Our Clients are Getting Hammered by ADA Demand Letters
BEFORE CREATORS SETTLE FOR 5K, 50K, OR MORE, THEY NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS HAPPENING & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
KEY INSIGHTS
In 2025, over 5,000 digital accessibility lawsuits targeted websites in 2025—a 37% increase from 2024—and it’s only getting worse for creators.
Independent artists and creative entrepreneurs are being unfairly targeted because 94% of websites fail basic accessibility checks, and few creators have the resources to fight the firms targeting them.
The average settlement range of 5K to 20K is a minor nuisance for corporations, but it’s devastating for our clients—especially for those who did not realize their exposure was a very real and urgent problem with a very real and immediate solution—until it was too late.
Title “Our Clients are Getting Hammered by ADA Demand Letters” & Subtitle “BEFORE CREATORS SETTLE FOR 5K, 50K, OR MORE, THEY NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHY THIS IS HAPPENING & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT”
This is not my typical post. Today, I’m speaking as plainly as I can to all independent creators, artists, freelancers, and entrepreneurs building businesses in the creator economy.
Right now, independent creators are being unfairly and systematically targeted by ADA compliance trawlers. The studies are clear, the exposure is undeniable, and the clock is ticking.In fact,it’s only getting worse for creators, and they can no longer ignore the problem—or the solution.
In this article, I’m explaining why ADA litigation is on the rise, what’s at stake for creators, and what every creator must do now—not tomorrow or later or when things slow down, but now—to ensure they don’t become the next target.
THE BOOM IN ADA LAWSUITS AGAINST CREATORS
Last year, over 5,000 state and federal lawsuits were filed against small businesses under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—the federal statute prohibiting disability discrimination and requiring all business websites to comply with specific accessibility standards.
While the number of suits filed was a 37% increase—a stunning figure in itself—the number of websites targeted by ADA firms was far greater. In fact, between 35,000 and 50,000 demand letters went out to small, independent businesses in 2025, and they’re not slowing down.
As legal counsel to creators, this new wave of ADA litigation is infuriating. Our clients continue to be unfairly targeted and pay a vastly disproportionate penalties compared to the business world at large. And it’s not because they’re blind to their legal obligations or careless about their risks. Most creators simply don’t realize their website is a ticking time-bomb until they receive a demand letter. By then, it’s too late.
What infuriates me most of all is how preventable it is—even for independent creators with no legal departments, IT professionals, or technical knowledge. The truth is, every single one could have disarmed the ticking time-bomb in a matter of hours if they had the right information and the right resources.
That’s why I’m writing this article—to give you both.
The Million Dollar Question every creator needs to know now: Is Your Website ADA Compliant?
THE ADA LITIGATION PLAYBOOK
It’s been decades since I defended my first ADA website accessibility lawsuit, but nothing has changed. Every single one of them still follows the same pattern, involves the same group of people, employs the same tactics, and ends the same way. It’s playbook litigation.
To be clear, not all ADA litigation is playbook. Every year, hundreds of legitimate ADA lawsuits are handled by exceptional attorneys doing exceptional work. They’re easy to spot because they don’t run along the playbook gutter carved by the vast majority of ADA cases in the U.S. These playbook cases—the ones I’m talking about here—are a different breed.
They’re all handled by a small number of ADA firms—formed for the sole purpose of finding small businesses to sue for website accessibility violations and extorting them for financial gain. These firms focus on independent creators and small businesses, employ large teams to trawl the internet day and night, send thousands of demand letters every month, threaten exorbitant damages, penalties, and attorneys’ fees, and leave most creators with no other option than to pay the ADA firm somewhere between 5K to 20K per website. That’s the playbook in a nutshell.
My position on these legal practices and the firms behind them has never changed. They do not serve the communities they claim to serve,andtheyabuse the very legislation they purport to uphold. The practice is abusive, exploitive, and needs to end.
But they’re not going anywhere because the playbook still works. So if you are an independent creator, freelance artist, or entrepreneur of any kind, please listen up: You may not be looking at your website accessibility, but the trawlers most certainly are—every single day, every single page.The question is, what are they going to find?
THE REALITY FOR CREATORS
The recent boom in the creator economy, along with the increase in AI-enhanced website scanning tools, has made creative entrepreneurs more of a target for ADA litigation than ever before. But most creators don’t realize it’s happening because most of the activity is invisible.
