Received a demand letter?
Take a breath. A demand letter is a claim, not a verdict. Here's what it means, what to do next, and how documenting your remediation efforts strengthens your response.
What does an ADA demand letter actually mean?
It is a pre-litigation claim. A law firm, acting for a claimant, asserts that your website is not accessible and asks you to fix it, usually alongside a settlement payment. It is not a lawsuit and not a court ruling, and a large share are resolved before anything is filed.
You are also not being singled out. Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal website-accessibility lawsuits in 2025, up 27% on 2,452 in 2024, and the demand letters behind them never reach a docket at all. Reported settlements commonly run $10,000 to $25,000 and resolve in 60 to 90 days, with pre-suit letters commonly asking $1,500 to $5,000. Where these figures come from.
What should you do next?
Note the deadline, get an attorney who has handled ADA website claims, and start remediating while you document it. Those steps, in that order, are what turns a letter into a manageable problem. What you do in the days after it arrives matters more than the letter itself.
Don't ignore it - but don't panic
A demand letter is a claim, not a court judgment. Ignoring it is the worst option; reacting hastily is the second worst. You have time to respond thoughtfully. Note any deadlines stated in the letter.
Talk to a qualified attorney
An attorney experienced in ADA and website accessibility matters can review the specific claim, advise on your options, and handle communication with the sender. This page is background information, not a substitute for that advice.
Start remediating your website now
Courts and plaintiffs look at whether you are actively addressing accessibility. The sooner you begin scanning for issues and fixing them against WCAG 2.1 AA, the stronger your position of good-faith effort becomes.
Document everything you do
Keep dated records of your accessibility scans, the issues found, the fixes applied, and your ongoing monitoring. Contemporaneous documentation of good-faith remediation is what turns effort into evidence.
What does a good-faith effort look like?
A dated record. Courts and claimants look at whether a business is genuinely working on accessibility, and the evidence of that is a history: what you audited, what you found, what you fixed, and when. An intention is not evidence. A widget on the page is not evidence either.
In cases such as Erkan v. David A. Hidalgo, M.D., P.C., the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed an ADA lawsuit after the defendant demonstrated active compliance efforts, and the court recognized documented accessibility improvements as evidence of good-faith remediation. Outcomes turn on the facts of each case.
That last sentence has numbers behind it. Roughly 38.5% of the businesses sued in 2025 already had an accessibility solution or overlay installed (our 2025 litigation data), and in April 2025 the FTC approved a final order requiring accessiBe to pay $1 million over claims that its widget could make any website WCAG-compliant. The accessibility community’s own position on overlays is set out in the Overlay Fact Sheet.
Inclusify is built to produce the record instead. We scan your site, help you fix issues against WCAG 2.1 AA, and on Pro and Enterprise generate a downloadable document: what was audited, what was found, what was fixed, and your ongoing monitoring. That is the difference between saying you tried and being able to show it.
Demand letter questions.
Talk to usA letter, usually from a law firm on behalf of a claimant, asserting that your website is not accessible to people with disabilities and demanding action, often with a settlement payment. It is a pre-litigation claim, not a lawsuit and not a court ruling. Many are resolved before anything is filed.
Reported settlements for website accessibility claims commonly run $10,000 to $25,000 and resolve in 60 to 90 days, while pre-suit demand letters commonly ask $1,500 to $5,000. Remediation and legal fees sit on top. Your own figure depends on the facts, so ask an attorney for a realistic assessment.
Note any deadline in the letter, then consult an attorney experienced in ADA website matters. In parallel, start scanning your site against WCAG 2.1 AA and fixing what it finds, keeping dated records as you go. Showing that you are actively addressing accessibility is central to a good-faith response.
Yes. In cases such as Erkan v. David A. Hidalgo, M.D., P.C., the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York dismissed an ADA lawsuit after the defendant demonstrated active compliance efforts, and the court treated documented improvements as evidence of good faith. Outcomes turn on each case's facts.
It scans your site, helps you remediate against WCAG 2.1 AA, and dates the record. On Pro you can build a demand-letter evidence pack: paste each allegation and it answers from your scan history, as an open finding, a dated fix, or a plain statement that automated testing does not assess that criterion. We are not a law firm.
No, and be cautious of anyone who promises it. No tool makes a website automatically or instantly compliant, and a widget on the page has not stopped claims being filed. Inclusify helps you find, fix, monitor and document the real issues over time. Genuine remediation is what holds up.
Make your website accessible today.
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