8,667 ADA Lawsuits Were Filed in 2025. Here's What That Means for Your WooCommerce Store
If you run a WooCommerce store, you've probably heard that websites get sued over accessibility. You may have dismissed it as something that happens to big companies. The numbers say otherwise.
Seyfarth's final 2025 report counted 8,667 ADA Title III federal filings in 2025. California, Florida, and New York led the pack — 3,252, 1,823, and 1,471 filings respectively. Of those, 3,117 were website-accessibility cases specifically, up 27% year over year.
Let that sink in: website accessibility lawsuits grew by more than a quarter in a single year, and they're still growing.
Why small stores get targeted
Plaintiff firms work on volume. Testing a website for missing alt text or an unlabeled checkout button takes minutes with automated tools. A small store with a standard WooCommerce theme has the same common issues as a big one — and settles just as quietly.
The typical targets aren't Fortune 500 companies. They're stores doing real revenue with off-the-shelf themes nobody ever audited.
What actually gets stores in trouble
The complaints cite the same handful of issues over and over:
- Images with no alt text (product photos a screen reader can't describe)
- Buttons and links with no accessible name (icon-only "add to cart" or checkout buttons)
- Form fields with no labels (the checkout flow is the worst offender)
- Missing page language declarations
- Keyboard traps — places a keyboard-only user can't get past
These aren't exotic edge cases. They're the default state of most WooCommerce installs.
What to do about it
You have three options, honestly ranked:
- Fix the common issues. Most of the cited problems are mechanical and fixable — missing labels, missing alt text, missing language attributes. This is what EqualFix's free plugin handles automatically: it scans your site, shows you every finding with its WCAG reference, and auto-fixes the safe ones.
- Get a human audit for the rest. Contrast ratios, heading structure, and complex interactions need human judgment. No plugin does this — anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
- Keep records. If you're ever questioned, a dated remediation report showing what was found and fixed is worth more than any "compliance badge."
The honest caveat
No tool — ours included — can guarantee legal compliance or prevent a lawsuit. What you can do is fix the obvious issues, document the work, and keep monitoring as your site changes. That's what moves you from "negligent" to "demonstrably trying," and it's the best position a store owner can be in.
EqualFix scans your WordPress site for common accessibility issues and auto-fixes the safe ones. The free plugin includes a full audit — scan your site to see where you stand.