Demand letter
A letter from a lawyer saying a client met a barrier on your website and asking you to fix it and settle before a lawsuit.
A demand letter is how most U.S. website accessibility claims begin. A law firm writes on behalf of a person with a disability who met a barrier on your site, lists the WCAG failures found, and asks you to fix them and pay a settlement, usually within a short deadline, or face a lawsuit under the ADA or a state law.
The barriers cited are usually ordinary: a menu that cannot be opened by keyboard, images without alt text, a checkout that does not announce errors. Demand letters are not counted in lawsuit statistics; Seyfarth Shaw’s count of 3,117 federal filings in 2025 excludes them. A documented, independent record of your accessibility work is what helps a team answer one. It is evidence of effort, not protection.
Source
Federal Court Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings Bounce Back in 2025
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