Presented by AudioEye
In 2020, a blind customer named Juan Alcazar filed a lawsuit against Fashion Nova, alleging that the company’s website was inaccessible and denied blind customers the same access as everyone else.
This was, in many ways, a typical web accessibility lawsuit. One of several filed in federal court that year. Most ended the same way: management distraction, pledges to fix access issues, legal fees and then a five-figure settlement.
But this matter did not calm down. Fashion Nova countered.
After five years and more than 200 filings, they agreed to pay $5.15 million to settle the case that had become a class action lawsuit. The claim grew from a single complaint into the second-largest reachable settlement on record, surpassing Target’s $6 million settlement in 2008.
It’s a stark reminder of how quickly access claims can escalate, and why every business leader must consider that risk as real, immediate, and solvable.
Access lawsuits are on the rise. So there is risk also.
Since 2020, the number of web accessibility lawsuits has steadily increased. In 2024, more than 4,000 lawsuits were filed in the United States. And these are the cases that reach the court. Behind the scenes, demand letters are even more prevalent, with several sources including Accessibility.com estimating that over 250,000 letters are sent to businesses annually.
Often, these suits rely on common accessibility issues, such as missing alt text or unlabeled forms. Under laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, plaintiffs are not required to prove intent or significant harm. Just facing one obstacle is enough.
Accessibility compliance is not just a US issue. The European Accessibility Act (EAA) came into effect in July 2025, expanding accessibility obligations to any business offering digital products or services in the EU, including companies based outside the EU, impacting global brands.
And while many believe that only large companies are subject to legal risk, in 2024, nearly three-quarters of web accessibility lawsuits targeted small and medium-sized businesses.
For billion-dollar brands like Fashion Nova, there’s always the option to investigate and contest an accessibility claim. However, for small businesses, the risk of a lengthy legal battle and substantial settlement may be too high. Early settlement is often regarded as the ‘safer’ option – a fact that companies specializing in litigation are very well aware of.
Make accessibility the first line of defense
There is a pattern to accessibility lawsuits: Once a company is sued, it is more likely to be sued again. Accessibility.com also reports that in 2024, 48% of defendants had previously been sued for web accessibility barriers.
That’s why smart risk management isn’t just about planning how to respond. It’s all about reducing the chances of being on someone’s radar in the first place. And this starts with the process of finding and fixing accessibility issues before they are brought to attention in a demand letter or legal claim:
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establish a baseline Increasing website reach using automated scans with human reviews.
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Give priority to high-severity issuesOr those most likely to provoke a claim, and address them immediately.
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monitor continuously Websites to find and fix problems before they become liabilities.
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document progress To prove ongoing improvement if questioned.
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integrate access Making accessibility part of the organizational culture, in everyday workflows.
A scalable approach to accessibility compliance
AudioEye’s 2025 Digital Accessibility Index analyzed over 15,000 websites across a variety of industries. The average site had 297 accessibility issues per page – Including serious issues like unlabeled buttons or broken form fields.
Fixing some accessibility issues may seem manageable. But when there are dozens of web pages, each with hundreds of unique issues, this quickly becomes an operational nightmare.
The biggest challenge is serving customers while solving the myriad of accessibility issues. Relying on developers to find and fix hundreds of issues per page is challenging enough. Yet, teams also have to grapple with the fact that each site update inadvertently presents the chance to introduce new obstacles. Automation helps, but no automated tool can find and fix everything (no matter what some accessibility companies claim in their marketing campaigns).
The most effective approaches blend automation and human expertise:
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Scale detection and prevention: Let automation do the heavy lifting, scanning sites in real time and fixing new issues as they arise.
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Deal with complex fixes: Rely on experts to test core pages and fix high-risk issues that automation can’t handle on its own.
With these pieces in place, organizations can prevent serious access issues from escalating, as well as make sites more secure from legal claims. This is risk management in action: not chasing after the fact, but planning ahead with the right tools, expertise and processes.
the cost of doing nothing
Even the smallest web accessibility claim can disrupt businesses. Settlements can range from a few thousand dollars to six figures. Yet, the real costs extend beyond this: legal fees, time taken to resolve issues, and executive attention diverted from other priorities.
And then there’s the big risk: growth. Alcazar v. Fashion Nova, Inc. Won’t be the last big accessibility compromise. However, it serves as a stark reminder of what can happen when an access claim escalates into something bigger.
The companies that best manage risk are not perfect. But they know where they stand. They can show progress. And when a claim comes in, they know how to respond.
Today, accessibility won’t seem like a risk. But if organizations wait until this happens, it may already be too late.
Treat it as it is: a business risk worth managing – before it becomes a business risk that can’t be ignored.
David Moradi is the CEO of AudioEye.
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