A demand letter usually arrives by email or certified mail. It names your business, says your website is not accessible to people with disabilities, cites the Americans with Disabilities Act, and asks you to pay a sum of money to make the matter go away. It often gives you a short window to respond.
First: do not ignore it, and do not panic
Ignoring a demand letter is how a cheap problem turns into an expensive one. Panicking and paying immediately is how businesses pay more than they needed to. The first call should be to a lawyer who has handled ADA Title III claims. We are not a law firm and cannot give you legal advice. What we can do is fix the underlying problem on your website, which is usually what any resolution will require of you anyway.
What the letter is really about
Title III of the ADA requires places of public accommodation to be accessible. Many courts have applied that to websites connected to a business, and the yardstick usually cited is the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 2.1 Level AA. There is no federal certificate of compliance you can buy. What matters is whether a person using a screen reader, a keyboard or a magnifier can actually use your site, and whether you can show you have been working on it.
What usually gets a site flagged
- Images with no text alternative, so a screen reader announces nothing useful.
- Menus, forms or popups that cannot be reached or closed with a keyboard.
- Text that is too low in contrast to read.
- Form fields without labels, so a screen reader cannot say what to type.
- Videos with no captions.
- PDF menus, forms and brochures that are just scanned images.
Many claims are filed after an automated scan of a large number of sites, which means the issues a scanner can detect are the issues most likely to get you noticed. Run the same kind of scan on your own site and you will see roughly what they saw.
What we do for businesses in this position
- Scan the site and give you a written picture of where it stands today.
- Install and configure accessibility tooling that fixes a meaningful share of the common barriers quickly.
- Publish an accessibility statement with a way for visitors to report problems, which shows good faith.
- List what the automated layer does not fix, so you and your developer can work through the rest.
- Keep monitoring the site so new pages do not reintroduce old problems.
No honest provider can promise a lawsuit-proof website, and the Federal Trade Commission has taken action against accessibility vendors who claimed their tools made sites fully compliant. What we can promise is real work on real barriers, documented as you go.
Talk to us today
Call 1-866-677-4443 or send a message. Most sites are set up within 24 hours, and plans start at $79 per month. See also ADA website compliance and how to lower your risk.