Got an ADA Demand Letter? A Calm 7-Step Response Plan

Demand letters arrive with deliberately scary formatting: 30-day deadlines, bold settlement numbers, references to federal law. The first thing to know is that the goal of the letter is to get you to call the sender quickly and settle quickly. The second thing to know is that you have time. Here is the playbook.

Step 1. Preserve everything

Save the letter, the envelope it arrived in (postmarks matter for jurisdiction), and any related emails. Take a full screenshot recording of the website pages cited in the letter, on the same day. Save your current sitemap. If your site changes daily, take a frozen archive copy. This evidence becomes important if the case proceeds.

Step 2. Engage an ADA defense attorney

General business attorneys are not the right call here. Look for a firm that specifically handles ADA Title III defense work. Many offer flat-fee initial reviews in the $500 to $1,500 range. Your attorney will tell you whether the letter is from a serial filer (most common), what jurisdiction it threatens to file in, and what the realistic settlement range looks like for your facts.

Step 3. Run a baseline accessibility scan

Before you negotiate, you need to know what your site actually looks like under WCAG 2.1 AA. Run a full scan using a credible engine (axe-core or WebAIM WAVE), export the report, and date it. This is the foundation of your remediation plan and your good faith effort timeline.

Step 4. Triage and start fixing the critical findings

Sort findings by impact. Critical and serious WCAG failures are what matter for the legal defense. Common quick wins:

• Add alt text to product images and icon buttons
• Fix color contrast on primary navigation and CTAs
• Add visible focus styles if your design hides them
• Associate every form field with a label
• Add a skip-to-content link to long header layouts

Even getting the critical and serious counts to zero in the first 14 days reshapes the negotiation. Your attorney can now show ongoing remediation and a dated audit trail.

Step 5. Publish an accessibility statement

Add a /accessibility page to your site that names WCAG 2.1 AA, describes your testing methodology, and provides a contact email for accessibility feedback. Include the date of your most recent automated scan. This signals active monitoring and gives users a non-litigation path to report problems.

Step 6. Let your attorney respond, then negotiate

Your attorney will reply formally to the demand. The package usually includes:

1. A pointer to your accessibility statement
2. Your dated baseline scan and the remediation timeline
3. A request for specifics on what the plaintiff actually encountered
4. An offer (if appropriate) to address documented issues without admitting liability

Many demand letters resolve in this round, often for a small fraction of the original number, particularly when the plaintiff sees that the site is already under active remediation.

Step 7. Build the long-term posture

Once the immediate matter is closed, set up monthly automated scans, an annual manual audit, and a logged remediation channel. The same documentation that defended this letter will defend the next one without panic. The serial-filer ecosystem is real, but it is also predictable: businesses with active, dated compliance programs are dramatically less attractive targets than businesses with no documentation at all.