California remains a hotspot for ADA website accessibility lawsuits, and small businesses often don’t see it coming. A small number of plaintiffs’ firms run automated scans across business websites, flag common gaps like missing image descriptions or forms that can’t be used with a keyboard, and send a demand letter. Because the issues are cheap to find and expensive to litigate, most businesses settle. And in California, the money adds up fast: plaintiffs often pair an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) claim with the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which carries statutory damages of at least $4,000 per violation, plus attorney’s fees.
The claims usually come down to the same short list of problems:
- Images with no written description for visitors who can’t see them
- Menus or forms that can’t be used without a mouse
- Pages that screen readers can’t actually read aloud
The practical benchmark for compliance is WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the standard published by the W3C. If your site has never been reviewed against it, that’s your gap.
We recommend getting ahead of this rather than waiting for a demand letter to find it for you. Reach out to your website developer to see where you stand, and contact us if you want to talk through your exposure.
