Your website is where customers find you.
It's also what a demand letter describes.
Letters about websites usually cite one of two things: a visitor with a disability who couldn't use a page, or tracking that ran before a visitor agreed to it. ADA Shield by Help Lawyer keeps a dated, tamper-evident record of what your site does and what you've done about it, so you can answer a letter with evidence.
5,114 ADA digital accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2025 (UsableNet 2025 Year-End Report).
Our free check shows which tracking technologies load on your site before a visitor can consent.
What would a demand letter find on your site?
Run a free check on any page in under a minute. It reviews accessibility, shows which tracking technologies loaded before a visitor could consent, and looks for AI and chat tools.
How a letter reaches your website
No storefront?
Federal appeals courts haven’t agreed on whether the ADA covers businesses that exist only online. That question gets argued after a letter arrives, at your cost, and plaintiffs choose where they file.
You have a location?
Your website is part of your business. A federal appeals court has applied the ADA to a website connected to physical locations. If someone can’t use your booking or contact form, that’s the barrier a letter will describe.
Pixels, chat or analytics on your site?
Website privacy letters are about what fired on a page, whether the visitor agreed first, and what you disclosed. California is narrowing one of its privacy rules in 2027, and plaintiffs are already moving to other sections of California law and to the federal Wiretap Act.
One record for everything your website does
Privacy and tracking
Cookie consent that holds tracking until a visitor agrees, plain-language tracking and cookie disclosures, and response templates for CIPA and other website wiretap letters.
Accessibility
A published accessibility statement, a conformance seal, an accessibility widget and response templates for ADA letters.
AI and chat
A published AI Use Disclosure that tells visitors which AI tools you use and how to reach a person.
Your legal pages
Privacy Policy, Terms, Cookie Policy and an accommodation policy, generated from your business profile and kept with a dated version history.
Every change in all four is written to your Defense Ledger, dated and tamper-evident.
You don’t have to lose the legal argument to need a record. You need one the day the letter arrives.
How a Claim Escalates
Toggle between an unprotected site and one with ADA Shield by Help Lawyer in place to see how documented preparation changes the picture at each stage.
Site live, no accessibility record
No statement page, no audit trail, no documented remediation effort.
Automated scanning by plaintiff firms
5,114 ADA website lawsuits filed in 2025 — UsableNet 2025 Year-End Report; 3,117 in federal court, up from 2,452 in 2024 — Seyfarth Shaw ADA Title III blog.
Demand letter arrives
Most claims begin as a letter, before anything is filed in court.
Negotiation stalls, no good-faith record to show
Without a dated record, the business has little to show for what it has done.
Lawsuit or judgment
If the letter isn't resolved, a lawsuit can follow, and defense costs begin.
Repeat claims or class action
45% of federal ADA web cases in 2025 targeted repeat defendants — UsableNet 2025 Year-End Report. 24.9% of sites sued in 2025 already had an accessibility overlay installed — EcomBack 2025 Annual Report.
Figures are industry-reported averages from third-party litigation trackers (Seyfarth Shaw, UsableNet, EcomBack, 2025–2026), not a prediction or guarantee of outcome for any specific business. Not legal advice.
A Widget Alone Isn't the Answer
24.9% of businesses sued in 2025 already had an accessibility overlay installed (EcomBack 2025 annual report). An overlay-only approach does not create a documented accessibility program — it installs a toolbar and hopes for the best.
This isn't a hypothetical concern. In January 2025, the Federal Trade Commission ordered a major accessibility overlay vendor to pay $1 million for deceptively claiming its AI-powered product could make any website compliant, when it did not reliably deliver on that promise. We don't name the vendor here for legal reasons, but the case is a matter of public FTC record.
Source: Federal Trade Commission, January 2025 enforcement action
ADA Shield by Help Lawyer's system combines the widget with a hosted statement page, a conformance seal that reads “ALIGNED” only when alignment is demonstrated, a full website document suite, 10 demand letter response templates, and a versioned audit trail — so your response to a demand letter is backed by a documented record, not a scramble.
A record that holds up when someone questions it
Every step you take in ADA Shield by Help Lawyer is written to your Defense Ledger the moment it happens: a statement published, a document updated, a consent setting changed. Each entry is linked to the one before it. If anything in your history were ever altered or removed, the integrity check would show exactly where.
