ADA Title III lawsuits are climbing again: 5,006 federal suits were filed in the first half of 2026, 9% more than the same period of 2025, and Seyfarth Shaw says the year could end with over 10,000 filings. Website cases are the engine. Federal website accessibility suits rose 27% to 3,117 in 2025, and they now make up 36% of all Title III filings. Meanwhile 95.9% of the top one million home pages still show detected WCAG 2 failures (WebAIM Million 2026), so the supply of potential claims is not shrinking. We aggregated data from Seyfarth Shaw’s ADA Title III filing reports, UsableNet’s lawsuit tracker, the WebAIM Million and Screen Reader User Survey, the U.S. Department of Justice, GSA’s Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment, EUR-Lex and the European Commission, CDC and WHO. For the broader picture of how the web performs for disabled users, see our web accessibility statistics. This roundup is factual reporting, not legal advice.
TL;DR
- 8,667 ADA Title III lawsuits were filed in federal court in 2025, down 2% from 8,800 in 2024 (Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report).
- 5,006 federal Title III suits were filed in H1 2026, up 9% from 4,575 in H1 2025 (Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report).
- 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025, a 27% jump from 2,452 in 2024 (Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report).
- Website suits were 36% of all Title III filings in 2025, up from 28% in 2024 (Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report).
- 4,928 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025 across federal and state courts (UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker).
- More than 25,000 digital accessibility lawsuits were filed from 2018 to 2025 (UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker).
- 134 of 432 suits filed in August 2026 hit companies already using an accessibility widget (UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker).
- California accounted for 2,426 of the 5,006 Title III suits in H1 2026 (Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report).
- 95.9% of the top one million home pages had detected WCAG 2 failures in 2026 (WebAIM Million 2026).
- Home pages averaged 56.1 detected errors in 2026, up from 51 in 2025 (WebAIM Million 2026).
- DOJ estimates the Title II web rule at $3,331.3 million in annualized costs vs $5,229.5 million in annualized benefits at a 3% discount rate (Federal Register, 2024 final rule).
- Federal agencies scored 1.96 on a 5-point Section 508 conformance scale in FY 2025 (GSA, FY 2025 Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment).
1. Federal ADA Title III Filings: The Long View
The headline number for 2025 looks like a pause, but the first half of 2026 says otherwise. H1 2026 produced 5,006 federal filings, above the four-year H1 average of 4,463 for 2022 to 2025, and Seyfarth’s authors attribute part of the surge to “several relatively new plaintiffs’ firms” arriving on the scene (Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report).
Volume is now structural rather than cyclical. Even the soft 2025 total of 8,667 is more than three times the 2,722 filings of 2013, and every year since 2018 has landed above 8,000 (Seyfarth Shaw, ADA Title III Federal Lawsuit Filings Fall Slightly to 8,667 in 2025). Projections also deserve skepticism: in September 2025 Seyfarth projected roughly 9,100 filings for the year, and the actual count came in at 8,667.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Federal ADA Title III lawsuits, 2025 | 8,667 (down 2%) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report (Feb 2026) |
| Federal ADA Title III lawsuits, 2024 | 8,800 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report (Feb 2026) |
| All-time peak (2021) | 11,452 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report (Feb 2026) |
| Filings in 2013 | 2,722 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report (Feb 2026) |
| H1 2026 federal filings | 5,006 (up 9% year over year) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report (Sep 2026) |
| H1 2025 federal filings | 4,575 (up 7% from 4,280 in H1 2024) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 Mid-Year Report (Sep 2025) |
| Four-year H1 average, 2022 to 2025 | 4,463 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report (Sep 2026) |
| Seyfarth full-year 2026 outlook | Could end with over 10,000 federal filings | Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report (Sep 2026) |
Context note: Seyfarth’s totals cover all ADA Title III federal cases (physical premises and digital), not only websites. The website-only count is in the next section.
2. Website Accessibility Lawsuits in Federal Court
Websites went from a slice of Title III litigation to more than a third of it in a single year. Federal website accessibility filings rose 27% to 3,117 in 2025, adding 665 cases, and their share of all Title III suits climbed from 28% to 36% (Seyfarth Shaw, Federal Court Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings Bounce Back in 2025).
