ADA website lawsuits are on pace for a record 2026, tracker says

Website accessibility lawsuits are climbing again. Law firm Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal website suits in 2025, up 27%, and vendor UsableNet projects about 6,176 suits in 2026. By UsableNet’s count, most targets are online stores and most companies sued have revenue under $50 million.

How many ADA website lawsuits were filed

Seyfarth Shaw tracks federal suits under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It counted 3,117 website accessibility suits in 2025, against 2,452 in 2024 Seyfarth Shaw . Website cases made up 36% of all Title III suits filed in federal court that year. New York led with 1,021. Florida had 961, almost double its 470 in 2024, and Illinois had 585. California’s federal courts saw just four.

The 2025 jump ended a two-year decline in Seyfarth’s count. The firm links the rebound to new plaintiffs’ lawyers entering the website accessibility field.

Year	Federal website suits
2021	2,895
2022	3,255
2023	2,794
2024	2,452
2025	3,117

Seyfarth’s count leaves out suits in state courts and demand letters. The firm says it sees many of both, and neither is in its federal numbers.

The 2026 figures point up again. Seyfarth’s mid-year report counted 5,006 federal Title III suits of all kinds in the first half of 2026, up 9% from 4,575 a year earlier Seyfarth Shaw . That count includes suits over physical locations, and Seyfarth did not break out website cases.

UsableNet, which sells accessibility services, projects about 6,176 digital accessibility lawsuits in 2026, based on filings recorded through June 14 UsableNet . It calls that a historic high and nearly 20% more than in 2025. Its report found that 79% of cases targeted e-commerce and 68% of companies sued had revenue under $50 million. It says filings keep shifting toward state courts in California, New York and Florida.

What the ADA says about websites

Title III bars discrimination against people with disabilities by businesses open to the public. Justice Department guidance from March 2022 says the ADA’s requirements apply to all the goods and services these businesses offer, including those offered on the web ADA.gov . The department has no regulation that sets detailed web standards. Businesses “have flexibility in how they comply,” it says, and it points to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the federal Section 508 Standards as helpful guidance.

The guidance lists common barriers:

• Poor color contrast
• Color used alone to give information
• Images without text alternatives, known as alt text
• Videos without captions
• Online forms without labels, keyboard access or clear instructions
• Pages that work with a mouse but not with a keyboard

Government websites have a set standard. The department’s 2024 rule for state and local governments names WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard ADA.gov . An interim final rule effective April 20, 2026, pushed back its deadlines. Governments serving 50,000 or more people now have until April 26, 2027. Smaller governments and special districts have until April 26, 2028 Plante Moran . The department cited staffing and budget limits, the work of fixing large and technical content, and limits in current technology, including generative AI. That rule governs state and local governments, but it shows which standard the department chose.

In the European Union, the European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. Its list of covered products and services includes e-commerce platforms European Commission . The European Commission puts the number of people with disabilities living in the EU at 100 million.

This article reports what trackers, regulators and official guidance say. It is not legal advice. Ask your own lawyer how the ADA, state law or the European act applies to your site.

Why an overlay is not the whole fix

The Justice Department says automated checkers and overlays that identify or fix problems can be helpful tools, but they “need to be used carefully.” It says a clean automated report “does not necessarily mean everything is accessible,” and it suggests pairing automated checkers with a manual check ADA.gov .

UsableNet reports that lawsuits against companies already using accessibility widgets continue to rise. A widget is not a test result. The Justice Department’s advice is to check the site by hand, not only with software.

What it means if you pay a web agency

An agency builds and edits your site. UsableNet’s figures describe the companies that get sued, and 68% of them had revenue under $50 million. So accessibility belongs in the scope of every website project you buy. Four steps help.

• Name the standard. Ask for WCAG 2.1 Level AA in writing, the standard the Justice Department chose for governments. Read our guide to marketing agency contracts before you sign.
• Test by hand. Ask for manual checks, including use of the site with a keyboard alone, on top of any automated scan.
• Fix the code. Fixes in shared templates carry across every page that uses them.
• Keep testing. New pages, products, plugins and videos can add barriers after launch.

Our web design shortlist lists the agencies in our index that build websites. Tracking code is the other site-level risk an agency controls. See our report on state privacy laws and ad tracking.

Questions to ask your agency

1. Which standard do you build and test against? Look for WCAG 2.1 Level AA, named in the contract.
2. How do you test? A good answer pairs an automated scan with manual checks, including keyboard-only use.
3. Do you fix problems in the code or add an overlay? Code fixes in shared templates carry across the whole site.
4. Who writes alt text and captions for new images and videos? Both appear on the Justice Department’s list of common barriers.
5. Who tests new pages and plugins after launch, and how often? One audit at launch does not cover later changes.
6. Will you share the test report and the open issues? You should see what was found and what is left to fix.