ADA demand letter
An ADA demand letter is a pre-litigation notice from a plaintiff (often via a serial-plaintiff law firm) alleging that a website violates ADA Title III and demanding remediation plus a settlement payment, typically within 30-60 days.
Detailed explanation
Demand letters are the dominant enforcement mechanism for ADA Title III website cases — most cases settle pre-litigation. A typical letter cites specific WCAG criteria failures the plaintiff observed, demands accessibility fixes within a stated window, and proposes a settlement (typically $5,000-$25,000 for small/mid-size ecommerce sites).
Ignoring a demand letter typically results in a federal complaint being filed in the plaintiff's preferred jurisdiction (often the Southern District of New York, given New York's plaintiff-friendly procedural posture). Once a federal complaint is filed, defense costs rise substantially even if the case settles early.
How this applies to Shopify stores
Most ADA demand letters against Shopify stores cite the same six failures: missing alt text, low contrast, missing form labels, keyboard inaccessibility, missing skip-nav, and improper heading order. AccessComply detects all six and remediates them in source code, eliminating the most-cited grounds in any plaintiff's opening complaint.
Primary source: ada.gov