Does the ADA apply to my website?

Does the ADA cover business websites?

The DOJ says yes for businesses open to the public, and most courts agree at least when the website is connected to a physical location. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a US civil rights law from 1990. Its Title III says businesses open to the public, such as shops, restaurants, hotels and banks, must not discriminate against people with disabilities. The ADA was written before most websites existed, so it doesn't mention them.

In its 2022 guidance, the DOJ says that "businesses open to the public" must provide "full and equal enjoyment" of their goods and services, and that this applies to what they offer on the web.

Courts mostly agree, with one open question: what about businesses that exist only online?

• In Robles v. Domino's Pizza (2019), a federal appeals court held that the ADA applies to Domino's website and app, because they connect customers to its physical restaurants. The Supreme Court declined to review the case.
• An appeals court in the Southeast ruled the opposite way in Gil v. Winn-Dixie in 2021, but later vacated that ruling, so it no longer counts.
• For online-only businesses, US courts disagree about whether the ADA applies, and the Supreme Court hasn't settled it. Lawsuits against online-only shops are still filed, especially in New York.

In practice, being online-only doesn't stop a lawsuit from being filed. It may give your lawyer an argument once it is.

Is there a deadline or a technical standard?

Not for businesses. The DOJ's guidance says: "The Department of Justice does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards." Businesses "have flexibility" in how they comply, but must still meet the ADA's general requirements.

The DOJ started work on a website rule for businesses in 2010 and withdrew it in 2017. Nothing has replaced it. What the guidance does say is that existing standards, WCAG and the US government's own Section 508 standards, "provide helpful guidance".

The rule you may have read about is for state and local governments (Title II of the ADA). It was published in April 2024 and uses WCAG 2.1 level AA. In April 2026, the DOJ pushed its deadlines back by a year:

The government rule doesn't apply to businesses, but it shows which standard the DOJ picked when it did write one: WCAG 2.1 level AA.

Where do the lawsuits come from?

Mostly from private plaintiffs and a small number of law firms, in a few states. Under the ADA, a private person can sue a business for an inaccessible website. They can ask the court to order fixes, and if they win, the court can award them their attorney's fees. That makes claims attractive to bring, even without damages.

Some numbers:

• 3,117 website accessibility lawsuits were filed in federal court in 2025, up 27% from 2,452 in 2024, according to the law firm Seyfarth Shaw. That's 36% of all federal ADA Title III lawsuits.
• The most were filed in New York (1,021), Florida (961) and Illinois (585). California federal courts had only 4.
• That's because many cases are filed in state courts instead, especially in New York and California. Counting those, UsableNet, a company that tracks these suits, counted more than 5,000 digital accessibility lawsuits in 2025. Its numbers include apps and other digital services, so they don't line up exactly with Seyfarth's.
• UsableNet also found that 45% of federal cases in 2025 targeted companies that had been sued before.

Demand letters that never become lawsuits aren't in these counts, and we didn't find reliable numbers on them.

What can it cost?

Under the ADA itself, a private plaintiff can get a court order to fix the site plus attorney's fees, not damages. But state laws can add money:

Settlement amounts aren't public in a way we could verify, so we don't quote them.

What if my business is outside the US?

If you sell to US customers, you can be sued in the US. Whether a court will hear the case depends on how much you target customers in that state, so ask a US lawyer about your situation. We didn't find a clear ruling on foreign online-only sellers. If you're an EU business selling in the US, you have two sets of rules: the European Accessibility Act at home and the ADA in the US. WCAG is the standard the EU relies on and the one the DOJ's guidance points to, so one round of fixes can serve both.

What to do next

1. Check whether you sell to people in the US, and in which states. New York, Florida, Illinois and California see the most claims.
2. Find out where your site stands against WCAG level AA. That's the standard both the DOJ's guidance and the EU point to.
3. Fix what stops people from buying or booking first, and keep a record of what you fixed and when.
4. Publish an accessibility statement with a way for people to report problems.
5. If you'd like an outside view of your key journeys, an accessibility review is one way to get it.