Web accessibility lawsuits are not a niche legal risk. In 2025, plaintiffs filed 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits in the US — a 27% increase over 2024, the second-highest annual total on record, and a signal that litigation in this area is not slowing down. Here is what the data shows, who is getting sued, and what reduces your exposure.
The following figures come from Seyfarth Shaw’s annual tracking of ADA Title III federal litigation (published March 2026 at adatitleiii.com) and UsableNet’s 2025 Year-End Trends report:
3,117
Federal website accessibility lawsuits filed in 2025
a 27% increase over 2024’s 2,452 cases
5,000+
Total digital accessibility
lawsuits
Including state court filings
36%
Of all ADA Title III federal filings in 2025 were website accessibility cases
Up from 28% in 2024
45%
Of 2025 federal cases targeted companies that had already been sued at least once before
70%
Of all ADA digital accessibility lawsuits in 2025
targeted ecommerce businesses
1,021
New York, Florida, and Illinois were the top three states for federal filings. NY filings alone
Florida surged to 961 — nearly double 2024
The concentration in ecommerce reflects where accessibility barriers cause the most measurable harm — checkout flows, product discovery, image-heavy pages, and form-based purchase processes. Those are also the easiest barriers for plaintiff firms to document systematically at scale.
The violations cited in complaints are not unusual edge cases. They are the same failures that appear on the majority of websites:
Missing image alt text is among the most frequently cited — screen readers cannot interpret an image without a text description.
Insufficient color contrast is the most widespread accessibility failure overall.
Unlabeled form fields, checkout processes that cannot be completed by keyboard alone, and missing or broken heading structure are also common anchors for demand letters.
The practical implication: if your website has not been audited against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, there is a reasonable chance it has at least one of these failures. Most websites do —
“The WebAIM Million 2025 report found that approximately 95% of tested home pages had detectable WCAG failures.”
Doing nothing is the highest-risk position. Courts and plaintiff attorneys distinguish between businesses that have taken documented, active steps toward accessibility and those that have taken none. Here is what moves the needle in a meaningful way:
Code-Level Remediation
Code-level remediation is the most defensible strategy. Fixing the structural issues — alt text, contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels, heading hierarchy — removes the violations that anchor most claims. Accessibility overlays or widgets alone are not a substitute for code-level work, and data from 2025 shows that companies using overlays were still sued. What overlays do provide, when properly configured alongside code fixes, is a documented layer of user-facing support and a WCAG accessibility statement — both of which signal good-faith effort.
User-Facing Accessibility Layer
An accessibility statement published on your site documents what steps you have taken, what standard you are working toward, and how users can report barriers. Every AccessPro plan includes one.
Ongoing Monitoring
Ongoing monitoring matters because new content, plugin updates, and design changes introduce new accessibility gaps. A one-time fix does not stay fixed. Accessibility requires continuous attention — not a one-and-done audit.
Explore Solutions
For a practical starting point, explore web accessibility solutions designed for WordPress and Shopify that can add an accessibility layer to any client site in under two minutes. For a full picture of what the law requires, read our guide on ADA website compliance requirements.
