# esther.ai > Esther finds the digital barriers on your websites and documents, ranks first the ones that stop someone paying, applying, or booking, and dates every finding. - Book a thirty-minute introduction: https://calendar.app.google/Vgp5ff9ADZdaKMTE8 - Email: info@esther.ai ## Pages - [ADA compliance risk, measured and documented over time](https://esther.ai): Esther finds the digital barriers on your websites and documents, ranks first the ones that stop someone paying, applying, or booking, and dates every finding. - [What an ADA demand letter asks for](https://esther.ai/demand-letter): An ADA demand letter usually asks for changes to the website, the claimant's legal fees and costs, and a quick settlement, by a stated date. Settling one usually costs $20,000 or more. What you can show in reply is a dated record. - [About Esther: why it exists and who is behind it](https://esther.ai/about): Why Esther exists, what it does, and the people behind it: Rick Hensbergen, founder and CEO, and Ash Harris, a web accessibility specialist of twenty years. - [A thirty-minute introduction](https://esther.ai/contact): Thirty minutes on your situation, and where to begin. We listen first, and pricing is part of the conversation. - [Roadmap: Esther's work since 2023, with dates](https://esther.ai/roadmap): When Esther began, its first recorded assessment, the record it keeps of its own website, and the rule that decides what it measures next. - [ADA Title II web rule for state and local government](https://esther.ai/for-government): State and local government has a federal date for its websites and apps: April 2027 or April 2028. Which date is yours, what the rule covers, and a plan a council can fund. - [ADA compliance for websites, apps, and documents](https://esther.ai/ada-compliance): ADA compliance covers your website, apps, forms, and documents, including systems a vendor runs. Esther ranks what matters first and keeps a dated record. - [ADA compliance for PDFs and files](https://esther.ai/published-documents): PDFs, fillable forms, and Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files are part of ADA compliance. A form can pass an automated check and still stop someone from finishing it. - [Privacy policy](https://esther.ai/privacy): What the esther.ai website collects, why it collects it, who else receives it, and how long it is kept. - [Terms of use](https://esther.ai/terms): The terms for using the esther.ai website: what its pages are, how they may be used and shared, and who owns them. - [Accessibility statement](https://esther.ai/accessibility): The accessibility standard the esther.ai website is built to, how it is tested, and where to report a barrier. - [How ADA accessibility findings are ranked](https://esther.ai/intelligence): Esther ranks every digital barrier by the urgency of what it blocks and by what courts and regulators have required of others, and dates every finding. - [ADA website compliance for businesses and nonprofits](https://esther.ai/for-business): No regulation sets a date for most private organizations, and ADA website claims are filed every week. Where to look first, and the dated record a claim asks for. - [ADA website settlements and orders, with citations](https://esther.ai/precedent): What public bodies, businesses, and vendors have been required to do over websites, apps, and documents, from the records themselves, with citations. - [What Contrast Does Website Text Need to Be Readable?](https://esther.ai/what-contrast-does-website-text-need): Ordinary text needs a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1. What the bar is, who faint text affects, and how to tell in a few minutes whether your own site clears it. - [Where Accessibility Barriers Cluster on Typical Websites](https://esther.ai/where-accessibility-barriers-cluster): Websites rarely fail at random. Over 90 days, visibility and structure issues concentrated most risk, on nearly every site Esther assessed. - [How to Check If Your Website Is Accessible](https://esther.ai/how-to-check-if-your-website-is-accessible): Three barriers Esther found on a third or more of government websites can be checked in minutes, without a specialist. Here is the check for each. - [Who is affected by inaccessible government websites?](https://esther.ai/who-is-affected-by-inaccessible-government-websites): The most common barriers on government websites fall on people with low vision and people who use screen readers, at the first page and at the form. - [How much work is it to fix website accessibility?](https://esther.ai/how-much-work-to-fix-website-accessibility): A typical site carries nearly 1,800 accessibility barriers that trace back to 34 distinct changes. Here is what the evidence shows, and why the work is finite. --- ## Digital risk, measured and documented over time. URL: https://esther.ai Your record has never been challenged. That can change this afternoon. For risks such as ADA compliance, you need to know: what has to be fixed, what matters first, who owns it, and proof you are making progress. Esther finds. Esther ranks. Esther records. ### Will your record stand up? - **A demand letter arrives::** usually without warning, and it asks for a response by a stated date. ([What a demand letter asks for](https://esther.ai/demand-letter)) - **A federal agency opens a review::** under a rule, or under the terms of your funding. - **Counsel asks what you can produce::** before anything is filed, and the answer shapes what happens next. Each one comes down to the same three things: what you found, what you put first, and what has been resolved since. A record answers all three. > **$1,000,000** (Federal Trade Commission · April 2025) > An order