The 2025 total is the second-highest in Seyfarth’s 2018 to 2025 series, behind only 3,255 in 2022. The dip in 2023 and 2024 was not a retreat; it was a pause before the next wave. Monthly volume in 2025 ranged from 219 cases in June to 319 in July, which means even a slow month generated more than 200 federal website suits.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Federal website accessibility suits, 2025 | 3,117 (up 27%) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Federal website accessibility suits, 2024 | 2,452 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Federal website accessibility suits, 2022 (record) | 3,255 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Federal website accessibility suits, 2018 | 2,258 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Website share of all Title III filings, 2025 | 36% (28% in 2024) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Highest month, 2025 | 319 cases (July) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Lowest month, 2025 | 219 cases (June) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
Year-by-year federal website counts per Seyfarth: 2,258 (2018), 2,256 (2019), 2,523 (2020), 2,895 (2021), 3,255 (2022), 2,794 (2023), 2,452 (2024), 3,117 (2025).
3. Where the Suits Are Filed: States and Plaintiff Firms
Geography in ADA litigation follows case law and plaintiff firms, not population. California filed only 4 federal website accessibility suits in 2025, which Seyfarth attributes to rulings that online-only businesses are not covered by the ADA, yet California still led overall Title III filings with 3,252 (37.5% of the national total), mostly non-website cases (Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report).
Website cases instead clustered in New York, Florida and Illinois. Florida’s count nearly doubled from 470 in 2024 to 961 in 2025. Concentration by firm is striking: in H1 2026, 336 of Illinois’s 505 Title III suits came from one firm, Equal Access Law Group, which is 66.5% by our math (336 / 505), and 121 of Minnesota’s 124 came from Throndset Michenfelder (Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report). Seyfarth also notes New York judges imposing more rigorous standing requirements in website cases, which pushes some plaintiffs toward state courts that federal counts do not capture.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| New York, federal website suits 2025 | 1,021 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Florida, federal website suits 2025 | 961 (470 in 2024) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| Illinois, federal website suits 2025 | 585 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| California, federal website suits 2025 | 4 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report (Mar 2026) |
| California share of all Title III suits, 2025 | 37.5% (3,252 cases) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report (Feb 2026) |
| California, all Title III suits H1 2026 | 2,426 of 5,006 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report (Sep 2026) |
| Illinois, all Title III suits H1 2026 | 505 (336 by one firm) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report (Sep 2026) |
| Minnesota, all Title III suits H1 2026 | 124 (121 by one firm) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report (Sep 2026) |
Outlier note: California’s 2,426 H1 2026 suits equal 48.5% of the national total (2,426 / 5,006), up from 37.5% for full-year 2025. Since California website filings are near zero, that growth is in physical-access and other Title III claims.
4. Who Gets Sued: Repeat Defendants, Widgets and Company Size
UsableNet counts more cases than Seyfarth because it tracks federal and state courts and all digital properties (websites, apps, video). Its tracker logged 4,928 digital accessibility lawsuits in 2025 and more than 25,000 from 2018 to 2025, with more than 4,000 a year every year since 2021 (UsableNet ADA Website Compliance Lawsuit Tracker).
The defendant profile undercuts two common assumptions. First, one suit does not end exposure: 108 of the 432 defendants sued in August 2026 had already faced a prior digital accessibility suit. Second, a bolt-on widget is not a shield: 134 of those 432 defendants were using a third-party accessibility widget when they were sued. Plaintiffs are also moving up-market: 36% of companies sued in the first half of 2025 had annual revenue above $25 million, up from 33% in 2024. UsableNet’s 2026 Midyear Report projects filings will exceed 6,000 in 2026 and says Illinois has surged to second behind New York.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Digital accessibility lawsuits, 2025 (federal and state) | 4,928 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker (2026) |
| Digital accessibility lawsuits, 2018 to 2025 | More than 25,000 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker (2026) |
| Lawsuits filed in August 2026 | 432 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker (2026) |
| August 2026 defendants with a prior digital suit | 108 of 432 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker (2026) |
| August 2026 defendants using an accessibility widget | 134 of 432 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker (2026) |
| Sued companies with revenue above $25 million (H1 2025) | 36% (33% in 2024) | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker (2026) |
| Projected digital accessibility filings, 2026 | Exceed 6,000 | UsableNet 2026 Midyear Report |
Settlement economics are increasingly scrutinized. In Alcazar v. Fashion Nova (N.D. Cal.), a proposed class settlement offered $2.43 million to California class members (capped at $4,000 per class member) against $2.52 million in attorneys’ fees and costs; the DOJ filed a Statement of Interest opposing it as disproportionately compensating counsel (Seyfarth Shaw, DOJ Throws Wrench Into Proposed ADA Website Accessibility Class Settlement).