When a demand letter arrives, one click produces a dated PDF of everything: your published documents, your full history, and an integrity certificate your attorney can check. A fingerprint copy goes to your inbox at the same moment, so the record can be confirmed later by anyone who needs to.
The record documents the accessibility measures you've taken. It is not a legal opinion or a certification of WCAG conformance.
See Exactly What You're Paying For
Most accessibility tools solve one problem. Here's what it actually costs to piece together what Foundation membership in ADA Shield by Help Lawyer includes in one place.
Accessibility widget
Hosted, versioned accessibility statement
Conformance seal (accurate status, not "compliant")
Privacy Policy / Terms / Cookie Policy generator
Cookie consent banner + script tracking
Demand letter response template library (ADA and website tracking)
Tamper-evident activity record with independently verifiable export
Published annual price (as of Sept 2026)
Buying the widget and the policy tools separately: $519–$1,850+/year, before a demand letter template or audit trail exists anywhere in that stack. Foundation: $2,497/year for Foundation membership in ADA Shield by Help Lawyer, all of it in one place.
Third-party pricing reflects publicly published rates as of September 2026 and is subject to change without notice. Figures shown are ranges based on publicly available rate cards; enterprise or custom pricing may differ. See individual vendor sites for current pricing.
Questions about the Defense Ledger
What does “tamper-evident” mean?
Every entry is mathematically linked to the one before it. Changing or deleting any past entry breaks that link, and the integrity check shows where it broke.
Can I edit or delete an entry?
No. Nobody can, through the platform. If something needs correcting, a new dated entry records the correction and points to the original.
What about activity recorded before the integrity chain was added?
Earlier entries were sealed on the date the chain was introduced. Your export marks them clearly, and integrity is verified from that date forward.
Does the record guarantee a demand letter goes away?
No. It shows what you did and when, in a form your attorney can verify. How a claim resolves depends on its facts.
Is the AI Use Disclosure included in my membership?
Yes. It is part of Foundation, alongside your accessibility statement, privacy policy, terms and cookie policy.
Does publishing a disclosure satisfy every AI law?
No document can promise that. Your disclosure states plainly which AI tools you use and how visitors reach a person, and your record shows when you said it. What a particular law requires of your business depends on your circumstances. You can hire any attorney in the Help Lawyer network directly for advice on that.
We don’t use AI. Do we need this?
You can record that too. A dated statement that you use no customer-facing AI becomes part of your record, and you can update it the day that changes.
Why Restaurants Are Easy Targets
Food service drew 21% of 2025's web accessibility lawsuits (UsableNet, 2025 Year in Review).
Standing is easier to establish for a restaurant than many other business types. A visitor can claim they tried to view a menu, book a table, or place an order and could not.
A typical restaurant site concentrates three common failure points in one place: an online menu (often a scanned PDF image instead of readable text), a reservation system, and online ordering.
Courts have held a restaurant remains liable for accessibility failures even when the ordering or reservation system was built and is operated by a third-party vendor, not the restaurant itself.
Robles v. Domino's Pizza already closed off the argument that a restaurant's website isn't really part of the physical business. The Ninth Circuit held it is, and the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal, so that ruling stands.
This Could Be Your Business
These are real cases, from small shops to a national retailer, drawn from news reports and court records.
Greenberg Dental Associates
A legally blind plaintiff who uses a screen reader alleges he could not find or use this Florida dental practice's online appointment form. These are allegations in a federal complaint.
Filed April 16, 2025 in the Middle District of Florida, No. 6:25-cv-00665.
Source: Dr. Bicuspid
Sticky Rice
A legally blind plaintiff sued this Los Angeles restaurant, alleging its website was not accessible under the ADA. The owner described the court summons arriving in the mail.
ABC7 reported it as one of dozens of similar suits against Southern California businesses.
Source: ABC7 Los Angeles, January 2024
Robles v. Domino's Pizza
The Ninth Circuit held that a restaurant's website and mobile app are covered by the ADA as extensions of the physical restaurant. The claim: blind customers could not order food through the site using a screen reader.
The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in 2019, so the ruling stands as binding precedent.
