What is a Demand Letter for Website Accessibility? How to Respond

The envelope arrives—or more likely, the email hits your inbox—and suddenly your day changes completely. "Demand for ADA Website Compliance" or something similar sits in the subject line. Your website, the letter claims, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. They want money. They want fixes. And they've given you 30 days.

If this just happened to you, take a breath. You're not alone—thousands of businesses receive these letters annually. And while the situation is serious, it's manageable. I've walked many business owners through this process, and there's a reasonably clear path forward.

Q: What is an accessibility demand letter?

A: An accessibility demand letter is formal legal correspondence claiming your website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by having barriers that prevent people with disabilities from using it. The letter typically demands monetary compensation, commitment to remediate issues, and response within 30-60 days. It's a precursor to potential federal lawsuit if not addressed.

Understanding What You've Received

Anatomy of a Demand Letter

Standard accessibility demand letters follow a predictable structure:

Identification of the plaintiff. An individual claims they attempted to use your website and encountered barriers due to their disability. Common disabilities cited include blindness (relying on screen readers), vision impairment, or motor disabilities (relying on keyboard navigation).

Specific accessibility violations claimed. Letters typically cite violations of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), often at the AA conformance level. Examples might include missing alternative text on images, forms that can't be completed with a keyboard, or videos without captions.

Legal basis asserted. The letter will reference Title III of the ADA and relevant court precedents establishing that websites constitute places of public accommodation.

Demands. Typically includes monetary damages (ranging from $5,000 to $50,000+), commitment to remediate identified issues, attorney's fees, and agreement to monitoring.

Response deadline. Usually 30-60 days, with implicit or explicit threat of federal lawsuit if demands aren't met.

Who Sends These Letters

Demand letters come from several sources:

Specialized plaintiff law firms. A handful of firms file the majority of accessibility demand letters and lawsuits. They've built practices around this area, often representing the same plaintiffs across hundreds of cases.

Advocacy-oriented attorneys. Some disability rights attorneys use demand letters as enforcement mechanism for civil rights laws, with genuine focus on improving accessibility.

Serial plaintiffs. Individual plaintiffs who file multiple cases, sometimes hundreds annually. Courts have increasingly scrutinized this practice but haven't eliminated it.

According to data tracked by UsableNet and other researchers, demand letter volume far exceeds filed lawsuits. Many situations resolve before reaching federal court.

Is This Letter Legitimate?

Verify before panicking:

Check the law firm's existence. Search the firm name, verify bar membership of signing attorneys, look for web presence.

Look for case specifics. Legitimate letters typically identify your specific website and specific accessibility issues. Completely generic letters warrant more scrutiny.

Watch for scam indicators. Demands for payment via unusual methods (cryptocurrency, wire transfer to foreign accounts), pressure for immediate payment without addressing remediation, or letters with obvious factual errors may indicate fraudulent activity rather than legitimate legal claims.

If the letter appears legitimate, treat it seriously regardless of your opinion on its fairness.

What the Letter Actually Means for You

Legal Exposure Assessment

Not all demand letters carry equal weight. Consider:

Does your website have accessibility issues? If you've never addressed accessibility, it almost certainly has issues. WebAIM's research found that 96%+ of home pages have detectable WCAG failures.

Is your business covered by the ADA? If you're a business open to the public—retail, services, hospitality, healthcare, nearly any consumer-facing business—Title III likely applies. The Department of Justice guidance interprets ADA coverage broadly.

What's your jurisdiction? Some federal circuits have more plaintiff-favorable precedent. New York, California, and Florida see the most filings.

What's your company's profile? Larger businesses face larger demands. Higher visibility means more attractive targets.

The Realistic Outcome Range

Having watched many of these situations play out:

Best case: You respond constructively, demonstrate good faith, and settle for modest amount plus remediation commitment. The matter concludes without federal litigation.

Common case: Settlement in the $10,000-$30,000 range plus legal fees, with 12-24 month remediation timeline and some form of monitoring.

Worst case: Ignored letters escalate to federal lawsuit. Defense costs exceed $50,000-$200,000. Judgment or settlement significantly higher than original demand. Public record of lawsuit visible indefinitely.

The gap between best and worst case makes thoughtful response valuable.

How to Respond to a Demand Letter

Immediate Steps (First 48 Hours)

Don't ignore it. I've seen businesses assume these letters are scams or will "go away." They don't. Non-response typically escalates to federal lawsuit.

Preserve the letter and any communications. Start a file. Document receipt date and method.

Don't contact the plaintiff's attorney directly without counsel. You're not in a good position to negotiate without understanding your legal exposure and strategic options.

Find an attorney. This is specialized area. General business counsel may not know accessibility law well. Look for attorneys with ADA digital accessibility experience specifically. Accessibility-focused law firms exist specifically for this situation.

Getting Legal Counsel

Where to find specialized attorneys:

The American Bar Association offers referral services. Ask specifically for ADA digital accessibility experience.

Search for attorneys who've written about website accessibility law or spoken at legal conferences on the topic. They've invested in understanding the area.

Questions to ask potential counsel:

• How many accessibility demand letters have you handled?
• What percentage settled without litigation?
• What's typical settlement range for situations like mine?
• What's your fee structure?

Expect counsel to:

• Assess the specific claims' validity
• Evaluate your legal exposure
• Develop response strategy
• Communicate with plaintiff's counsel
• Negotiate settlement if appropriate
• Advise on remediation obligations

Response Strategy Options

Full engagement and negotiation: Most common approach. Respond through counsel, engage on substance, negotiate settlement that includes remediation commitment. Appropriate when claims have merit and settlement economics make sense.

