Got an ADA website demand letter?

A letter saying your website isn't accessible is stressful, especially with a deadline attached. Here's what these letters usually contain and what to do first.

This is a technical accessibility assessment, not legal advice, and automated testing cannot establish ADA compliance.

What these letters usually say

• A person with a disability, often someone who is blind and uses a screen reader, says they couldn't use your website.
• It lists barriers in general terms: images without alternative text, form fields without labels, low-contrast text, links or buttons with no name, or parts of the site that don't work with a keyboard.
• It often refers to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), usually version 2.1 or 2.2, level AA.
• It asks you to fix the site, and often to pay, by a deadline. Sometimes a lawsuit is filed instead of, or after, a letter.

First steps

1. Don't ignore it, and talk to a lawyer about the deadline. How to respond, and what the dates in the letter mean for you, is a legal question.
2. Check that it's genuine. Some store owners receive scam emails that imitate platforms or law firms. A real letter names a firm you can look up, and a filed lawsuit appears in court records.
3. Get the technical facts. Find out which of the claimed barriers actually exist on your pages today, and where.
4. Fix the real issues, starting with the most important pages. Home, product, cart and contact pages matter most for a store.
5. Keep dated records. Save what was wrong, what you changed, and when. Your attorney will want this.

Should I just install an accessibility widget?

A widget adds a script on top of your site. It doesn't change the images, labels and page code the letter is about. We recommend fixing those in your site itself, so the fix doesn't depend on a third-party script. We don't sell a widget.

What an automated check can and can't tell you

An automated check such as axe-core reliably finds issues like missing alternative text, missing form labels, low contrast and missing page language. It can't judge whether alt text actually describes the image, whether the site works well with only a keyboard, or whether a screen-reader user can complete checkout. Those need a person to test them. A good report covers both.