Source: Robles v. Domino's Pizza, 913 F.3d 898 (9th Cir. 2019), cert. denied
West of Camden
The owner of this clothing store told ABC7 she had faced two separate lawsuits alleging her store's website violated the ADA, the second filed by a different plaintiff and attorney.
The owner said she planned to fight the second suit.
Fashion Nova
Web accessibility class action filed in 2020. Screen-reader users alleged they could not browse products or complete purchases.
Agreed to a $5.15 million class settlement in 2025. In February 2026 the DOJ asked the court to reject its terms.
Source: Bureau of Internet Accessibility; Law Office of Lainey Feingold; U.S. Department of Justice
“There was no warning… just this lawsuit out of the blue.”
— Erin Slattery, President & CEO, Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce
What's Built Into ADA Shield by Help Lawyer
A complete accessibility program — not just a widget, a documented system.
12-Feature Accessibility Widget
Text resizing, high contrast, dyslexia font, reading guide, motor navigation tools, and more — a full WCAG 2.1 AA toolbar that deploys to any website in minutes via a single script tag. Works on WordPress, Brilliant Directories, and any platform.
Legal Document Engine + Conformance Seal
Your accessibility statement, accommodation policy, privacy policy, terms, cookie policy, and website tracking disclosure, each generated from your profile in seconds, hosted at a permanent URL on adashield.org, and updated instantly. The seal reads "ALIGNED" only when alignment is demonstrated — never an unconditional "COMPLIANT" claim.
10 Demand Letter Response Templates
Self-serve response templates matched to letter type, for ADA accessibility claims (serial litigant, legitimate claim, DOJ complaint, unclear claim) and website tracking (CIPA) claims, plus a litigation hold notice for your staff and web vendor and a notice-of-claim letter for your insurer. Preview any template, copy it, or download it as a Word document.
Hosted + Embeddable Legal Documents
Every public document lives at a permanent adashield.org URL, publicly verifiable by any visitor. Embed any of them on your own site or link directly — both options included for every document. The web vendor addendum stays private, for your contract file.
Cookie Consent Module
A consent banner that holds non-essential scripts by category until the visitor chooses, logs each consent choice, and matches your brand — included at no extra cost.
Defense Ledger
Every statement version, published document, and demand letter logged adds to a dated history of your good-faith effort. If a claim arrives, that history lets you show what you did and when.
What's in the Document Suite
AI Transparency · Included in Foundation
Your website now has a second disclosure to make.
On August 2, 2026, the transparency rules in Article 50 of the EU AI Act began to apply. A business whose chatbot talks to visitors in Europe now has to tell them they are talking to a machine. Utah, Maine and California have their own bot disclosure laws, and the FTC has made clear that passing a bot off as a person can be a deceptive practice.
Most small businesses never set out to use AI. They installed a chat tool and the AI came with it. ADA Shield by Help Lawyer lets you declare each AI tool on your site, publishes a plain-language AI Use Disclosure, and writes every change into your Defense Ledger, alongside your accessibility history.
Declare
List the chatbots, voice agents and AI content tools you use, who supplies them, whether conversations are recorded, and how a visitor reaches a person.
Publish
Your AI Use Disclosure is hosted for you or embedded on your own site. When we revise the regional content for the places you serve, your disclosure is reissued with a new version number.
Record
Every declaration and every published version is dated and hash-linked in your Defense Ledger, and it appears in your Defense Export.
A chat window that a keyboard or screen reader user cannot operate is an accessibility problem in its own right. Your disclosure tells every visitor how to reach a person instead.
Visitors from outside the United States
A business with an international audience answers to more than US accessibility law. Breaches of the EU AI Act's transparency rules can draw fines of up to €15 million or 3% of worldwide annual turnover.¹ Your AI Use Disclosure carries regional sections for the jurisdictions you tell us you serve, and we revise them as the law moves.
¹ Regulation (EU) 2024/1689, Article 99(4). View the official text
If a demand letter arrives, you'll know what to do next
Most owners learn about website accessibility claims the hard way, with a letter and a deadline. ADA Shield by Help Lawyer gives you a step-by-step response for that moment, and keeps a dated record of everything you did.
Log the letter and set your response date. Reminders follow.
A snapshot of how your site looked that day is taken automatically.
Send the litigation hold and insurer notice from ready-made templates.