Limited engagement: Respond to avoid default but challenge specific claims, jurisdiction, or standing issues. Appropriate when letter has procedural weaknesses but underlying issues exist.

Aggressive defense: Challenge everything, prepare for litigation. Occasionally appropriate when claims are clearly without merit, but rare in accessibility cases where sites typically do have issues.

Your attorney will recommend strategy based on your specific situation.

Settlement Negotiation Considerations

What's typically negotiable:

• Monetary amount (often substantial flexibility)
• Remediation timeline (reasonable extensions usually possible)
• Monitoring scope and duration
• Release language scope

What's usually not negotiable:

• Some monetary payment (plaintiff attorneys need compensation)
• Commitment to actual remediation
• Attorney's fees for plaintiff

Documentation to prepare:

• Any existing accessibility efforts (shows good faith)
• Current accessibility scan results
• Timeline and plan for remediation
• Evidence of accessibility investments or intentions

Having already started remediation strengthens your negotiating position significantly.

The Remediation Component

Why It's Non-Optional

Settlement agreements virtually always include remediation requirements. This isn't optional add-on—it's the core purpose of ADA enforcement.

Typical remediation commitments include:

• Achieving specified WCAG conformance level (usually 2.1 or 2.2 AA)
• Completing remediation within defined timeframe (12-24 months typical)
• Implementing accessibility policy and statement
• Training staff on accessibility
• Monitoring or periodic audits

Making Remediation Efficient

If you're settling and committing to remediation, do it efficiently:

Get professional accessibility audit to understand your full scope. Don't discover additional issues 6 months into remediation. Know what comprehensive audits cover.

Use AI-powered remediation tools to accelerate fixes. TestParty generates actual code fixes, not just reports—dramatically reducing developer time per issue.

Prioritize by impact. Focus first on critical user paths and most common violations. Settlement monitors care about meaningful progress, not perfection.

Document everything. Keep records of remediation activities, testing results, and progress. You may need to demonstrate compliance.

Monitoring and Verification

Many settlements include monitoring provisions:

Self-reporting: Regular reports to plaintiff's counsel documenting remediation progress and current status.

Third-party verification: Independent accessibility consultant confirms compliance. Adds cost but provides definitive evidence.

Scanning-based monitoring: Automated accessibility scanning at regular intervals. TestParty's continuous monitoring serves this purpose well.

Preventing Future Demand Letters

Why One Lawsuit Doesn't Protect You

Settling with one plaintiff doesn't prevent others from filing. Unlike class actions that bind all affected parties, individual ADA demands allow multiple plaintiffs to target the same website.

Actual compliance is the protection. When your site genuinely meets WCAG standards, you become an unattractive target. Plaintiff attorneys scan for easy cases—compliant sites aren't easy.

Building Sustainable Compliance

Address root causes, not just cited violations. Settlement letters may cite specific examples, but issues are typically systematic. Fix the systems, not just the examples.

Implement continuous monitoring. Manual audits are point-in-time. Continuous scanning catches regressions before plaintiffs do.

Train your team. Content creators need to write accessible content. Developers need to build accessible features. Designers need to specify accessible designs. Training programs exist for each audience.

Integrate accessibility into development. Accessibility gates in CI/CD pipelines prevent deploying new issues. TestParty's Bouncer catches issues before they reach production.

FAQ Section

Q: Can I ignore an accessibility demand letter?

A: Technically yes, but it's a terrible strategy. Ignored letters typically escalate to federal lawsuits within 30-60 days. Lawsuit defense costs far exceed typical demand letter settlements. Non-response can also result in default judgments.

Q: How much do accessibility demand letter settlements typically cost?

A: Range varies widely, but $10,000-$50,000 is common for small to mid-size businesses, including attorney's fees. Large enterprises may settle for more. Settlement almost always includes remediation commitment in addition to monetary payment.

Q: Should I use an overlay widget to fix my site quickly?

A: No. Overlays don't achieve WCAG compliance and have been specifically rejected in legal proceedings. Using an overlay may create additional issues rather than solving the problem. Plaintiff attorneys target overlay sites knowing they're not actually compliant.

Q: Will my insurance cover accessibility demands?

A: Possibly. Some general liability and professional liability policies cover ADA claims. Review your policy language and contact your insurer. Coverage for legal defense and settlement varies by policy.

Q: Can I counter-sue the plaintiff for filing a frivolous claim?

A: Counter-claims exist theoretically but rarely succeed in accessibility cases. If your site has accessibility issues (which most sites do), the underlying claim has merit even if filing feels aggressive. Counter-suit attempts typically waste resources better spent on defense and remediation.

Taking Control of the Situation

Receiving a demand letter feels like losing control. But your response determines what happens next. Engage appropriately, fix your accessibility issues, and emerge with both legal exposure resolved and a genuinely better website.

The organizations I've seen handle this best are ones who view the demand letter as catalyst for improvement they should have done anyway—not as enemy attack to resist. That mindset shift makes everything easier.

Need to understand your current accessibility status? Get a free accessibility scan to see what issues exist before engaging with plaintiff's counsel.

Related Articles:

• Why Am I Getting Sued for Website Accessibility?
• How Long Does Website Accessibility Take to Fix?
• ADA Law Firms: Finding Accessibility Defense Attorneys

At TestParty, we're all about making accessibility achievable for everyone. AI helped us create this content so we can share more knowledge with the community. Our human team reviewed everything, but accessibility compliance varies widely—please consult with experts who understand your specific needs.