How to Stay Ahead of Accessibility Lawsuits and Protect Your Brand

Drawing on years of experience helping clients navigate accessibility lawsuits, Nat outlines the two main types of legal action businesses face, highlights the most common accessibility failures cited in claims, and shares guidance on where to focus efforts first.

“You cannot avoid lawsuits about accessibility. What you can do is minimize your risk.”

Companies are urged to act now to build or improve their accessibility program, focusing first on the issues most likely to trigger lawsuits.

Understanding Lawsuits

Nat explains two lawsuit types that account for over 90% of cases reviewed:

• Type One: Disability advocates act as “testers” and file cases based on barriers they encounter through a mix of automated and manual testing.

• Type Two: Attorneys run automated scans across industries or platforms, file near-identical claims, and pressure businesses into settlements. Nat claims that around 70% of these technical accessibility issues “have no bearing on the user’s ability to use the product.”

While these claims appear to be intimidation tactics, they can still lead to settlements averaging $16,000.

Where Most Lawsuits Focus

Nat highlights the issues most often cited in accessibility claims:

• Missing alt text on images — “Any meaningful image must have alternative text reflecting the meaning of the image.”

• Unlabeled form fields and buttons — every control needs a programmatically connected label or accessible name.

• Headings and page structure — headings should follow a logical order for screen reader navigation.

• Status messages — users must be informed of actions (add-to-cart, search results, form errors).

• Dialogs and cookie banners — focus must be handled properly so users can navigate and dismiss them.

• Checkout process — ensure clear labels, connected error messages, and product-specific controls.

Nat urges companies to act now:

“If you haven’t been sued and you don’t have an accessibility team working on the items above, take immediate action.”

Key Takeaways

• Some claims (like broken links) may fall outside ADA/WCAG, but fixing them still improves user experience.

• Build a partnership with accessibility experts for auditing and remediation.

• Work with legal counsel who understands disability law — as Nat notes, “disability law is very different from civil and corporate law.”

Start by Understanding Your Risk

Before you can reduce risk, you need to know where you stand. Use our FREE Accessibility Checker to see your ADA exposure — it’s instant, no signup or email required.

https://aaatraq.com/check/ (opens in a new window)

Knowing your starting point helps you focus your efforts where they matter most, protect your brand, and stay ahead of lawsuits.

Read the full article here:

https://tarnoff.info/2025/09/01/how-to-minimize-legal-risks-in-accessibility-compliance/ (opens in a new window)