required accessiBe, the maker of an accessibility product, to pay $1,000,000. It bars the company from claiming that its product can make any website comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or keep a website compliant as its content changes, without competent and reliable evidence. > Source: In the Matter of accessiBe Inc. and accessiBe Ltd. · Federal Trade Commission, Docket No. C-4817 If a product that promises to make your website compliant is what you're relying on, that is the claim a federal regulator challenged. ### You will know whether the fix held. One barrier in an online application form, over three checks: | Date | What the check found | Status | | --- | --- | --- | | Jan 12 | The application form cannot be completed without a mouse. Anyone who does not use one cannot apply. | Open | | Feb 12 | Still found. The form cannot be completed without a mouse. | Open | | Mar 12 | The form can be completed without a mouse. The barrier is off the list. | Resolved | A composite example, not a client's data. Every barrier has a person on the other side of it: someone who came to pay, apply, or book, and could not finish. Esther measures what you have online and dates every finding. A new page goes live and it gets measured. A vendor says the fix is in, and the next check shows whether the barrier is gone. A report gives you January 12. A record gives you the whole table. That is a record: a dated account of what was found, what came first, and what has been resolved. - [How findings are ranked](https://esther.ai/intelligence) - [How this has played out for other organizations](https://esther.ai/precedent) The obligation is yours every day, whoever built the system. ### Your record must be older than the letter. The day a letter arrives is the day the record matters most. Every day before that, the record is already working. - Counsel gets a dated answer the day one is needed. - Your team knows what to fix first: the barriers that stop someone paying, applying, or booking, ranked by what courts and regulators have required of others. - Every finding carries a date, where it was found, and its evidence: enough to hand straight to whoever owns it. - Your budget request arrives with evidence attached, so the work gets scoped and funded on your own calendar. The record is yours to see at any time, and to share with counsel, a vendor, a council, or a board. Esther's assessments have supported ADA cases in federal court. > **$100,000, and nine months** (Department of Justice · December 2021) > A transit district agreed to bring all of its websites, web content, and mobile applications to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within nine months. On top of what the rest of the agreement required, it agreed to invest at least $100,000 over two years "to improve its services for individuals with disabilities." > Source: United States and Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District · DJ No. 204-24-129 Both numbers were set by somebody else. A budget request with evidence already attached is how they stop being a surprise. ### Three questions worth being able to answer (A composite example, not a real organization's form.) Much of what people need to apply, sign up, or pay is a document, not a web page. - Can you list every website, app, and online form your organization runs? - Can you list the documents people need to apply, sign up, or pay? ([ADA compliance for PDFs and files](https://esther.ai/published-documents)) - Can you show when someone outside your team last checked your most important pages and documents? Where the answer is "not sure," that is where the record starts. ### Every organization online answers to the public. The difference is whether a regulation sets a date. - **For state and local government::** a federal rule, with compliance dates in April 2027 and 2028, set by population. ([For state and local government](https://esther.ai/for-government)) - **For private organizations::** no regulation sets a web standard or a date, and claims are filed routinely. ([For private organizations](https://esther.ai/for-business)) - [What ADA compliance covers](https://esther.ai/ada-compliance) ### What people ask first - [What Esther has done so far](https://esther.ai/roadmap) **How is Esther different from an accessibility scanner?** A scanner reports what's wrong on the day it runs. Esther documents what those barriers cost. It ranks them by what courts and regulators have required, covers the documents most scanners never open, and is independent of the vendor who built your site. **We already had an accessibility audit. Why would we need Esther?** Your audit described where you stood on the day it was delivered, and it was right about that day. Esther covers the days after, as your sites change. **Is Esther AI?** Yes. AI does the routine work, and every judgment call is reviewed by an accessibility practitioner before it reaches you. **What does Esther cost?** That depends on what you have online and how often your record is refreshed, so the answer is specific to you. Pricing is part of the thirty minutes. ### If any of this strikes a nerve, we should talk. Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## What a demand letter asks for. URL: https://esther.ai/demand-letter A demand letter asserts a claim and asks for a response by a stated date. It comes before any court filing, and usually without warning. Most letters name barriers on the website and ask for three things: changes to the site to meet a published standard, payment of the claimant's legal fees and costs, and a settlement negotiated quickly. A letter that is settled usually costs $20,000 or more. > **Nearly six years** (U.S. District Court, Central District of California · June 2022) > A customer who is blind could not order a pizza on the company's website or app, and sued in September 2016. The company fought the claim. The Ninth Circuit held that the ADA applies to a website and app "which connect customers to the goods and services of Domino's physical restaurants," and the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. In 2021 the trial court ordered the website brought into line with WCAG 2.0. The case settled in June 2022. > Source: Robles v. Domino's Pizza, LLC · No. 2:16-cv-06599 (C.D. Cal.); No. 17-55504 (9th Cir.) Six years of defending a website, and the website still had to be fixed. Underneath, the question is what you can show: what you found, what you put first, and what has been resolved since. (The Ninth Circuit's opinion in Robles v. Domino's Pizza, January 15, 2019. Public record.) **If a letter has already arrived,** the first call is to counsel. This is a legal matter, and lawyers handle it. Whether to begin a record while a matter is open is a decision for your counsel. An engagement with Esther can run through your counsel. ### The answer has to exist before the question. > **"Nothing in the record"** (U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit · June 2018) > A restaurant chain settled one website lawsuit by agreeing to improve its site within twelve months. A second, nearly identical suit followed. The chain argued that the work was already underway. The court found "nothing in the record demonstrating that Hooters has successfully done so," and let the second suit go forward. > Source: Haynes v. Hooters of America, LLC · No. 17-13170 (11th Cir.) A promise to fix was not proof that the fix was done. (The Eleventh Circuit's opinion in Haynes v. Hooters of America, page 6. Public record.) What you can show is a dated record. A record covers the time after it begins. The past cannot be recorded after the fact. What a record can show on the day a letter arrives: | When the record started | What it can show that day | | --- | --- | | Months before the letter | Those months: what was found, what mattered most, and what was resolved | | The day the letter arrived | Every day after that one, and none before it | | Today, with no letter yet | Every day from today on | An organization can be contacted more than once, by more than one party. The record that answers the first letter answers the next one too. ### From today, everything carries a date. (A composite example, not a client's data.) A record started today covers every day that follows. Esther finds the digital barriers people run into, puts first the ones that stop someone paying, applying, or booking, and dates every finding. As issues are resolved, the list gets shorter, and the record shows when. Esther's assessments have supported ADA cases in federal court. ### Today is the earliest date your record can carry. Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## No website should shut anyone out. URL: https://esther.ai/about A concrete barrier across a shop door goes unnoticed by everyone who can step around it. For someone who uses a wheelchair, it is the difference between getting in and not. A website works the same way. Most visitors never see a barrier on a page. The person it stops cannot get past it. The standards for building websites everyone can use have existed for years, and there is no longer a reason for anyone to be shut out. What most organizations lack is a clear view of where their own digital barriers are, and which ones matter most. Esther exists to give them that view. ### What Esther does. Esther is a risk management service for digital accessibility. It finds the digital barriers on an organization's websites and documents, and puts first the ones that stop someone paying, applying, or booking. It keeps a dated record as issues are resolved, so the organization can show what it found, when, and what has changed since. AI does the routine work, and every judgment call is reviewed by an accessibility practitioner before it reaches a client. - [How Esther decides what matters most](https://esther.ai/intelligence) ### Who is behind Esther. Rick and Ash met in 2024, through a network of professional digital services consultants. Their backgrounds overlap where Esther works: risk and regulated finance on one side, web accessibility on the other. **Rick Hensbergen**, Founder and CEO Rick trained as a mechanical engineer and went into risk management, which led him to software testing. He spent the next twenty years in banking, leading testing and quality teams around the world for major banks in the United States and the United Kingdom. The systems were real-time payment platforms: critical to the banks that ran them, crossing borders and jurisdictions, and held to regulatory deadlines that did not move. At one bank he was responsible for everything between design and production, from the infrastructure and architecture to the testing that decided whether a system went live. He was [approved by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority as a Senior Manager](https://register.fca.org.uk/s/individual?id=0034G00002yBFaAQAW) at Metro Bank, under the Senior Managers Regime, which holds named individuals personally accountable for their areas of a regulated firm. Esther began there. Rick had led testing teams of several hundred people, and much of their effort went into finding basic problems. As AI matured, he saw that it could do that routine work more efficiently and more thoroughly, leaving people free for the work that needs judgment. He built Esther to keep the discipline banking demands: every call traceable to evidence that someone else