5. The Compliance Gap Behind the Claims
Litigation volume is a symptom; the underlying condition is measured every February by WebAIM. In 2026, 95.9% of the top one million home pages had detected WCAG 2 failures, reversing six straight years of slow improvement (97.8% in 2019, 94.8% in 2025) (WebAIM Million 2026). Average errors rose 10.1% to 56.1 per page, and WebAIM detected 56,114,377 distinct errors in total.
The errors are mundane and fixable, which is exactly why they are easy to cite in a complaint. Six categories account for 96% of all detected errors. Complexity is part of the story: the average home page now has 1,437 elements (up 14.3%), and pages using ARIA averaged 59.1 errors versus 42 on pages without it, suggesting that ARIA is often added incorrectly. Government domains do better: .gov home pages averaged 18.5 errors.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Home pages with detected WCAG 2 failures, 2026 | 95.9% (94.8% in 2025) | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Average detected errors per home page, 2026 | 56.1 (51 in 2025) | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Pages with low-contrast text | 83.9% (34 instances per page) | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Pages with images missing alternative text | 53.1% | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Pages with missing form input labels | 51% | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Pages with empty links | 46.3% | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Errors on pages with ARIA vs without | 59.1 vs 42 | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Average errors on .gov home pages | 18.5 | WebAIM Million 2026 |
The user side confirms these are real barriers, not checklist trivia. In WebAIM’s most recent Screen Reader User Survey #10 (1,539 respondents, December 2023 to January 2024; most recent available data), CAPTCHA was the most problematic item, only 34.6% said web accessibility had improved, and 85.9% said more accessible websites would have more impact than better assistive technology. Our screen reader statistics roundup covers that survey in more depth.
6. The Regulatory Clock: DOJ Title II and the European Accessibility Act
Title III still has no web-specific technical standard: DOJ’s 2022 guidance says businesses “can currently choose how they will ensure” online accessibility. Public entities are different. The DOJ Title II rule adopts WCAG 2.1 Level AA, with compliance dates of April 26, 2027 for entities of 50,000 or more people and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special districts, after an Interim Final Rule published April 20, 2026 pushed back the original deadlines (ADA.gov, Fact Sheet: Web Rule).
DOJ’s own economics favor compliance: at a 3% discount rate it estimated average annualized costs of $3,331.3 million against annualized benefits of $5,229.5 million (at 7%, $3,515.0 million vs $5,029.2 million), and found costs generally below 1% of revenue for public entities (Federal Register, 2024 Title II final rule). In Europe, Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act, has applied since 28 June 2025 to products and services including e-commerce, banking, e-books and passenger transport, in a Union where the European Commission says 90 million people live with a disability.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Technical standard, DOJ Title II rule | WCAG 2.1 Level AA | ADA.gov Web Rule Fact Sheet |
| Compliance date, entities of 50,000+ people | April 26, 2027 | ADA.gov Web Rule Fact Sheet (after 2026 IFR) |
| Compliance date, smaller entities and special districts | April 26, 2028 | ADA.gov Web Rule Fact Sheet (after 2026 IFR) |
| Annualized costs vs benefits (3% discount rate) | $3,331.3M vs $5,229.5M | Federal Register, Title II final rule (2024) |
| Public comments on the proposed rule | Approximately 345 | Federal Register, Title II final rule (2024) |
| European Accessibility Act application date | 28 June 2025 | EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2019/882 |
| EAA microenterprise threshold (exempt for services) | Fewer than 10 persons and turnover or balance sheet not over EUR 2 million | EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2019/882 |
| Maximum life for pre-existing self-service terminals | 20 years | EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2019/882 |
Context note: the population these rules protect is large. More than 1 in 4 U.S. adults has some type of disability, including 5.5% with a vision disability and 6.2% with a hearing disability (CDC, Disability Impacts All of Us), and WHO estimates 1.3 billion people, or 16% of the world population, experience significant disability (WHO, Disability fact sheet 2023). For the employment side of that population, see our disability employment statistics.
7. The Federal Government’s Own Scorecard: Section 508
Federal agencies are covered by Section 508 rather than Title III, but their results show how hard full conformance is even with dedicated programs. Agencies reported a governmentwide average Section 508 conformance of 1.96 on a 5-point scale in FY 2025, and only 37% of top-viewed public web pages fully conform (GSA, FY 2025 Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment).
