2024 Guide to Prevent “ADA Website” Demand Letters and Lawsuits
(Updated for 2024)
Prevention
Prevent or reduce risk of “ADA website” litigation by taking the following actions:
- Make your website WCAG 2.1 AA conformant
- If full conformance isn’t possible, address key accessibility issues that impede access
- If full conformance isn’t possible, reduce WAVE scan errors and alerts
- Publish an accessibility statement with contact information for support and feedback
WCAG 2.1 AA conformance
The best way to reduce risk of a demand letter or complaint for website inaccessibility is to make your website fully conformant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA.
Full conformance essentially means you have addressed and remediated 50 potential accessibility issues. It would be extremely, extremely difficult for a plaintiffs’ lawyer to make any genuine claim against your website.
Note that no automated solution such as an overlay, widget, plugin, app, software, etc. can accomplish WCAG conformance — despite the marketing hype from overlay vendors.
Eliminate Barriers to Access
Even if your website isn’t fully WCAG conformant, you can still pre-empt some litigation by resolving major accessibility issues, issues that significantly degrade user experience or block access.
Major accessibility issues include:
- Alternative text
- Closed captioning
- Labels
- Keyboard navigability
These issues are frequently claimed in litigation and eliminating them may help deter plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Zero WAVE Errors
Plaintiffs’ lawyers frequently use automated scans and use the errors produced from scans as the basis for claims.
WAVE by WebAIM is the most popular scan. PowerMapper is another frequently used by plaintiffs’ law firms.
Reducing or eliminating your errors in these scans is a great start, but know that just because your developer is able to reduce the number of errors, it doesn’t mean that your website is accessible — or even that you’ve sufficiently remediated the issues found.
Moreover, scans are only able to detect 20–25% of the 50 accessibility considerations named in WCAG 2.1 AA.
Accessibility Statement
Publishing an accessibility statement and conspicously linking to it is a part of material compliance alongside accessibility.
This is because an accessibility statement provides users a way to contact you for assistance and provide feedback.
Additionally, the lack of an accessibility statement has been cited to by plaintiffs’ lawyers in complaints.
Review
Whether it’s the Americans with Disabilities Act or other anti-discrimination laws such as the California Unruh Civil Rights Act and the New York State/City Human Rights Laws, the above actions can help your organization significantly reduce risk of litigation.
In my ADA Website Compliance article, I provide more depth on the current legal landscape.
I highly recommend my book, The ADA Book, to get the full picture on the legal and practical aspects of website accessibility and compliance with the ADA and other laws.