Answer five factual questions to match the letter to a response template, filled in with your details.
Bring in an attorney from the Help Lawyer network if you want one.
Download your full record as a PDF whenever you need it.
Engagements with attorneys are made directly between you and the attorney. ADA Shield by Help Lawyer is not a party to the engagement and does not provide legal advice.
ADA Shield by Help Lawyer is built by the Help Lawyer legal network
Help Lawyer is a global network of attorneys and legal experts. ADA Shield by Help Lawyer's accessibility program — statement language, response templates, and good-faith protocols — is shaped by practicing attorneys who handle ADA matters.
Learn more about Help LawyerTwo questions we hear every week
“We already have an accessibility widget. Isn’t that enough?”
No. In 2025, 24.9% of businesses sued for web accessibility already had an overlay installed (EcomBack 2025 Annual Report). In January 2025, the FTC ordered a major overlay vendor to pay $1 million for claiming its product could make any site accessible, when it could not reliably deliver on that promise. An overlay installs a toolbar. ADA Shield by Help Lawyer gives you a documented program — statement, seal, document suite, response templates, and a tamper-evident record.
“Will this stop us from getting a letter?”
No. Nothing can guarantee you will never receive a demand letter. What ADA Shield by Help Lawyer does is give you a dated, verifiable record of the measures you had in place before a letter arrives, and a step-by-step response for the day one does. That record is what your attorney can use to show good-faith effort — not a shield that prevents the letter from being sent.
Choose Your Tier
Two straightforward tiers. Request an invite and we'll follow up to get you set up.
Foundation
The complete documented record
- Accessibility widget for your website
- Hosted accessibility statement page with conformance seal
- Full document suite: accessibility statement, accommodation policy, privacy policy, terms, cookie policy, tracking disclosure, and web vendor addendum, with version history
- AI Use Disclosure with regional content, recorded in your Defense Ledger
- 10 self-serve response templates, including a litigation hold notice and an insurer notice
- Cookie consent banner
- Document Coverage tracking
Managed
Foundation plus scanning and reporting
- Everything in Foundation
- Monthly automated accessibility scan
- Branded PDF scan report
- Custom reporting
Managed tier is in development. Join the waitlist to be notified at launch.
Response templates and documents are self-serve starting points. You review, customize, and send or publish them yourself. They are not reviewed or drafted for you, and ADA Shield by Help Lawyer does not provide legal advice or legal services.
Need legal counsel? You can engage any attorney in the Help Lawyer network directly. Find a Help Lawyer attorney
Need help installing the widget?
Our team can set up ADA Shield by Help Lawyer directly on your website for you — widget installation, statement embedding, and cookie consent configuration — for a small additional fee. Just mention it in your request and we'll include it in your setup.
An Investment, Not Just an Expense
ADA Shield by Help Lawyer may cost less than you think after tax benefits.
Ordinary Business Expense
Subscription costs for accessibility and business software are deductible in full under IRC Section 162 as an ordinary and necessary business expense — the same category as any other operating tool your business relies on.
This is general tax information, not tax advice. Confirm your specific treatment with your accountant or tax preparer.
IRS Disabled Access Credit
Up to $5,000/yr
IRS Form 8826 (Section 44) lets eligible small businesses claim 50% of eligible accessibility expenditures between $250 and $10,250 — every year expenses are incurred.
Eligible: gross receipts of $1M or less, or 30 or fewer full-time employees in the prior year.
Source: IRS Form 8826, Section 44 (Disabled Access Credit)
Not tax advice. Consult a qualified tax professional to confirm your eligibility and file IRS Form 8826.
ADA Shield by Help Lawyer provides tools to support web accessibility efforts and to help document a good-faith accessibility program. It does not guarantee that your website meets any specific accessibility standard, that you will not receive a demand letter or be named in a lawsuit, or that any legal claim will be resolved favorably. Statistics referenced on this page are drawn from third-party industry sources and describe industry-wide trends, not a prediction for your business. ADA Shield by Help Lawyer is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice.
Questions business owners ask
Request Invite
Tell us about your organization. We'll review your request and follow up.
Every request is reviewed personally before access is granted — this isn't an automated signup. We do this to make sure ADA Shield by Help Lawyer is genuinely the right fit for your organization before you're set up.