ADA website demand letters
Got a demand letter about your website? Here's the first week.
A demand letter isn't a lawsuit yet. It is the cheapest point to deal with the problem, and the barriers it describes are usually real and fixable in the theme in about two weeks.
What the letter usually is
A law firm writes on behalf of a person who uses a screen reader or a keyboard, says they couldn't use your store, and cites the Americans with Disabilities Act. The letter typically asks for two things: a payment, and a commitment to fix the site to WCAG standards. It sets a short deadline, often a few weeks. Many firms send these in volume, but that doesn't mean the barriers aren't there. In our scans they almost always are.
What to do this week
- Don't ignore it. An unanswered letter is often followed by a federal complaint, and that is far more expensive to resolve.
- Talk to an attorney who handles ADA Title III website claims before you or anyone else replies to the plaintiff's firm. Ask them how they charge for demand-letter responses; many quote a flat fee.
- Don't install an accessibility widget and call it fixed. A widget doesn't change your theme code, which is what the letter describes. Stores with widgets installed are sued routinely.
- Get a dated baseline scan. It records what the site looked like when the letter arrived, so the later fixes can be shown against it.
- Start the repairs. Your attorney's position is strongest when the barriers named in the letter are already gone and there's a record of who fixed them, when, and how they were checked.
Where we fit
We are engineers, not lawyers. We do the technical half of steps four and five, and we hand your attorney the evidence.
| What | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline scan | WCAG 2.2 AA scan of your key templates, each failure mapped to the theme section, plain-English report within one business day | Free |
| Remediation | Fixes made in your theme on a duplicate, checked by a tester with a keyboard, NVDA and VoiceOver, published in ten business days, with a before-and-after report and three months of monitoring | $4,900 or $7,900 |
| Attorney response package | Signed statement of work with completion dates, itemized before-and-after findings, the screen-reader verification log, formatted for your counsel to use | $1,500 |
Which remediation price applies depends on the size of your catalog and how customized your theme is. The free scan comes with a fixed quote. Nobody calls you unless you ask.
Get the baseline scan
Don't send us the letter itself. Your attorney should see it first.
Questions people ask
Is the letter a scam?
Some letters come from firms that send many of them, but most are from real law firms and are followed by real lawsuits. Your attorney can check the firm. Separately, a free scan will tell you whether the barriers it describes are actually on your site.
Can I just pay and move on?
That's a decision for you and your attorney. Settlements commonly require the site to be fixed anyway, and a store that settles but stays inaccessible can be named again by a different plaintiff.
Will fixing the site make the letter go away?
We can't promise that and nobody honest can. What we can do is remove the barriers, verify that a screen-reader user can complete a purchase, and document it so your attorney can use it.
How fast can you start?
The scan usually comes back within one business day. Remediation starts the day we receive payment and theme access, and takes ten business days.
Is this legal advice?
No. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Talk to an attorney about the letter itself.