Your Website Is Breaking the Law — And You Probably Don't Know It

94.8% of the top 1 million websites fail accessibility standards. If yours is one of them, you're not just excluding users with disabilities — you're a lawsuit waiting to happen.

The Numbers Are Staggering

The WebAIM Million 2025 report found an average of 51 accessibility errors per page across the top 1 million websites. Users with disabilities encounter a barrier roughly every 24 elements.

Since 2018, over 25,000 lawsuits have been filed targeting inaccessible websites. And the pace is accelerating:

This isn't a niche legal issue. It's a systemic problem affecting every industry.

The Cost of Non-Compliance

ADA violations carry real financial consequences:

• First violation: up to $115,231 (adjusted for inflation, 2024)
• Subsequent violations: up to $230,464
• Typical settlements: $5,000–$75,000 + attorney fees + remediation costs
• California Unruh Act: $4,000 per violation minimum

Notable cases: MedStar Health received a $440,000 judgment. Overlay company accessiBe was fined $1 million by the FTC for false compliance claims.

Small Businesses Are the Primary Target

Think ADA lawsuits only target large corporations? Think again.

• 77% of lawsuits target eCommerce websites
• 67% target companies with revenue under $25M
• 1 in 4 lawsuits in 2024 were repeat lawsuits against previously sued companies
• Top jurisdictions: New York, Florida, California

Small businesses are often the easiest targets — they lack legal resources and are more likely to settle quickly.

Accessibility Overlays Don't Protect You

If you've installed an accessibility widget hoping it would make your site compliant, you may actually be making things worse.

25% of 2024 lawsuits explicitly cited accessibility widgets as barriers, not solutions. Courts have consistently ruled that overlays do not constitute genuine WCAG compliance.

The FTC fined accessiBe $1 million for deceptive marketing — claiming their widget made sites ADA-compliant when it didn't.

Overlays attempt to patch symptoms without addressing the underlying code. Screen readers often conflict with overlay modifications, creating new barriers instead of removing old ones.

AI Is Accelerating the Lawsuit Wave

Artificial intelligence is lowering the barrier to filing ADA lawsuits:

• 40% of federal ADA filings are now pro se (self-represented)
• Plaintiffs use AI tools to draft legal complaints and identify WCAG violations automatically
• Serial filers can now process significantly more targets with AI assistance

The combination of automated violation detection and AI-assisted legal filing means the volume of lawsuits will continue growing.

This Is a Global Trend

ADA compliance isn't just a US concern. Every major market is enforcing accessibility laws with real penalties:

Whether you operate in one jurisdiction or several — accessibility compliance is becoming a legal requirement, not a best practice.

The Solution: Genuine WCAG Compliance

The only reliable protection against ADA lawsuits is genuine compliance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA — the standard referenced by the DOJ's 2024 Final Rule.

This means:

• Perceivable: Alt text, sufficient contrast, resizable text, captions
• Operable: Keyboard navigation, skip links, no seizure-inducing content
• Understandable: Clear language, predictable navigation, error guidance
• Robust: Valid HTML, ARIA attributes, compatibility with assistive tech

A Practical Approach: The ADA Compliance Skill

Instead of guessing what to check, you can use a structured approach. The ada-compliance skill for Claude Code provides a comprehensive WCAG audit framework with 44 criteria, organized by the POUR principles.

Install in 3 steps:

Step 1. Clone the skills marketplace:

git clone https://github.com/anthropics/claude-skills-marketplace.git

Step 2. Copy the skill to your Claude skills directory:

cp -r claude-skills-marketplace/skills/enterprise/ada-compliance ~/.claude/skills/

Step 3. Start Claude Code in your project — the skill activates automatically when you ask about accessibility:

claude "Audit this site for ADA compliance"

The skill checks your code against all 44 WCAG 2.1 AA criteria plus 6 WCAG 2.2 additions, generates findings by severity (critical/major/minor), and provides specific code fixes.

Operating outside the US?

The skills marketplace includes jurisdiction-specific skills:

Use global-accessibility if you're unsure which laws apply — it routes to the correct jurisdiction based on your organization's location and market.

All skills work outside Claude Code too — as Project Knowledge in Claude.ai, as a system prompt in any LLM, or simply as a structured checklist for manual audits.

Don't Wait for the Lawsuit

The data is clear:

• 94.8% of sites fail accessibility
• 25,000+ lawsuits and counting
• 67% of targets are small businesses
• Overlays make it worse, not better
• AI is making lawsuits easier to file
• Global regulations are tightening

The question isn't whether your site has accessibility issues — statistically, it does. The question is whether you'll fix them proactively or wait for a demand letter.

Sources: WebAIM Million 2025, Accessibility.Works, AudioEye, Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III, Level Access