What should I do first when I receive an ADA website demand letter?

In the first 24 hours: contact a defense attorney who has handled ADA website cases, preserve everything with dated screenshots and change nothing rashly, and locate your web contacts and contracts. In hours 24-72, get an independent audit moving so your attorney has facts before the response deadline.

Does an accessibility widget resolve a demand letter?

No. Plaintiff firms test through overlays and sometimes cite them as additional barriers, and the FTC fined a major overlay vendor $1 million over compliance claims. Widgets do not fix the underlying code.

Guide

You got an ADA website demand letter. The first 72 hours.

Thousands of US small businesses receive one of these every year. The letter is designed to feel apocalyptic. It is not, but the clock does matter. Here is what actually happens next, written for a business owner, not a lawyer.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Your situation depends on your state, your site, and the letter you received. The first item below is: talk to a lawyer.

Hour 0-24: do these three things

1. Contact a defense attorney who has handled ADA website cases

Not your cousin who does real estate closings. ADA web claims are a volume practice on the plaintiff side; the defense bar knows the playbook, the settlement ranges, and the specific plaintiff firms. Many offer a flat-fee initial consult. Bring the letter.

2. Preserve everything, change nothing rashly

Do not delete pages, do not panic-install an accessibility widget, do not reply to the letter yourself. Take dated screenshots of the pages named in the letter. Rushed changes can destroy evidence of your good faith or make things look worse.

3. Locate your web contacts and contracts

Who built the site, who hosts it, who can make changes this week? If an agency built it, check your contract: some include accessibility warranties.

Hour 24-72: get an independent audit moving

The first substantive thing nearly every defense attorney asks for is an independent assessment of what is actually broken. Not the plaintiff's list, which is often a template, and not an automated scan screenshot, which courts and opposing counsel have learned to discount. An audit gives your attorney three things:

A negotiating position. If the plaintiff's complaint lists 40 template issues and 12 are real on your site, that changes the conversation.
A remediation plan. Settlements in these cases almost always include a commitment to fix the site. You need to know the real scope before you agree to a timeline.
Evidence of good faith. Moving quickly toward an independent assessment and a fix plan is the posture that ends these cases early and cheap.

Speed matters here: response deadlines in demand letters are typically 14-30 days, and your attorney needs the facts well before that. This is the specific problem we built AuditRush for: a signed, evidence-backed WCAG audit in 48-72 hours at a flat $490, instead of two weeks and four figures.

What NOT to do

Do not install an overlay widget as your response. Plaintiff firms now cite overlays in complaints; the FTC fined a major vendor $1M for compliance claims. Widgets do not fix the underlying code and can add new barriers.
Do not ignore the letter. The follow-up to an ignored demand letter is usually a filed complaint, and your options narrow.
Do not assume settling means it is over. Serial plaintiffs re-test. The fix plan matters more than the check.

The slightly longer view

Most of these cases settle. What you control is how fast, how cheap, and whether you come out with a site that does not invite the next letter. An accurate audit early is the cheapest input into all three. For what "cheap" and "expensive" look like in practice, see the published settlement figures and what an audit itself costs across the market.

Questions everyone asks

Is this demand letter even real?

Almost certainly yes, even when the practice is predatory. How to verify the firm and the plaintiff in fifteen minutes: scam or real.

What happens if I ignore an ADA demand letter?

The documented follow-up is a filed complaint in federal court: court deadlines, rising attorney fees on both sides, narrower options. Ignoring is a decision to make with counsel, not by inbox triage.

Do I need a lawyer, really?

For anything beyond a nuisance letter, yes, and specifically one who has handled ADA web cases. Many offer flat-fee consults; the settlement ranges they negotiate against are in the settlement figures.

I have an accessibility widget installed. Does that help?

It did not prevent the letter and it will not resolve it; plaintiff firms test through overlays and sometimes cite them as barriers. The full story: sued with a widget installed.

My store runs on Shopify. Is the platform responsible?

No; the merchant is named and the platform's terms put compliance on you. Platform-store specifics: Shopify store lawsuits.

Need the audit now? Order here: flat price, 48-72 hours, reviewed and signed by a certified accessibility specialist, report format built for defense use.