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ADA demand letter response checklist

A letter says your website shuts out people with disabilities. This checklist puts the first steps in order, from reading it properly to a fixed, retested and documented site, with a status and a note for each step and a count of the days left until the response date in the letter.

Not legal advice

This checklist is general information. It cannot tell you whether a claim is valid or what to say. For your own situation, ask a lawyer.

Work through the first steps

Mark each step Done, Not done or Not applicable as you go, with a note. Everything stays in this browser on this device and is never sent anywhere; on a shared computer, print or copy it and then press Reset.

Steps done

  1. 1. Read it, and do not ignore it

    Work out which of three things it is. A demand letter from a law firm is not a court filing. A summons from a federal court is: it states how long you have to respond and warns that missing that time leads to a default judgment. A letter from the Department of Justice follows a complaint, which the Department may refer to mediation or investigate. Ignoring any of them leaves the next move to the other side.

    Status of step 1

    Who sent it, how it arrived, what it names

  2. 2. Write down the response date the letter gives

    Enter it in the response date field above; the checklist counts the days for you. Keep the envelope and any email it came with: they show when it arrived.

    Status of step 2

    The exact wording of the date or deadline in the letter

  3. 3. Call a lawyer before you reply

    Look for one who handles ADA website claims; state laws differ, and only a lawyer can tell you which apply to you and what the letter is worth. Let them decide who replies and what the reply says. Send them the letter, this checklist and the copies from the next step.

    Status of step 3

    Lawyer's name, date of first call, what they asked you to do

  4. 4. Save dated copies of the site as it is today

    Before anyone changes a page, save each page the letter names: a dated screenshot, a saved copy, and a capture in the Internet Archive's Save Page Now. Add a list of the theme, plugins and widgets in use, and keep any past audit reports and invoices. Your lawyer will say what else to keep.

    Status of step 4

    Where the copies are kept, and the date taken

  5. 5. Check your insurance

    Call your broker or insurer and ask whether any policy might respond to the claim, and how soon it must be reported. Policies often set a time limit for telling them; do not assume you are not covered, and do not assume you are.

    Status of step 5

    Insurer, policy number, date you reported it

  6. 6. Do not install an overlay as the fix

    The Department of Justice says automated checkers and overlays “need to be used carefully” and that a clean report does not mean a site is accessible. The FTC alleged that one overlay vendor claimed its widget could make any website WCAG-compliant when it did not; its 2025 final order bars that claim without evidence. A widget changes nothing in your own code. What overlays do and do not do.

    Status of step 6

    Any widget already on the site, and when it was added

  7. 7. Commission a manual audit

    Ask for testing against WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 Level AA by a person, with a report that names each barrier, the page and the criterion number. DOJ's guidance pairs a manual check with automated tools. Ask your lawyer whether the audit should be ordered through them. Our WCAG audit services comparison shows what each service hands back.

    Status of step 7

    Auditor, standard tested (WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA), report date

  8. 8. Fix the site's code, then retest

    Start with the barriers the letter names, then the audit's list. Have each fix retested, by the auditor or with the WCAG 2.2 AA checklist; the focus order checklist covers the keyboard and the contrast check covers colours.

    Status of step 8

    What was fixed, by whom, on which date

  9. 9. Document what you did

    Keep one dated file: the audit, every fix with its date, every retest. Publish an accessibility statement with a way to report a barrier; DOJ's guidance notes that a way to report problems lets owners fix them. The accessibility statement generator writes one in W3C's structure.

    Status of step 9

    Where the record lives

Line drawing of a letter beside a short checklist, the first box ringed in orange

What WCAG asks

  • 1.1.1Non-text ContentA
  • 2.1.1KeyboardA
  • 3.3.2Labels or InstructionsA
  • 1.4.3Contrast (Minimum)AA
  • 2.4.7Focus VisibleAA

What the checklist covers

The nine steps are the first weeks after a notice that your website shuts out people with disabilities: one step to understand what arrived, four to protect your position (the date, a lawyer, dated copies of the site, your insurer), and four to fix the site in a way that holds up (no overlay, a manual audit, fixes in the code with a retest, and a record of it all). They run in that order because the first five are cheap and time-sensitive, and the last four take weeks.

It works for three kinds of notice. A demand letter from a law firm, usually naming barriers it found on your site and asking you to fix them and settle. Court papers, which mean a lawsuit has been filed. And a letter from the Department of Justice after someone filed a complaint with it.

Deadline

If you were served a summons, a court deadline is already running. A federal summons must state the time you have to appear and defend, and must warn that missing it means a default judgment against you. State courts have their own rules. Call a lawyer the same day.

The checklist does not judge whether the letter is right about your site or what it is worth. For how these claims arise and what courts have looked at, read ADA website lawsuits.

What the ADA and WCAG ask

What the ADA says

The Department of Justice does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards, but the Department's longstanding interpretation of the general nondiscrimination and effective communication provisions applies to web accessibility.

Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA, ada.gov, 18 March 2022

The same guidance names WCAG and the Section 508 Standards as “helpful guidance” and leaves businesses flexibility in how they comply; it also says it has no legally binding effect. In practice, an audit for a business site tests against WCAG 2.1 Level AA or WCAG 2.2 Level AA. A site that conforms to 2.2 also conforms to 2.1, so an audit to 2.2 covers both; our WCAG 2.2 AA checklist lists all 55 criteria. The five beside the checklist are ones you can test yourself today, while the audit is arranged: text for images with the alt text check, the keyboard and the focus ring with the focus order checklist, labels on your forms, and colour contrast.

The rule that sets a fixed WCAG version and dates, the DOJ's Title II rule, covers state and local governments, not private businesses; see the Title II web rule. For what the law asks of a business site in plain words, read ADA compliant website: what the law asks.

What a bad first month usually looks like

The letter sits in a drawer
The response date passes and the sender decides the next step alone. Step 1 and the day count above exist for this.
A widget is bought the same afternoon
It feels like action, but it changes nothing in your own pages, and the FTC's order against one overlay vendor turned on exactly that promise. Spend the money on the audit instead; if you want the background, read our alternatives to overlay widgets.
The site is changed before it is copied
A redesign, a new theme or a quick fix before step 4 leaves no record of what the letter described. Copy first, then fix.
A free scan is sent back as proof
DOJ's guidance says a clean report from an automated checker does not mean everything is accessible. A scan is a start; a person testing with a keyboard and a screen reader is the audit.
Only the pages named get fixed
The letter names what one visit found. The same template, menu or form is usually on every page, and the next visit will find the rest.
A reply goes out before a lawyer reads it
An angry reply, or a promise of a date you cannot meet, is hard to take back. Let your lawyer write or approve it.

After it is resolved

Keep going after the claim is settled or dropped. Retest after every redesign, new plugin or new form, keep the dated record from step 9 up to date, and update your accessibility statement each time. The steps in how to make a website meet WCAG turn the one-off fix into a routine, and our ADA website checklist walks the site part by part between audits.

This is general information, not legal advice. For your own situation, ask a lawyer.

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