You received a website accessibility demand letter. Do this, in this order.

Speak to an attorney first, fix the website quickly second, and do not reply to the letter yourself. That is the whole answer; the rest of this article is why, and what “fix quickly” actually involves. We are a web studio, not a law firm, so nothing here is legal advice — but we have been on the technical end of enough of these to know what helps your attorney and what wastes a week.

What the letter usually is

Most website accessibility demand letters are formulaic. A law firm has run an automated scanner across many sites, yours failed on a set of criteria, and a letter has gone out citing the ADA, listing some of the failures, and proposing a settlement. The failures listed are often real; the letter is also often the first in a batch of hundreds. Neither of those facts tells you what to do, which is why the first call is to a lawyer.

Step one: attorney

Find one who has handled ADA website claims specifically. They will tell you whether and how to respond, what the realistic range of outcomes is in your state, and what evidence will help. Do not email or call the firm that sent the letter yourself. Anything you say, including “we didn’t know”, becomes part of the record.

Step two: preserve, then fix

Before anything is changed, take a full copy of the site as it stands: a backup plus screenshots or an archive of the key pages. Your attorney may want to show what was and was not true on the date of the letter. Then fix the site, fast. Remediation while a claim is open is not an admission; it is what every attorney we have worked with asks for, because a fixed site changes the conversation.

“Fix” means the code, not a widget. Contrast, text alternatives for images, form labels, keyboard operation, visible focus, heading structure, captions on video, error messages that say what went wrong. Get it audited against WCAG 2.1 AA by a person as well as a scanner, fix the failures, retest, and keep the before-and-after evidence in a form your attorney can use.

Step three: statement and process

Publish an accessibility statement: the standard you aim for, what has been done, what is in progress, and a contact route for anyone who hits a barrier. Then put a process behind it so the site does not drift back: monitoring on new pages, and someone responsible for responding to accessibility requests. This is the part that turns a one-off fix into a defensible position.

What to avoid

Do not install an overlay widget as your response. It does not make the site compliant, it does not fix the listed failures, and firms have successfully sued sites running them. Do not delete pages in a panic; a site with half its content gone is not more accessible. And do not ignore the letter on the theory that it is a scam. Some are opportunistic; that is a legal judgement for your attorney, not a reason to do nothing.

Where we fit

Our audit and remediation service is built for exactly this: a WCAG 2.1 AA audit by a person and a scanner, the fixes on your existing WordPress, Shopify or WooCommerce site, a retest with evidence, and the accessibility statement published, usually within two to three weeks from $1,200. We work directly with your attorney and hand over the documentation they ask for. We will not give you legal advice, and we would not want you relying on a web studio for it.