There's a certain irony in a wellness practice receiving a disability access complaint. Chiropractors treat patients with chronic pain, mobility limitations, and physical impairments — and yet many chiropractic websites are themselves inaccessible to people with disabilities trying to book an appointment.
If you've received an ADA demand letter, that irony doesn't matter right now. What matters is responding correctly.
What Is This Letter?
An ADA website demand letter is a pre-litigation notice from a plaintiff law firm. It claims your website violates the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards — specifically, that your site is inaccessible to people who use screen readers, keyboard navigation, or other assistive technology.
These letters are sent in volume by a handful of specialized plaintiff firms. In 2025, over 8,800 federal ADA website lawsuits were filed — up 37% from the previous year. Healthcare and wellness practices, including chiropractic offices, are a current growth vertical for these firms.
The letter is a real legal document with a deadline. It is not a scam. Ignoring it typically results in a federal lawsuit being filed without further notice.
The Irony That Actually Helps You
Chiropractic patients often include people with disabilities — chronic pain patients, injury recovery cases, people with limited mobility. Many of your actual patients may be exactly the population protected by the ADA.
This context doesn't create additional liability. In fact, it reinforces why taking the matter seriously — and documenting that you did — is the right response. A chiropractor who can show they immediately assessed their site, contacted their developer, and initiated remediation is in a materially different position than one who waited three weeks to respond.
Step 1: Contact an ADA Attorney (Not a General Business Attorney)
ADA Title III digital accessibility is a specialized practice area. Your business attorney can handle many things — this is not one of them unless they have direct experience with digital ADA cases. An ADA specialist will know:
- Whether the plaintiff firm has a pattern of volume filing
- The realistic settlement range for a single-location practice
- The fastest path to resolution that doesn't create additional exposure
Step 2: Get a Dated Assessment of Your Website — Before You Fix Anything
This is counterintuitive: do not fix your website before you've documented what's wrong.
A dated accessibility assessment — run immediately after receiving the letter — creates a record of good faith. It shows that you became aware of the issue, assessed it seriously, and initiated remediation. Courts and opposing counsel consider this.
If you remediate violations before documenting them, you lose that record. You'll have a more accessible website but less evidence of good-faith effort — and that matters in negotiations.
The date on the assessment matters. Running it within 48 hours of receiving the letter is significantly more valuable than running it two weeks later.
Get a dated ADA Exposure Assessment for your chiropractic website
60-second scan. Dated PDF you can keep on file. No credit card.
Scan your website free →Step 3: Contact Your Website Developer in Writing
Email your web developer or marketing agency now. In writing. Ask for:
- A written list of the accessibility violations on your site
- A remediation plan with a timeline
- Confirmation of what accessibility standard they build to
Send this today. Keep the reply thread. This email chain is part of your documented good-faith response.
Most chiropractor websites were built by a local marketing agency or a chiropractic-specific platform (PatientSites, Perfect Patients, Practice Momentum, etc.). These providers typically did not include accessibility compliance as part of their standard offering. That's their problem too — and they should be responsive when you ask.
The Violations That Typically Appear on Chiropractic Websites
Chiropractic practice websites tend to share similar violation patterns:
Unlabeled appointment forms The online booking or new patient intake form is almost always the primary complaint in demand letters. Form fields labeled only by placeholder text (which disappears when you click) are a clear WCAG failure.
Missing alt text Staff photos, office photos, treatment area images, chiropractic anatomy diagrams — every image needs descriptive alt text for screen reader users.
Color contrast failures Many chiropractic websites use earth tones, navy, or dark green palettes. Light text on these backgrounds often fails minimum contrast ratios, affecting low-vision patients.
Video content without captions If your site includes video — testimonials, treatment explanations, office tours — captions are required. Most practice videos don't have them.
Keyboard inaccessibility Popup chat widgets, sticky scheduling buttons, and dropdown navigation menus that require a mouse to operate are barriers for keyboard-only users.
What Happens After Your Attorney Responds?
Most small chiropractic practice ADA website cases resolve in one of three ways:
Monetary settlement — the plaintiff drops the claim in exchange for payment ($3,000–$15,000 is typical for a single-location practice) plus a commitment to remediate.
Remediation-only agreement — some firms accept a signed remediation plan without a monetary payment when the practice shows strong documentation of good-faith response.
Dismissal — rare, but possible when the claim lacks merit or the plaintiff firm decides the case isn't worth pursuing.
Your documentation — dated scan, written developer correspondence, remediation plan — is your strongest leverage in pushing toward option 2 instead of option 1.
48-Hour Checklist
- ✅ Note the deadline in the letter
- ✅ Contact an ADA Title III specialist attorney
- ✅ Get a dated accessibility assessment today — do not fix anything first
- ✅ Email your web developer requesting a remediation plan in writing
- ✅ Do not post about the letter on your practice's social media or Google Business page
- ✅ Do not ignore it
This article is general information, not legal advice. Consult a qualified ADA attorney for guidance specific to your practice.