Got an ADA website demand letter? Breathe. Then do these things.
Website accessibility letters and lawsuits reach thousands of small businesses every year, and restaurants, retailers, and medical practices get more than their share. It feels personal. It usually isn't. Here's the practical order of operations, from the technical side.
The short answer
Don't ignore it, don't install a widget in a panic, and don't change the site without documenting it. Call an attorney who handles ADA matters, and get an independent accessibility audit so they know exactly where the site stands.
First 48 hours
- Don't ignore it. Deadlines in these letters are real.
- Call an attorney, ideally one who has handled ADA Title III or, in California, Unruh Act claims. We're not lawyers and this isn't legal advice.
- Don't rush to install an accessibility overlay. Plaintiffs' firms specifically look for them, and they don't fix the underlying problems.
- Save what the site looks like today: screenshots of the pages the letter mentions, with the date. Your attorney will want the 'before'.
- Send us the letter if you'd like a technical read. We'll tell you which claims match real, testable barriers.
How we help your attorney
Attorneys need facts: what was actually wrong, what's been fixed, and when. That's exactly what our audit and remediation produce. We test against WCAG 2.1 AA, fix the issues in your existing site, re-test, and assemble a dated evidence package with before-and-after screenshots and final scan results.
We've joined an owner on a call with their attorney to walk through the work, and we'll do the same for you. We stay technical and factual and leave the legal strategy to your lawyer.
What to avoid
- Promises from anyone that a product will make you 'fully compliant' overnight or protect you from lawsuits
- Fixing things quietly with no record of what changed or when
- Removing the site entirely without talking to your attorney. That can create its own problems
- Treating it as a one-time event. The same site can receive more than one letter, so keep it accessible after the matter is resolved
From the owners we work with.
“Albert didn't just hand us a report. The fixes went right into our Squarespace site, we saw every before and after, and we got documentation we could hand to anyone who asked. When questions came up afterward, Albert was on the call with us. Albert is the first person I call about anything on the website now.”
Common questions.
- No. We're a growth partner that does hands-on website accessibility work. We work alongside your attorney and never give legal advice.
Keep reading
- Accessibility auditA hands-on WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility audit of your website: automated scans, keyboard and screen-reader testing, and a plain-English report ranked by severity.Read
- RemediationWe fix WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility issues directly in your existing website, then re-test and document every change. No rebuild, no overlay widget, nothing new to learn.Read
- Overlays & widgetsAccessibility overlay widgets don't fix the code underneath your website. Here's what they do and don't do, what the FTC found, and how to replace one with real fixes.Read
Find out where your site stands.
Send us your website and we'll personally check your home page and one key page (menu, booking, or contact) with the same keyboard, screen-reader, and contrast tests we use in a full audit. You'll get a short, plain-English summary of what we found.
- · Checked by a person, not an automated report
- · No obligation and no sales sequence
- · Works for Squarespace, WordPress, Wix, Shopify, and custom sites
Rather talk it through first?
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll look at your site together, tell you honestly where it stands, and what it would take to fix, whether you hire us or not.