
- Seyfarth Shaw LLP, Robles v. Domino’s Settles After Six Years of Litigation, June 2022.
- Bureau of Internet Accessibility, The Robles v. Domino’s Settlement (And Why It Matters).
- Accessibility.com, Jesus Torres v. Bongo Burger, Inc., filed July 8, 2025.
- Accessibility.com, Amanie Riley v. Jackson Hole Burger, Inc., filed Feb. 10, 2025.
- Docket Nexus, Hernandez v. Burger King Company LLC, No. 1:25-cv-20791 (S.D. Fla.).
- St. Louis Magazine, “Shakedown” lawsuits over website access torment St. Louis restaurateurs, Aug. 12, 2025.
- European Commission, The EU becomes more accessible for all (European Accessibility Act applies from June 28, 2025).
- U.S. Department of Justice, ADA Title II web rule compliance date extension, April 20, 2026.
- Typical costs compiled by Internet Technology Services from published court records and litigation reports. Figures are approximate; actual costs vary by case, state, and business.
Not legal advice. This page is general information from Internet Technology Services, a web development firm, not a law firm. A scan or audit cannot guarantee compliance or prevent a lawsuit. If you receive a demand letter or lawsuit, talk to a qualified attorney.