Web Accessibility Lawsuits Doubled Since 2020: What Your Business Needs to Know

More than a third of businesses sued for web accessibility violations last year had already invested in an accessibility tool. They weren't ignoring the problem. They thought they'd solved it.

That finding, from AudioEye's 2026 Web Accessibility Litigation Report, reframes what the doubling of accessibility lawsuits since 2020 [source] actually means. The businesses most at risk are often the ones doing just enough to feel covered.

The Litigation Landscape Has Shifted to State Courts

Nearly 8 in 10 accessibility lawsuits are now filed in state courts, where the financial stakes often exceed what federal claims produce. Federal ADA Title III filings stabilized after peaking at 6,722 cases in 2023 [source], but state courts have filled the gap.

New York accounts for 43% of state filings. Florida takes 19%, Illinois 17%, California 10%, Minnesota 6%. Each state operates its own penalty structure: New York's Human Rights Law allows up to $100,000 for repeat violations; California's Unruh Act sets a floor of $4,000 per infraction; Colorado's HB 21-1110 adds $3,500 per violation for government vendors.

Your website doesn't respect state borders. Serve customers in multiple states and a single inaccessible checkout flow can draw claims under multiple statutes at once, each with its own penalty layered on top.

The Same Five Barriers Keep Appearing in Lawsuits

Five accessibility issues account for the vast majority of claims, appearing with near-identical frequency year after year. Analysis of hundreds of 2025 cases identifies them consistently:

• Keyboard navigation failures (88%): Users can't navigate or interact with site features without a mouse.

• Missing landmarks (88%): Structural tags that help screen reader users navigate between sections are absent.

• Screen reader incompatibility (74%): Content, forms, and buttons fail to read correctly.

• Unclear button and link descriptions (63%): Vague labels like "Click Here" leave users guessing.

• Missing alt text (39%): Images lack descriptions for users with visual disabilities.

AudioEye's 2025 Digital Accessibility Index confirms the pattern extends beyond the courtroom: 80% of pages had links lacking clear text, 75% failed to provide alt text for all images, and 62% had improperly labeled form fields.

These are the functions users rely on to navigate a site, complete a purchase, or contact a business. When they're missing, users don't file a support ticket. They leave, and increasingly they file a claim.

E-Commerce Remains the Primary Target

In 2025, 78% of all accessibility lawsuits targeted e-commerce businesses, and most begin the same way: a customer who couldn't complete a purchase.

The Fashion Nova case shows how quickly costs can escalate for businesses that choose to fight rather than fix. What began as a routine lawsuit in 2020 became a five-year legal battle with over 200 court filings, ultimately costing $5.15 million, the second-largest accessibility settlement on record. For most e-commerce businesses, a typical lawsuit runs $25,000–$50,000 in settlement fees, roughly $20,000 in legal fees, and over $20,000 in executive time, before factoring in remediation.

Those figures capture only the legal cost.

The disability community in the U.S. controls an estimated $490 billion in disposable income [source needed], and people with disabilities are among the most loyal customers a brand can earn. They're more likely to return to businesses that serve them well and to recommend those businesses to others. An inaccessible site creates legal exposure and turns away customers who actively want to spend with you.

"Testing out a new site is always a gamble," says screen reader user Jessica Phillips. "Forms are unlabeled, submit buttons stay dimmed, and I can't complete checkout. I don't contact support. I just leave."

Research from Forrester found businesses see a $100 return for every $1 spent on accessibility(opens in a new tab). The people who initiate lawsuits would rather be customers.

Quick-Fix Solutions Are Creating False Security

The most consequential finding from 2025 litigation data isn't the volume of lawsuits. It's that 38.5% of defendants already had an accessibility tool in place when they were sued.

These businesses relied on widgets and toolbars that promised instant compliance. When lawsuits arrived, plaintiffs demonstrated that critical functions (forms, checkout flows, navigation) remained inaccessible despite the tool's presence. The gap exists for a structural reason: automated tools can detect approximately two-thirds of accessibility barriers, but the ones they miss require human expertise to identify and fix. The barriers most likely to trigger lawsuits (inaccessible modal dialogs, broken keyboard navigation in complex interactions, improperly structured forms) are often outside automation's reach entirely.

A partial solution that detects some issues and misses the highest-risk ones creates the appearance of compliance without reducing actual exposure.

None of this argues against accessibility investment. Having a tool in place is better than nothing, and every fixed barrier is a real improvement for a real user. The issue is more specific: partial solutions create a false floor. A widget that handles two-thirds of detectable issues looks like progress on a compliance checklist. In court, it looks like evidence that the defendant knew the problem existed and chose a solution that couldn't fully address it.

The Gold Standard: Automation Plus Human Expertise

Real accessibility protection requires combining intelligent automation with expert human testing and custom code-level fixes. Automation handles common, repeatable issues at scale. Human experts address the complex barriers automation cannot reach. Together, they close the gaps that widget-only solutions leave open.

When evaluating accessibility vendors, ask about their valid claim rate: how often their customers face lawsuits that include verifiable accessibility violations. This metric separates solutions that actually reduce risk from ones that only create the appearance of compliance.

AudioEye's approach, combining automation, expert testing, and custom fixes, delivers a valid claim rate under 10%, nearly 70% lower than other industry solutions.

Jessica Phillips didn't call customer support when the checkout form failed her. She left. That moment happens millions of times a day, on millions of pages. It leaves no trace in your analytics. The revenue it represents never arrives.

Want to understand your website's accessibility risk? Run a free accessibility scan to identify high-impact violations that may expose you to legal action or block customers from completing key actions.