ADA Website Accessibility Lawsuits Are Rising (Don’t Let Your Brand Be Next)

A rising number of lawsuits signals that website accessibility is now a measurable business risk. Time and money wasted on these lawsuits disrupt strategic planning as well as brand reputation.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) noncompliance and Section 508 gaps expose companies to risk that goes beyond "legal issues." Each complaint becomes part of the public record. It can show up online even years after the lawsuit is settled and can hurt brand reputation.

Don't let your brand be vulnerable. Keep reading to learn about practical steps brands can take to make sure their websites are accessible for all consumers.

How Website Accessibility Lawsuits Escalated

Recent litigation shows how legal risk has grown for organizations that ignore website accessibility.

“Accessibility is no longer optional — it’s a business imperative,” says Alex Vilmur, Director of Web Development at Marcel Digital. "Legal requirements, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), are pushing organizations to comply.”

In 2008, Target settled a class action lawsuit for its site’s barriers and paid $6 million to California settlement class members. The court determined that the website's inaccessibility to blind people violated the ADA's public accommodations clause, which prohibits discrimination in the "enjoyment of goods, services, facilities or privileges."

In 2012, Netflix settled a case with the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). Netflix agreed to a legally binding decree that it would provide closed captioning for its entire digital catalog. This landmark case determined that the ADA also applies to web-only businesses.

In 2019, the Ninth Circuit ruled in Robles v. Domino’s that websites and apps must comply with the ADA. The Supreme Court declined to review the case, leaving that decision in place — and digital accessibility lawsuits have surged since, with more than 4,000 ADA lawsuits in digital accessibility filed in 2024.

The costs of that litigation can be devastating for a business.

The Financial and Legal Costs of Noncompliance

ADA noncompliance can cause serious financial damage to your business. For example, the Department of Justice fines up to $75,000 for a first ADA Title III violation. The fine climbs up to $150,000 for subsequent violations. This amount doesn't include attorney fees ($5,000 to $20,000+) or ongoing monitoring costs.

Legal fees aren't the only costs businesses may face due to noncompliance. For example, delays in product launches can directly affect revenue. Moreover, marketing and PR teams might need to spend extra time and money on crisis response planning, and those crisis communications plans can cost $50,000 to $600,000.

As web accessibility noncompliance continues to rise, these costs will remain a burden for businesses for the foreseeable future. In fact, website accessibility lawsuits made up 28% of all Title III filings in 2024.

Why ADA Website Lawsuits Hurt More Than Your Budget

The legal exposure from an ADA lawsuit is just one hit a business takes.

Reputational Damage

Once the case is over, coverage surrounding the public lawsuit can surface when a customer searches your brand online. Such negative PR surrounding accessibility can ruin first impressions and erode trust for potential customers.

The Domino’s case shows the lingering effect a lawsuit can have on a brand. The company fought for years and still had to settle and fix its digital platforms. Even the takeaways in industry write-ups were bluntly against the brand. "The decision to fight the lawsuit vs fixing their accessibility issues was foolish and irresponsible," wrote the Bureau of Internet Accessibility. "Domino’s may have spent millions of dollars fighting the case...[and] they may have significantly damaged their brand in the process." Such public perception and bad PR can negatively affect a brand's reputation.

Negative Customer Perception

Lawsuits can also signal that the brand neglects its users. Customers might perceive it as a disregard of accessibility requirements or as gaps in product or service quality. For example, if the checkout process glitches for screen reader users, they may question the quality of every other product associated with that brand.

That lost trust turns into lost sales. People with disabilities control $13 trillion in annual spending power, and 69% of shoppers with access needs click away from an inaccessible site.

The Business Case for Proactive Website Accessibility Compliance

Better digital accessibility is not only more inclusive, but it can also be a competitive advantage. It can boost search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion while reducing support and rework. Here are key business cases that support the need for digital accessibility.

Delaying Action Means Paying More Later

If a brand only acts after a complaint, it risks paying more in money, time, and effort. It's often more efficient and cheaper to build web accessibility features early than to rush the fixes later.

Compliance as Strategy

Treating compliance as a strategy thus turns risk into ROI by building features that can grow reach and trust while reducing legal exposure.

Plus, accessible design improves usability for everyone. For example:

• Better keyboard accessibility features improve efficiency and usability in challenging environments, even for non-disabled users.
• Clear labels and error messages reduce drop-off on forms.
• Transcript and caption workflows feed content repurposing and training.

Web accessibility compliance, combined with an easy-to-use user interface (UI), naturally leads to a better user experience. This can boost conversion rates by up to 400% for compliant businesses.

Competitive Advantage

Many big brands still lag behind in website accessibility criteria. A recent Clutch study found that 48% of the largest 95 websites didn’t meet Google’s accessibility threshold. By enhancing web accessibility and user experience (UX), businesses can often improve customer loyalty, using accessibility as a moat that protects against competitors.

Meeting WCAG also helps you qualify for U.S. federal projects, unlike your non-compliant competitors. This is because Section 508 incorporates WCAG 2.0 AA, and agencies often request an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) based on the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) conversion.

Another often ignored competitive advantage is that compliant brands avoid the distraction of web accessibility lawsuits and the operational drag they cause.

Action Steps: What Brands Should Do Now

Here are seven steps businesses can take for improved website accessibility:

“As an integrated web development and digital marketing agency, we’ve seen that accessibility overlaps with good SEO practice," shares Vilmur. "Clear navigation, semantic HTML, and alt text for images improve search engine rankings. By making a website more accessible, brands will foster trust with a wider range of users, but also potentially see improvements in their search engine results and overall usability."

Turn that insight into action by implementing these basics into every web design workflow.

Make Accessibility a Standing Priority

Accessibility lawsuits put a brand's reputation and revenue at risk. The smart move is to treat accessibility as a core pillar of your business strategy. By doing so, you can reduce legal risk and make your digital platforms easier to use for everyone.

Are you looking to shortlist a trusted partner for a web accessibility project? Hire from Clutch's vetted list of top web designers to make sure your website meets accessibility standards and protects your brand.

About the Author

Jeanette Godreau Senior Content Marketing Specialist at Clutch

Jeanette Godreau crafts in-depth content on web design, graphic design, and branding to help B2B buyers make confident decisions on Clutch.  

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