While creators spend their days pouring into their work, their website is being scanned for violations of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 Level AA), a complex set of technical standards followed by federal courts to determine compliance with the ADA.
There are literally thousands of ways a single website can fail accessibility audits under the Guidelines, and no website is 100% compliant—not even the largest global brands. But the trawlers aren’t looking at those websites. They’re looking at yours. And from the standpoint of statistical data alone: there is a 95% likelihood that your website is not ADA-compliant.
You read that right. 95% ➞Not Compliant.
That’s based on WebAIM’s 2026 Million Report, which found significant accessibility failures in over 95% of the top one million websites. Less than 5% were ADA-compliant.
For creators, WebAIM’s findings hit even closer to home. A high volume of failures were found on websites built on Squarespace, Showit, WordPress, Kajabi—the top platforms used by independent creators. Common failures include low-contrast text, missing image alt text, missing form labels, and empty links, which just so happen to be the same failures ADA firms are actively scanning.
Having a website with accessibility failures does not automatically make you liable, but it does make you vulnerable. For large and mid-size businesses, having a non ADA-compliant website is a bullet point on a task list. For creators, it’s a ticking time-bomb.
THE FINANCIAL STAKES FOR CREATORS
I truly believe that anyone reading this article will not ignore the ticking clock and will use the resources we are providing here and below to protect themselves. But it’s important to understand the stakes—not just for yourself, but for your friends, colleagues, and for the creative community at large.
Last year, the average pre-suit settlement range was $5,000 to $20,000 per website—a number that seems unbelievable without the bigger picture.
Collectively, creators represent one of the largest and fastest growing economic sectors in the world, but they work independently—without legal departments, IT professionals, or equity cushions—so they don’t have the options or leverage of traditional corporations.
When faced with litigation costs of $50,000 to $300,000—in addition to astronomical damages alleged in the demand letter—settlement becomes the only feasible option. Creators simply do not have the resources to defend themselves against these highly-trained, well-oiled ADA litigation machines.
It’s why the playbook works and why creators are still the prime targets. And it’s not going to end until creators do the one thing that makes them untouchable: become one of the 5% with ADA-complaint websites.
But don’t let the 5% number fool you. Just because so few websites comply does not mean it’s too hard. It’s not. It simply requires the right information, the right tools, and a few hours of focused time.
DISARMING THE BOMB
We know the days of pushing ADA compliance down the checklist are officially over. So what now? How do creators disarm the bomb?
Creators who become targets of litigation often think their websites are in good shape because they bought a template or followed the prompts from Kajabi or installed an ADA widget sold as an all-in-one fix—or all the above—only to discover they clearly didn’t work.
After years of coming into the picture after the bomb went off, I started building a checklist to help my clients protect themselves from being sued again. Over time, that checklist developed into a simple tool, allowing my clients to fix and maintain ADA-compliant websites without having to come back to me every month.
When we decided to launch InFrame Law to serve the independent creative community exclusively, a complete ADA-compliance tool is one of the first things we created for our clients. It’s absolutely essential for every single creator, and it doesn’t exist anywhere else.
That tool is our CoreCreator™ADA Compliance Kit. It contains three core elements: 1) Website Accessibility Audit with step-by-step instructions to assess your website compliance; 2) ADA Compliance Field Guide that walks you through the remediation process and sets you up for long-term compliance; and 3) our creator-specific, attorney-drafted Website Accessibility Statement essential for every website.
Website accessibility is only one piece of a creator’s legal framework, but right now, that piece is the most urgent. Creators need an effective ADA compliance solution, and we are meeting that need through our CoreCreator™ADA Compliance Kit. But it’s not enough. We want this new wave of ADA litigation to end for everyone in the creative community—whether you’re an active client or not.
So, until further notice, we’re making the Core Creator™ ADA Compliance Kit available to all members of our community at no charge. It’s available here for immediate download, including all future updates and changes, as long as you’re a part of our network of creators. You will also have full access the InFrame Journal and all free resources we’re creating exclusively for the community we serve.
If you have questions about InFrame Law, the CoreCreator™ADA Compliance Kit, or if you’ve already received a demand letter and need help, we are always available. The best way to get immediate answers is to schedule a 30-minute call here so we can work through it in real time.
