We received an ADA demand letter about our restaurant's website. What should we do first?

What the letter is about. A letter may name the parts of a site the sender could not use. Read yours for what it alleges. Restaurants, bars and hotels are listed in the ADA as places of public accommodation (42 U.S.C. § 12181(7)). In 2019 a federal appeals court held that the ADA covered a pizza chain's website and app because they connect customers to its restaurants (Robles v. Domino's Pizza, 9th Cir., January 15, 2019); the Supreme Court declined to review it on October 7, 2019 (docket 18-1539).

What the law provides. Under federal law a private person can ask a court to order the barrier fixed (42 U.S.C. § 12188(a), which applies § 2000a-3(a)), and the court may award the winning side its attorney's fees (42 U.S.C. § 12205). In California, where a claim is brought under the Unruh Act, its Civil Rights Department says damages are no less than US$4,000 per offense, plus fees (CRD). Which of these applies to you is your lawyer's question.

What your lawyer will likely ask for.

• The letter, and the date it arrived.
• Your site's address, who built it, who hosts it, and who can change it.
• The outside platforms behind reservations, ordering, gift cards and events.
• Anything done for accessibility before: audits, fixes, a statement.

What a technical audit adds. A list of each barrier, mapped to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which the Department of Justice points to as helpful guidance (DOJ). A person has to do it: W3C, which writes WCAG, says evaluation tools alone cannot determine whether a site is accessible (W3C WAI).

About widgets. In 2025 the FTC alleged that one widget maker's claim that its tool could make any site compliant was false or unsupported; the final order requires a US$1 million payment and bars the claim without evidence (FTC, April 22, 2025).