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Market focus · United States

Accessibility law in United States: are you provably compliant?

The US is the most litigated accessibility market in the world: roughly 8,800 federal Title III cases per year, plus California Unruh claims of $4,000 per violation.

  • Law: Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title III · Section 508 · Unruh Civil Rights Act (California)
  • In force: ADA since 1990; Unruh since 1959; DOJ web rule (public sector) compliance 2027/2028.
  • Standard: WCAG (de facto). Section 508 verwijst naar WCAG 2.0 AA

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Enforcement: what's happening now

ADA Title III has no threshold and no federal fine, but high-volume private lawsuits + attorney's fees. In 2025 the FTC fined an overlay vendor $1 million for deceptive compliance claims.

Website cases made up 36% of all ADA Title III filings in 2025; 46% of federal web cases targeted parties that had been sued before (UsableNet 2026). In California, damages under the Unruh Civil Rights Act stack up to $4,000 per visit on top of the ADA. UsableNet ADA Web & App Accessibility Lawsuit Tracker / Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III

Cross-border trade

Selling to here from abroad?

If you serve US customers, you face ADA and (in California) Unruh exposure, regardless of where you are based.

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Why this matters

Accessibility isn't a checkbox for a regulator, it decides whether roughly 1 in 6 people (WHO) can use your site at all. For them, an inaccessible store isn't a minor annoyance but a closed door. Fix the error in your own code and you remove that barrier and make your site cleaner for search engines, the same fix, double the gain.

Know where you stand, before the regulator does.

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Sources: ADA.gov, 2024 web rule · FTC, $1M order tegen overlay-aanbieder (2025)

This is information and tooling, not legal advice.

Facts last verified: June 2026

Accessibility law in other countries