Does my website need to be ADA compliant?
Short answer: if your business is open to the public, the Justice Department says the ADA covers what you sell or offer on your website. There's no official checklist for businesses, but there is a yardstick, and owners get sued over it every day.
This is not legal advice. Due Effort isn't a law firm. If you've been served with court papers, talk to a lawyer about your deadline today.
TL;DR: Shops, restaurants, clinics, salons, hotels and most other businesses that serve the public are covered by Title III of the ADA. The Justice Department says that includes your website. It doesn't set a detailed technical rule for businesses, so lawsuits measure sites against WCAG, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Check your site, fix the biggest barriers, and keep dated proof of the work.
Who has to make their website accessible?
Any business that's open to the public. The ADA calls these "public accommodations." The Justice Department's own examples are retail stores, banks, hotels, hospitals and medical offices, restaurants and bars, and theaters and arenas. If customers can buy from you, book you or find you through your site, assume it counts.
You'll see blog posts say the rule only applies to businesses with 15 or more employees. That number comes from Title I, which covers how employers treat workers. Title III, the part about serving customers, has no employee minimum and no small-business exemption.
What does the law actually require?
In March 2022 the Justice Department published its guidance on web accessibility and the ADA. It says businesses open to the public must make what they offer online accessible to people with disabilities. It also says there's no regulation with detailed standards, and that businesses have flexibility in how they get there.
In practice, the yardstick is WCAG. The same guidance names WCAG as helpful, and demand letters and lawsuits list WCAG failures: images with no description, buttons a screen reader can't name, forms you can't fill in with a keyboard, text that's too faint to read.
Government websites are different. A 2024 Justice Department rule sets WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the standard for state and local governments, with deadlines that start in 2027 (ADA.gov fact sheet). It doesn't apply to private businesses.
What have courts said?
Courts haven't all agreed on how far the ADA reaches online, and the answer can depend on where you're sued. The best-known case is Robles v. Domino's Pizza, 913 F.3d 898 (9th Cir. 2019). Robles is blind and uses screen-reading software, and he couldn't order a pizza on Domino's website or app. The appeals court said the ADA applied because the website and app were a way into Domino's restaurants.
If you run a small business, the fine print matters less than the volume. Plaintiffs' firms file these cases in bulk, and fighting one costs money even when you win.
How often do businesses get sued?
Often. We count federal ADA cases that mention a website in public court records. From October 1, 2025 to September 30, 2026, there were at least 2,237 of them, and that leaves out state courts. Florida, New York and Illinois see the most. See ADA website lawsuits by state for your state's numbers and the firms filing them.
California adds money on top. Under the state's Unruh Civil Rights Act, a business can owe at least $4,000 for each violation (Cal. Civ. Code 52).
What should I do this week?
- Check your site. A free scan shows the problems a computer can find on a page, who each one affects, and how to fix it on Shopify, WordPress, Wix or Squarespace.
- Fix the biggest barriers first. Missing image descriptions, unlabeled buttons and broken checkout or booking forms come up in letter after letter. Our fix guides go platform by platform.
- Keep dated proof. Save a dated report before and after you fix things. If a letter ever arrives, your lawyer will want it.
- Post an honest accessibility statement. Say what you've done and how people can reach you if something doesn't work. Our statement generator takes about 2 minutes.
- Skip the one-line widget. In 2025 the FTC made accessiBe pay $1 million over claims that its tool could make any website compliant (FTC). Businesses running these widgets still get sued.
Scan my site free See the fix guides
Questions people ask
I'm a tiny business. Does this really apply to me?
Yes, if you serve the public. Title III has no size cutoff and no small-business exemption.
My site is just information, no store. Is it covered?
Courts disagree about sites with no sales or bookings, so there's no clean answer. The basic fixes are cheap, and they help every visitor.
Will an automated scan make my site compliant?
No. No tool can promise that. Scans find only some problems; a person still needs to test with a keyboard and a screen reader. A scan shows you where to start and gives you a dated record of the work.
I already got a letter. Now what?
Don't ignore it and don't pay in a panic. Read what to do in the first 72 hours. If you need the facts for your lawyer today, the Letter Response Kit scans up to 25 pages and seals the results into a dated evidence pack.
Due Effort is not a law firm and this page is not legal advice. Automated scans find only some accessibility problems, so a clean scan doesn't mean a site is compliant. Lawsuit counts are minimums from federal court records.