Every year thousands of US businesses are sued because a blind or low-vision customer could not use their website. California is one of the top states for these cases, and restaurants are a favorite target. This guide explains why, and what actually lowers your risk. It is general information, not legal advice.
Why California in particular
The federal Department of Justice says the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to what businesses offer on the web. On top of that, California's Unruh Civil Rights Act sets minimum damages of $4,000 per violation, plus attorney's fees. That minimum is a big reason so many cases are filed here.
UsableNet's year-end count found more than 5,000 digital accessibility lawsuits in 2025. Food service was the second most-sued industry after online stores, and most defendants were small businesses, not big chains. Many businesses were sued more than once.
Accessibility widgets do not fix it
You may have seen the little accessibility icon some sites add, sold as "instant ADA compliance". UsableNet reports that sites with these overlays kept getting sued throughout 2025. In April 2025 the FTC ordered one of the best-known overlay companies to pay $1 million and stop claiming its tool can make any website compliant. Do not rely on one.
What courts and plaintiffs look at
There is no single official checklist for private businesses, but the standard everyone points to is WCAG (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), level AA. The basics:
- Text people can read: enough contrast between text and background.
- Descriptions on images (alt text), so screen readers can say what the picture shows.
- Forms with visible labels and clear error messages.
- Keyboard use: everything works without a mouse, and you can see where you are on the page.
- Menus as real text, not a photo or a PDF. This one catches a lot of restaurants.
- Captions on videos, and nothing that plays sound by itself.
- Text that can be zoomed to 200% without breaking the page.
Watch the add-ons
Booking, ordering and chat widgets from other companies can fail these checks even when your site passes. Test them, and pick vendors that take accessibility seriously.
A sensible plan
- Run the free Lighthouse check in Chrome (Developer Tools, Lighthouse, Accessibility) on your main pages.
- Try your site with only the keyboard: Tab, Enter, arrows.
- Put your menu, prices and hours on the page as text.
- Add an accessibility page with a way to contact you if someone has trouble.
- Check again whenever the site changes.
Nobody can honestly promise "lawsuit-proof". A site built to these basics, and kept that way, is in a far better position than one with a widget bolted on.