can check. **Ash Harris**, Chief Global Growth Officer Ash has worked in web accessibility and digital consulting for twenty years, first within agencies and then leading his own. For fourteen years he ran an accessibility consultancy that held its own against the field's largest firms, advising global banks, major retailers, and universities across the United States, Canada, and Europe. He has worked with government for fifteen years, and his clients have also included schools and special education programs, international organizations, and some of the most recognized names in business. Many came to him with a demand letter or a lawsuit already underway. The immediate work was to limit the harm. The lasting work was training their teams and helping them build an accessibility practice they could stand behind. From 2018 to 2023 he served on [the W3C's Education and Outreach Working Group](https://www.w3.org/groups/wg/eowg/former-participants/), which writes the plain-language guidance accessibility practitioners rely on. ### Talk with the people behind Esther. Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## A thirty-minute introduction. URL: https://esther.ai/contact Thirty minutes on your situation, and where to begin. We listen first. Pricing is part of the thirty minutes. [Open times, on the booking page](https://calendar.app.google/Vgp5ff9ADZdaKMTE8?utm_source=esther.ai&utm_medium=website&utm_content=contact) If you would rather write: Email: info@esther.ai ## Esther's work so far, with dates. URL: https://esther.ai/roadmap Esther has been built since 2023, and has kept a dated record since its first assessment in November 2024. What has happened is set out below, in order. What comes next is decided by a rule. ### The work so far. (The USPTO record for ESTHER.AI, serial number 97884441. Public record.) The work so far: | When | What happened | | --- | --- | | April 2023 | The trademark application for ESTHER.AI is filed. The work begins here. | | November 2024 | The first recorded assessment, made with the site owner's approval. From here on, results are kept rather than read once. | | November 2024 | esther.ai begins keeping a record of its own website. It has run without a break since. | | Since then | Assessments for organizations in media, fashion, insurance, and legal services, each made with the owner's approval. | ### What the work has produced. - **A record of our own, unbroken since November 2024.** esther.ai measures its own website the way it measures anyone's. That record is the longest Esther keeps, and it is still running. - **Government websites, at scale.** Esther has measured government websites across the country. A major city in South Florida asked for an assessment, and received one. - **Records in federal court.** Esther's assessments have supported ADA cases in federal court. ### Three generations, each named for what it made possible. - **Measurement.** One application that assessed on demand. The result lived in the run. - **The record.** Assessments began to be kept, so a position could be shown over time. - **Risk.** The current generation. Judgment moved into the reasoning behind each finding, so the same discipline can extend past a single standard. ### One rule decides what Esther measures next. Esther measures risks one at a time. A risk joins only when it can be measured consistently and produce evidence a client can rely on. ADA compliance is the risk measured today. Others join by the same rule, when they meet it. ### Esther keeps its own record. Yours can start today. Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## The compliance date is when the work has to be done. URL: https://esther.ai/for-government State and local government has a federal compliance date for its websites and mobile apps: April 2027 or April 2028. The rule covers more than a website. Once the work can be seen, ranked, and dated, it becomes a plan a council can fund. ### Your deadline depends on your population. Two libraries, same residents, a year apart: | | A library that is part of a city of 60,000 | An independent library district | | --- | --- | --- | | Who it serves | The city's residents | The same residents | | How it is set up | A department of the city | A separate government, with its own board and budget | | Its date | April 2027 | April 2028 | Populations of 50,000 or more have until April 2027, and smaller ones until April 2028. Population is not the whole test. A special district government has until April 2028 at any size: a separate government set up for a single purpose or a few, such as a water, utility, or library district. So two bodies serving the same residents can land a year apart. An independent school district is not a special district under the rule. It takes its date by the district's own population as the Census Bureau estimates it, which counts residents, not enrollment. These show how the rule reads. Which date applies to your organization is a question for your counsel, against how it is constituted. ### The date is the first deadline, not the last. > **"It is not the last."