2025 Digital Accessibility Lawsuits: What Changed and What to Do Now

Digital accessibility lawsuits didn’t slow down in 2025. Instead, they became more predictable, more automated, and more concentrated in the e-commerce industry. If you’ve ever been sued, installed an “overlay” widget, or sell merchandise online (especially at scale), 2025 provided a clear message: accessibility is now a repeatable legal playbook, and plaintiffs are refining it.

At Splash Box Marketing, we help teams remediate and maintain accessible websites and documents – including PDFs, Word documents, Excel sheets, PowerPoints, and more – with a practical, “fix what matters” approach. This article will fully unpack the trends we saw emerge and expand in 2025, as well as how to reduce your exposure to legal risk.

The 2025 Lawsuit Count: 5,114 Digital Cases

A major year-end tally of digital-only cases (websites, apps, video) report 5,114 lawsuits in 2025 across federal and state courts. One of the most striking points from the data is the volume of cases compared to the industries that were targeted, notably the e-commerce industry.

E-commerce drove the majority of cases, representing roughly 70% of all cases. If your business sells online, that means you’re in the highest-risk category. Even more telling is that over one-third of the top e-commerce retailers received at least one lawsuit. Accessibility risk is no longer limited to “big brands” or “bad actors.” It’s a broad sweep that applies to everyone.

Repeat Defendants Increase: Settling Once Won’t Reset Your Risk

Nearly half of federal cases targeted companies that had already been sued before. This confirms what we see while remediating for our clients:

• A settlement is not the finish line; full accessibility compliance is.

• Plaintiff firms often monitor prior defendants and will sue again.

• f remediation is incomplete (or not maintained), you may find yourself facing another lawsuit.

If you’ve been sued before, your best defense is documented remediation and ongoing monitoring. Accessibility isn’t a one-time project; it’s a process.

AI Is Filing Lawsuits (Yes, Really)

In 2025, federal “pro se” ADA lawsuits – lawsuits that are filed without an attorney –  significantly increased. How do we know these lawsuits are filed with AI? Namely because they cite non-existent cases and are produced faster than any attorney would be able to produce them.

How does this affect your business?

• Pro se filers create volume fast.

• Even weak complaints apply financial pressure to mount a defense.

• The goal may be pressure and settlement, rather than a lengthy court battle.

It’s important to remember that accessibility isn’t just a legal issue. When we treat accessibility as a risk reduction, reputation increasing, and customer experience issue, we are finally able to fix the underlying barriers to full compliance. 

Overlays and Widgets: 2025 Made the Case Against Them Louder

Lawsuits focused on accessibility widgets and overlays continued throughout 2025, including months with very high case counts. Two things are now hard to ignore:

1. Regulators have consistently challenged claims that overlays and widgets create compliance.

2. Real-world lawsuits prove that overlays and widgets don’t prevent you from being sued.

Ultimately, installing a widget or an overlay can signal that you knew there was an accessibility problem. If the site is still inaccessible underneath, this can work against you. If you’re considering an overlay or a widget, pause. The safer path is:

• Audit the real user experience, focusing on keyboard and screen reader functionality.

• Fix code-level issues.

• Remediate templates and components.

• Train content editors so issues don’t reappear.

WCAG Deadlines Are Close – But Still Shifting

For state and local governments, the quickly approaching WCAG 2.1 AA deadline is April 24, 2026. Even with uncertainty in how rules are finalized or interpreted, public-sector teams should:

• Plan ahead to meet the deadline, even if things change or shift.

• Procurement and renewals will increasingly include accessibility requirements.

• Vendors will be asked to prove their compliance, not just claim it.

If you serve public-sector clients, now is the time to:

• Identify your highest-traffic pages and critical workflows.

• Remediate your most-used PDFs and forms.

• Create a comprehensive accessibility maintenance plan rather than a quick, one-time fix.

Europe: EAA Enforcement Is Live, And You May Be Included

The European Accessibility Act (EAA) became enforceable in 2025 and applies to businesses selling to EU consumers, even if you’re based in the U.S. If your products or services reach the EU, accessibility is not optional. Enforcement activity has already started.

Your Practical Checklist for Next Steps

If you want to reduce legal exposure and improve customer experience, focus on what actually moves the needle:

1. Get an accessibility audit that includes manual testing. Avoid automated scans as they can be unreliable or incorrect.

2. Remediate the underlying site and document issues. Avoid taking the easy way out with widgets and overlays.

3. Fix repeat offenders: navigation, forms, modals, headings, contrast, PDFs, and alt text.

4. Create a maintenance plan. Make sure to have a plan for ensuring new content and features meet accessibility standards.

5. Document your work to show what’s been tested, what’s been fixed, and what remains.

Need help? Splash Box Can Help with Web and Document Accessibility

Here at Splash Box Marketing, we have years of experience supporting organizations in achieving full accessibility. We specialize in:

• Website accessibility reviews and remediation support

• Section 508 and WCAG-aligned document remediation (PDFs, Word documents, Excel sheets, PowerPoints, etc.)

• Large-font and alternate-format document conversion

• Alt text workflows (including high-volume image extraction from PDFs)

If you want, tell us what you’re working with (platform/CMS, number of templates, and whether PDFs are part of your workflow), and we’ll recommend the fastest path to meaningful compliance. Get started with us today by emailing info@splashbox.com.