Staffing explains part of the gap. Of the 60 agencies assessed, 8 had no designated Section 508 program manager, only 17 had a full-time one, and the 35 part-time managers averaged 8.90 hours a week on the job. GSA cautions that higher top-viewed conformance than in prior years “may reflect changes in reporting rather than a direct measure of improvement.” Funding for the tools disabled users rely on is covered in our assistive technology funding statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Governmentwide conformance index | 1.96 on a 5-point scale | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| Top-viewed public web pages fully conformant | 37% | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| Top-viewed electronic documents fully conformant | 37% | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| Top-viewed videos fully conformant | 45% | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| Tested public-facing web pages fully conformant | 72% | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| Agencies not testing at least one top-viewed ICT | About 23% | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| Agencies with a full-time Section 508 PM | 17 of 60 | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| Agencies requiring mandatory accessibility training | 27% | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
Context note: GSA built the assessment from responses by 212 agencies, parent agencies and components, and notes 2.16 billion federal website visits in the past month, which is the audience these conformance gaps reach.
Summary: Digital ADA Title III Website Accessibility Lawsuits by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Federal ADA Title III lawsuits, 2025 | 8,667 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report |
| Federal ADA Title III lawsuits, H1 2026 | 5,006 (up 9%) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report |
| Peak year for Title III filings | 11,452 (2021) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report |
| Federal website accessibility suits, 2025 | 3,117 (up 27%) | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report |
| Website share of Title III filings, 2025 | 36% | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report |
| Top state for federal website suits, 2025 | New York, 1,021 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report |
| California federal website suits, 2025 | 4 | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 website report |
| California share of all Title III suits, 2025 | 37.5% | Seyfarth Shaw, 2025 filings report |
| Digital accessibility lawsuits, 2025 (federal and state) | 4,928 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker |
| Digital accessibility lawsuits, 2018 to 2025 | More than 25,000 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker |
| August 2026 defendants using a widget | 134 of 432 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker |
| August 2026 repeat defendants | 108 of 432 | UsableNet ADA Lawsuit Tracker |
| Projected digital filings, 2026 | Exceed 6,000 | UsableNet 2026 Midyear Report |
| Home pages with WCAG 2 failures | 95.9% | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Average errors per home page | 56.1 | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| Pages with low-contrast text | 83.9% | WebAIM Million 2026 |
| DOJ Title II compliance date, large entities | April 26, 2027 | ADA.gov Web Rule Fact Sheet |
| EAA application date | 28 June 2025 | EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2019/882 |
| Federal Section 508 conformance index | 1.96 of 5 | GSA FY 2025 Section 508 Assessment |
| People with significant disability worldwide | 1.3 billion (16%) | WHO Disability fact sheet 2023 |
Methodology and Sources
- Seyfarth Shaw, ADA Title III Federal Lawsuit Filings Fall Slightly to 8,667 in 2025 (February 11, 2026): annual federal Title III totals 2013 to 2025 and state ranking.
- Seyfarth Shaw, Federal Court Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings Bounce Back in 2025 (March 25, 2026): federal website suits 2018 to 2025, monthly range, top states.
- Seyfarth Shaw, 2026 Mid-Year Report (September 9, 2026) and 2025 Mid-Year Report (September 3, 2025).
- Seyfarth Shaw, DOJ Throws Wrench Into Proposed ADA Website Accessibility Class Settlement (February 18, 2026).
- UsableNet ADA Website Compliance Lawsuit Tracker and UsableNet 2026 Midyear Report landing page (third-party vendor reports).
- WebAIM Million 2026 and WebAIM Screen Reader User Survey #10.
- ADA.gov, Fact Sheet: Web Rule, ADA.gov, Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA and the Federal Register 2024 Title II final rule.
- EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2019/882, European Commission, European Accessibility Act and the EU Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
- GSA, FY 2025 Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment (published March 2, 2026).
- CDC, Disability Impacts All of Us and WHO, Disability and health fact sheet.
- Data watch: Seyfarth and UsableNet measure different things. Seyfarth counts federal ADA Title III cases only (3,117 website suits in 2025), while UsableNet counts federal and state digital accessibility suits including apps (4,928 in 2025), so the two should not be added or directly compared. Projections have missed before: Seyfarth’s mid-2025 estimate of about 9,100 filings compares with an actual 8,667. UsableNet’s full 2025 year-end and 2026 midyear reports are gated, so only figures published on its public pages are used here; its 36% revenue figure refers to the first half of 2025. The WebAIM Screen Reader Survey dates from early 2024 (most recent available data), and the CDC prevalence figure comes from its Disability and Health Data System as cited in July 2024. The Federal Register version of the April 20, 2026 Interim Final Rule could not be retrieved, so the new Title II dates are taken from ADA.gov. GSA flags that FY 2025 top-viewed conformance gains may reflect reporting changes. Nothing here is legal advice.
- Last updated: October 4, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when Seyfarth Shaw publishes its full-year 2026 ADA Title III filing count in early 2027.