** (Department of Justice · April 2024) > "The compliance date is the first time that public entities need to be in compliance with subpart H's requirements; it is not the last." > Source: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities · 89 FR 31351 Content added after the date is covered too. A plan that ends on the date ends too early. Commenters also asked whether public bodies should be required to review their content every few years. The Department answered in the rule: > "Additionally, some commenters suggested that public entities be required to review their content for accessibility every few years. The Department does not view this as necessary given the ongoing nature of subpart H's requirements. However, public entities might find that conducting such reviews is helpful in ensuring compliance." (89 FR 31352) The obligation runs continuously. The rule leaves the method to you. ### It covers services, wherever they are delivered. (A composite example, not a real city's page.) The rule applies to the web content and mobile apps a public body provides or makes available. The library catalog. Bill pay. Registration for a recreation program. The court's docket search. The transit agency's fare app. That means every department's services, even the ones you do not run day to day, and the documents behind them: the applications, agendas, and forms a resident completes to get something done. The standard the rule names is WCAG 2.1 at Level AA, a published international standard for whether people with impairments can use a website, an app, or a document. - [ADA compliance for PDFs and files](https://esther.ai/published-documents) ### A vendor built the system. The obligation stays with you. (The Denver agreement, paragraph 36. Public record.) Most public bodies did not build their own website or portal. A vendor did, and a barrier may have arrived with the system. Under the rule, the responsibility belongs to the public body, which answers for content it provides "directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements." > **Six months, vendors included** (Department of Justice · January 2018) > A city and county agreed to ensure, within six months, that its websites and all online services, "including those websites or online services provided by third parties upon which Denver relies to provide services or content," met WCAG 2.0 Level AA. > Source: United States and the City and County of Denver, Colorado · DJ No. 204-13-298 The agreement named the vendors' services outright. An independent measurement is something you hold yourself, rather than an assurance from the party that built the system. Vendors build for many public bodies at once, and each system leaves its own pattern of issues across the sites built on it. Esther has measured government websites across the country, and can tell which issues come with the platform and which belong to your site. Some public bodies have closed their platform's known weak points themselves. ### Five exceptions, each with conditions. The rule lists them in 28 CFR § 35.201. - **Archives.** Content from before the date, kept unchanged, only for reference, in a marked archive. - **Older documents.** PDFs and similar files posted before the date, unless still used for a service. - **Others' posts.** What others post on their own. Not what anyone posts for you. - **Personal records.** Secured PDFs and similar files about one person, like a utility bill. - **Older social posts.** Social media posts made before the compliance date. Whether one of your documents qualifies is your counsel's call. **Federal funding adds its own obligation.** Public bodies that receive federal financial assistance, public schools and colleges among them, also answer to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, on the funding agency's terms. The requirements that apply depend on the agency and the program. ### A plan a council can fund. (A composite example, not a client's data.) An independent, dated record turns an open-ended worry into work you can scope. It shows the digital barriers that residents run into, with the ones that stop a resident paying, applying, or registering at the top. Each finding carries enough to hand straight to whoever owns it. As issues are resolved, they come off the list, and each change is dated. Procurement can use the same record. Before a contract is renewed, it gives an independent read on what the vendor claims. And it goes to the council as an appropriation request, with the evidence attached. The work can be funded on your schedule, before the deadline forces it. - [How findings are ranked](https://esther.ai/intelligence) ### Common questions **When does the ADA web rule apply to our city or county?** It depends on population. State and local governments serving 50,000 or more have until April 2027, and smaller ones until April 2028. A special district government, such as a water, utility, or library district, has until April 2028 at any size. Which date applies to your organization is a question for your counsel. **What does the Title II web rule cover?** The web content and mobile apps a public body provides or makes available, including services a vendor runs for it, and the documents behind them: the applications, agendas, and forms residents complete to get something done. The standard it names is WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. **Does the obligation end on the compliance date?** No. The Department of Justice wrote in the rule: "The compliance date is the first time that public entities need to be in compliance with subpart H's requirements; it is not the last." Content added after the date is covered too. **A vendor built our website. Is the vendor responsible?** Under the rule, the responsibility belongs to the public body, which answers for content it provides "directly or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements." **Are any documents or posts exempt?** The rule lists five exceptions, each with conditions: archived content, documents posted before the date that are no longer used for a service, what others post on their own, secured documents about one person, and social media posts made before the compliance date. Whether one of your documents qualifies is your counsel's call. ### The date is known. The work can be planned against it. Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## What ADA compliance covers, and what matters first. URL: https://esther.ai/ada-compliance ADA compliance is the part of your digital risk the law already covers. That starts with your website and includes the apps, forms, and documents people use to get something done. Esther finds the digital barriers people run into, puts first the ones that stop someone paying, applying, or booking, and dates every finding, so progress shows in the record as issues are resolved. ### The obligation is already being enforced. > **Six months** (Department of Justice · January 2024) > After federal findings that its mobile app could not be used by people with vision impairments, a state agency decided to withdraw the app within thirty days, and agreed that any app it creates, administers, or maintains would meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA within six months. > Source: Settlement agreement, United States and Service Oklahoma That clock started with one federal finding. (Settlement agreement, United States and Service Oklahoma, paragraph 10. Public record.) Federal agreements have given public bodies deadlines measured in months, not years, and those deadlines cover more than the website. Private organizations have no deadline. There is no federal requirement that their websites meet a specific standard, but that does not prevent lawsuits. Claims are filed in federal court every week, on a schedule the organization does not set. A federal deadline and a lawsuit are answered the same way: with what you found, what you put first, and what has been resolved since. A dated record is an answer that already exists on the day the question arrives. - [How this has played out for other organizations](https://esther.ai/precedent) ### More than the website. > **Podcasts and YouTube included** (U.S. District Court, Northern District of California · December 2022) > A university agreed, in a decree the court entered, to bring its public website, its free online courses, and the audio and video on its own channels hosted by others, "such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify" and "such as YouTube," to WCAG 2.0 Level AA. New audio and video had nine months, and the website eighteen. An independent auditor, approved by the United States, reviews the work. > Source: United States v. The Regents of the University of California · No. 4:22-cv-07345-DMR The obligation followed the content onto someone else's platform. (A composite example, not a real organization's page.) Most people picture the homepage. ADA compliance covers anything someone uses to get something done, even if a vendor built it and runs it for you. Your web presence: | What you have online | What a barrier there stops someone from doing | Whose responsibility it is | | --- | --- | --- | | Your website | Finding the page they came for, and reading it | Yours | | An app | Doing on a phone what the website does | Yours | | A form | Applying, registering, or signing up | Yours | | A PDF | Reading the notice, the policy, or the form itself | Yours | | A portal a vendor runs | Booking, paying, or checking a status | Yours | The last column reads the same on every row. A vendor can build the system and run it for years, and it is still yours. - [ADA compliance for PDFs and files](https://esther.ai/published-documents) ### Digital barriers, in the order they matter most. (A composite example, not a client's data.) Esther assesses your websites and the forms and documents on the sites, and finds the digital barriers that stop someone from finishing what they came to do. Findings are ranked by the urgency of what they block, and by what courts and regulators have already required of others. - [How findings are ranked](https://esther.ai/intelligence) ### Your record, ready before anyone asks. (A composite example, not a client's data.) For ADA compliance, you need to know four things. - **What has to be fixed.** What was found, and where it sits. - **What matters first.** The ranking, by the urgency of what each barrier blocks. - **Who owns it.** Every finding carries enough to hand straight to the person on your side who owns the work. - **Proof you are making progress.** Every check is dated. Resolved issues drop off the list. The record shows the list getting shorter, and when. A demand letter, a federal review, and a question from counsel all ask for the same thing. Your record should already document it. - [What a demand letter asks for](https://esther.ai/demand-letter) ### Government and private organizations face it differently. - **State and local government, April 2027 and 2028:** The deadline depends on total population. Populations of 50,000 or more have until April 2027. Smaller populations, and every special district, have until April 2028. ([For state and local government](https://esther.ai/for-government)) - **Private organizations, No federal date:** The Department of Justice has "consistently taken the position" that the ADA applies to what businesses and nonprofits offer, "including those offered on the web." No regulation sets them a date, and claims are filed routinely. ([For private organizations](https://esther.ai/for-business)) Organizations in either category that receive federal financial assistance also answer to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. **The standard.** The rule for state and local government names WCAG 2.1 at Level AA, a published international standard for whether people with impairments can use a website, an app, or a document. For private organizations, the Department of Justice calls existing standards such as WCAG "helpful guidance." Its own settlements with private businesses have required WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. ### Common questions **What does ADA compliance cover online?