ADA website lawsuits exploded after 2020. With the pandemic locking everyone inside, eCommerce brands and the Shopify ecosystem took off, and with it stores found themselves with more eyes on them than ever before.
There was (and is) a lack of clear federal regulations, allowing for gray area that serial plaintiffs and law offices have exploited.
This does not include Demand Letters since they are not filed in court. It is estimated that there are the same number of demand letters sent as lawsuits filed every year. With that said, in 2025 there were around 10,000 brands targeted for lack of ADA compliance.
What Is ADA Website Compliance?
ADA stands for the Americans with Disabilities Act, a U.S. civil rights law originally passed in 1990. Its simple goal: allow people with disabilities to access the same goods and services as everyone else, and today, that includes websites.
If your brand sells products online, your website is considered a "place of public accommodation." That means customers using screen readers, keyboards (instead of a mouse), or other assistive technology must be able to browse, navigate, and check out without barriers.
ADA vs. WCAG: What's the Difference?
There are two terms you will often hear: ADA and WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).
- ADA is the law
- WCAG is the technical standard to measure compliance
ADA is the what, and WCAG is the how.
Compliance Is Not a One-Time Fix
Like many things in life, compliance is not a one-time fix. You must consistently remain in a constant state of compliance. As your website changes and evolves (think new product pages, landing pages, collaborations, and sales) so will your compliance. Each change can introduce new accessibility issues. That's why the "set it and forget it" method doesn't work.
With Patrol, your store is monitored on an ongoing basis by our AI agents. We automatically audit any new additions to your store for accessibility violations, then send you a notification to automatically resolve them in a few clicks from your dashboard.
You Don't Need to Be Perfect
The brands getting sued aren't reckless, they're busy. You don't need to be perfect, but you do need to do more than the bare minimum. That's where Patrol comes in as the extension of your team that puts ADA compliance on auto-pilot.
Many of the cases come down to Good Faith vs. Bad Faith, so document your changes and be working toward a more accessible internet. And if you don't want to manually document, Patrol will do that for you too!