Should You Be Afraid of a Web Accessibility Lawsuit?

You’re working hard to increase enrollment in a time that higher education is struggling. Between managing brand reputation, focusing on recruitment, and closely watching your return on ad spend, you’ve got a lot on your plate. But have you been paying attention to the accessibility of all of the marketing assets you’re creating? If you haven’t, a web accessibility lawsuit will open your eyes.

This happens a lot. Great marketers work hard to create content that reaches their target audience but fall short on accessibility. When your content isn’t accessible to people with disabilities, you’re missing up to 28.7% of your potential students.

The worst-case scenario? That digital content gets you sued for not being accessible to everyone.

Do you really need to worry? The short answer: yes. In July 2026 alone, 401 new web accessibility lawsuits were filed, some against repeat plaintiffs or those who use overlay tools. Multiple web accessibility laws apply to your organization, in and outside the US. While you can be sued, you can also be fined by the government for not meeting WCAG standards.

Before you go too far down the rabbit hole, I want to make one thing super clear: your need for an accessible website goes far beyond legal requirements.

In this article, we’ll break down the basic web accessibility laws and what they require, the human need for accessibility, and how to move from fear to knowing you’re reaching everyone.

US web accessibility laws are still somewhat uncertain. Title II of the ADA includes a new Part H that was supposed to take effect in April 2026. Just days before, the DOJ delayed the requirements by a year. This has caused confusion, and everyone from local governments to federally funded organizations thought they had more time to become compliant.

That’s incorrect.

While Title II Part H enforcement was delayed, you are still required to provide reasonable accommodations under the ADA. Part H solidified the standards you needed to meet, but the requirements still exist. Judges are still allowing lawsuits to proceed, which means your university is still at risk.

Web accessibility lawsuits are rising, too. Filings increased 27% from 2024 to 2025. Many of these are filed not in the state where the organization is located, but in states like New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota. While you can be located in Kansas, Missouri, or Georgia, you can be sued from anywhere.

Speaking of which, if you recruit or have a presence in other countries, you may be subject to their web accessibility laws, too. The UK has the Equality Act and the EU’s European Accessibility Act (EAA) just went into full effect last year. Your website needs to comply if people can access it and you are actively “selling” to those countries.

How do you ensure that you’re complying with all of these laws? Your website and all digital content need to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

While you must meet international standards now, you must comply with Part H by a certain date. For institutions in larger cities (over 50,000), your deadline is April 2027. Institutions in smaller cities must comply by April 2028.

Again, this applies only to the DOJ. They will not enforce Part H until these dates. You can still be sued under the ADA and Section 508.

If you work for a private university, your requirements differ slightly. Because you don’t receive federal funding, you do not need to meet ADA Title II. However, your website and digital content must be accessible according to Title III of the ADA and Section 504.

The best bet to ensure you’re protected? Comply with WCAG 2.1 Level AA, which is the current international standard.

I’ve been hearing a lot lately about lawyers who file repeat accessibility suits. Like privacy suits, these feel to some like a way for the plaintiffs to make a quick buck.

Take Missouri, which saw an increase in accessibility suits and passed a controversial new law. Missouri’s Act Against Abusive Website or Web Content Access Litigation is supposed to ensure business owners get time (90 days) to respond to complaints and address issues on their website. If they’ve been addressing items “in good faith,” they escape liability. The other side of this new law is that the Missouri Attorney General may file a civil action against any party, attorney, or law firm that initiates potentially abusive litigation alleging “meritless” ADA violations related to website or web content accessibility. A judge can then decide whether these repeat suits aim for a payout or better accessibility.

While I think businesses and organizations should be given time to address web accessibility issues, some law firms naturally specialize in certain types of litigation. One firm may file multiple, similar lawsuits within a year. This also shortsightedly claims that there are “meritless” ADA violations.

If you’re being sued or have received a warning letter about ADA violations on your website, you have web accessibility issues.

While many of these firms use automated scanners that catch the easiest accessibility issues to address, they also represent real, live human beings who tried to use your website.

At the beginning of this article, we talked about the fact that 28.7% of adults in the US have some kind of disability. This can be anything from being blind, to hard of hearing or deaf, to having color blindness, to having ADHD, or even temporary issues like broken arms. Regardless of their abilities, if your website isn’t fully accessible, it’s harder for almost a third of your target audience to use.

While many marketers, web designers, and even accessibility experts get caught up in legal compliance, accessibility isn’t about that. It’s about ensuring that every single one of your potential students, donors, alumni, or local community members can visit, use, and understand your full website. If they can’t, you’re losing money.

While I firmly believe that you should make your website accessible because it helps other humans, I get that you need to justify the budget.

Without an accessible website, you’re negatively affecting your entire marketing strategy. You’ll see problems like:

• Lower enrollment rates: If a prospective student can’t navigate your website, understand the content, or read those color combinations, they won’t request information, visit campus, or even apply.
• Damage to your brand: It’s hard to claim that you offer an inclusive campus experience for everyone when your digital front door excludes many of your students.
• SEO consequences: Google and other search engines, including AI tools, favor accessible content structure. Semantic HTML, proper heading hierarchy, ALT text, and more help people find your website. Inaccessible sites hurt your organic visibility.

What a lot of businesses get wrong about web accessibility lawsuits is that you just need to apply a one-time fix. Compliance isn’t a one-time audit and accessibility remediation. It’s an ongoing process that your team needs to follow every time they create digital content.

Your website needs to be created correctly, on an accessible foundation. But your content team needs to maintain everything. Every new blog post, landing page, video, PDF, image, and other daily content needs to comply your entire website is compromised.

You can stop worrying about compliance and create inclusive content. And no, you do not need to be a lawyer, developer, or website expert. You just need the right process.

With our Creating Accessible Content course, you’ll get our exact process for adding regular website content. You’ll get our exact checklist, learn how to follow it, understand why we do certain things, and see examples from some of the largest website platforms.

Want to be the first to get access? Join our waitlist. It’s time to stop worrying and start learning, without watching hours of videos that leave you confused.