** Anything someone uses to get something done: your website, apps, forms, and PDFs, including systems a vendor builds and runs for you. A vendor can run a system for years, and the responsibility is still yours. **Which standard does ADA compliance use for websites?** The rule for state and local government names WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. For private organizations, the Department of Justice calls existing standards such as WCAG "helpful guidance," and its own settlements with private businesses have required WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. **Which accessibility issues matter first?** The ones that stop someone paying, applying, or booking. Esther ranks findings by the urgency of what they block, and by what courts and regulators have already required of others. **How does an organization show progress on ADA compliance?** With a dated record: what was found, what was put first, who owns each finding, and what has been resolved since. Every check is dated, resolved issues drop off the list, and the record shows the list getting shorter. **Do government and private organizations have the same obligations?** No. State and local government has a federal date, April 2027 or April 2028 depending on population. Private organizations have no federal date, and claims against them are filed routinely. Either kind that receives federal financial assistance also answers to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. ### What does ADA compliance cover for you? Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## ADA compliance for PDFs and files. URL: https://esther.ai/published-documents Many services end in a document. Applications, intake forms, permits, agendas, notices, and policies: this is where people actually get something done. Each was posted by someone who needed it, and many stay published long after. PDF is the most common format, and many PDFs are fillable forms. Others are Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and Excel spreadsheets. Each format can carry barriers of its own. For state and local government, the ADA rule covers documents posted on websites and in apps, with a short list of exceptions. For a private organization, no regulation sets a web standard. A form someone cannot finish still shuts them out, as a page can, and claims under the ADA treat shutting someone out because of an impairment as discrimination. - [For private organizations](https://esther.ai/for-business) ### Passing a check and finishing a form are different tests. > **Eighteen months** (U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio · December 2016) > A university agreed, in a decree the court entered, to bring the web content it had published since January 2012 to WCAG 2.0 Level AA within eighteen months. Documents posted on its sites were covered, and each exception had to be requested and meet strict conditions. Systems run by others were covered too, for "campus housing, campus dining, registering for classes, paying bills, obtaining transcripts." > Source: Consent decree, Dudley and United States v. Miami University · No. 1:14-cv-38 The documents were held to the same standard as the pages. (A composite example, not a real organization's form.) Some barriers in a PDF are easy to find. A page scanned in as a picture holds no actual text, so software that reads a page aloud has nothing to read. A long document with no headings or bookmarks gives the reader no way to move through it. An automated check flags both. Other barriers pass the check and still stop someone from finishing. They show up on forms frequently. For someone using a screen reader, the software that reads a page aloud, the fields may be read out of order. A signature box may be out of reach without a mouse. A field marked as required may never be announced as one. Any one of these can stop the person the form was written for. ### The forms people need to finish come first. (A composite example, not a client's data.) Document libraries build up over decades, often to thousands of files, and not every file matters equally. A form someone has to finish to get a service ranks ahead of a report kept for reference. Ranked by what each one stops someone from doing, the work has a size and an order before anyone is asked to fund it. Every finding is dated. When a document's issues are resolved, it leaves the list, and the record keeps the date. > **$100,000** (U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts · March 2014) > Tax filers who are blind brought a claim over a tax-preparation company's website and online filing product, and the Department of Justice joined it. The consent decree required both to meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA by January 2015, and the company's mobile apps by January 2016. It paid a $55,000 civil penalty and $22,500 to each of two people who brought the claim, and an independent consultant reviewed the work every year. > Source: National Federation of the Blind v. HRB Digital LLC · No. 1:13-cv-10799 The barrier was in the form people had to finish. The rule for state and local government lists exceptions for some documents, each with conditions. Whether one of your documents qualifies is your counsel's call. - [For state and local government](https://esther.ai/for-government) ### Four questions about your documents. - Which of your documents do people need to apply, sign up, or pay? - Which departments or teams publish them? - Were they checked by a person, or only by an automated tool? - When did someone outside your team last check your most important documents? Where the answer is "not sure," that is where the work starts. Everything Esther delivers as a document meets PDF/UA, the international standard for accessible PDFs. ### Common questions **Do PDFs have to be accessible under the ADA?