You received an ADA demand letter. Here's what to do next.
Every year, thousands of US online businesses receive ADA demand letters — and for most owners, that letter is the first time anyone has mentioned web accessibility to them. It arrives from a law firm, it cites the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it usually proposes a settlement.
It's a stressful moment, but it is a known, well-trodden situation with a sensible playbook. Here's how to respond like the operator in control — not the one being operated on.
What a demand letter actually is
A web-accessibility demand letter alleges that your website is not usable by people with disabilities and therefore violates Title III of the ADA (and often a state law like New York's or California's on top). It typically lists example barriers — missing alt text, elements that can't be reached by keyboard, poor contrast — and proposes settling before anything is filed in court.
Two things are worth knowing. First, these letters are common: plaintiff firms run automated scans across thousands of sites to find candidates, and e-commerce is heavily represented. Second, most of these matters are resolved without a trial — which means how you respond, and what you can document, matters a great deal.
The first 48 hours
- Don't ignore it. Deadlines in the letter are real, and silence removes your options.
- Don't reply to the firm yourself. Anything you write can shape the negotiation.
- Send it to your attorney. This is a legal matter; you want counsel on the response itself. (AdaChecked is not a law firm and this article is not legal advice.)
- Preserve everything — the letter, the envelope or email headers, and the current state of your site.
Document where your site stands — today
Before you change anything, capture a timestamped baseline. Run a full WCAG 2.2 audit and keep the report. It does two jobs: it tells you and your developer exactly what the real issues are (not just the examples in the letter), and it starts a dated record showing that you engaged with the problem the moment you learned of it.
That record — scan, findings, fixes, re-scan — is the practical core of demonstrating a good-faith effort.
Fix the code, not the symptoms
The tempting shortcut is an overlay widget that promises instant compliance from one line of JavaScript. Be careful: overlays don't change the underlying code, and recent ADA filings have specifically called out sites that rely on them. Whatever you decide, the durable path is remediation of the actual theme: alt text, keyboard access, focus states, form labels, contrast, media captions.
Prioritize by severity and traffic: your home page, product pages, cart, and checkout are where both customers and scanners spend their time.
Publish an accessibility statement
An accessibility statement tells users what standard you target (typically WCAG 2.2 AA), where you honestly stand, known limitations, and how to reach you if something is broken. It's good practice for users — and it's another dated artifact in your record.
Keep the record running
Accessibility isn't a one-time project — themes get updated, apps get installed, products get added. Ongoing monitoring with dated re-scans keeps your documentation current, so the effort you made this month is still demonstrable next year.
Where AdaChecked fits
This playbook is exactly what our Full-Site Remediation package was built for: a one-time engagement where our team runs the audit, works the fixes in your actual code (automated + manual), produces the full remediation report, publishes your accessibility statement, re-scans to document the result, and monitors your site for the following 12 months.