** For state and local government, the ADA rule covers documents posted on websites and in apps, with a short list of exceptions. For a private organization, no regulation sets a web standard. A form someone cannot finish still shuts them out, and claims under the ADA treat shutting someone out because of an impairment as discrimination. **Are Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files part of ADA compliance?** Yes. PDF is the most common format, and many PDFs are fillable forms, but documents are also published as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files. Each format can carry barriers of its own. **Does passing an automated check make a PDF accessible?** Not on its own. An automated check flags a page scanned in as a picture, or a long document with no headings. Other barriers pass the check and still stop someone: fields read out of order, a signature box out of reach without a mouse, a required field never announced as one. **Which documents come first?** The forms people need to finish to get a service, such as applications, intake forms, and permits. A form someone has to finish ranks ahead of a report kept for reference. **Are older documents exempt?** The rule for state and local government exempts PDFs and similar files posted before the compliance date, unless they are still used for a service. It is one of a short list of exceptions, each with conditions. Whether one of your documents qualifies is your counsel's call. ### Where do your documents stand? Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## Privacy policy URL: https://esther.ai/privacy This policy covers the esther.ai website: what it collects, why, who else receives it, and how long it is kept. ### On this page - [Who this policy is from](https://esther.ai/#who-we-are) - [What the site collects](https://esther.ai/#what-the-site-collects) - [How the information is used](https://esther.ai/#how-it-is-used) - [Who else receives it](https://esther.ai/#who-else-receives-it) - [How long it is kept](https://esther.ai/#how-long-it-is-kept) - [The booking page](https://esther.ai/#booking-page) - [Your choices and rights](https://esther.ai/#your-rights) - [Security](https://esther.ai/#security) - [Children](https://esther.ai/#children) - [Changes to this policy](https://esther.ai/#changes) - [Questions](https://esther.ai/#questions) ### Who this policy is from The esther.ai website is operated by Esther.ai Corporation, a Delaware corporation, 901 NW 35th Street, Boca Raton, FL 33431. In this policy, "we" means that company. **Effective date:** October 1, 2026. This policy covers the website only. Work Esther does for a client is governed by that client's engagement agreement, which sets out how the client's information is handled. ### What the site collects - **Server records.** Our hosting provider keeps a record of each request to the site, such as the address of the device making it (its IP address), the browser, the page requested, and the time. These records keep the site running and secure. - **Analytics.** The site uses an analytics service to see how it is used, such as the pages viewed, how a visitor arrived, the device and browser, and an approximate location. - **Email.** A message to [info@esther.ai](mailto:info@esther.ai) reaches us with whatever it contains. - **Cookies.** The analytics service sets cookies to tell one visit from the next. The site runs no advertising code. ### How the information is used - Server records keep the site running, show where it is failing, and protect it from misuse. - Analytics shows which pages are read and which lead someone to book an introduction. - Email is answered, and kept as a record of the conversation. We sell no personal information, and we use none of it for advertising. ### Who else receives it The service providers that run parts of the site for us, for hosting, analytics, and booking, receive the information that part handles, and handle it under their own privacy policies. These providers may process information in the United States and in other countries where they operate. We also disclose information where the law requires it. ### How long it is kept - **Server records.** Kept by our host for a limited period. - **Analytics.** Kept for the retention period set with our analytics service. - **Email.** Kept as long as it is useful to the conversation it belongs to. ### The booking page Introductions are booked on a scheduling page run by a third-party provider, which opens as a separate page. Whatever a visitor enters there is handled by that provider under its own privacy policy, and reaches us as a calendar booking. ### Your choices and rights Cookies can be blocked or cleared in any browser's settings. A request to see, correct, or delete the information we hold about you can be sent to [info@esther.ai](mailto:info@esther.ai), and we answer it. ### Security Every page on the site is served over an encrypted connection (HTTPS), and access to the site's hosting and analytics is restricted. ### Children The site is written for organizations and the people who work in them. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. ### Changes to this policy When this policy changes, the new version is posted on this page with a new effective date. ### Questions Questions about this policy go to [info@esther.ai](mailto:info@esther.ai), or by mail to Esther.ai Corporation, 901 NW 35th Street, Boca Raton, FL 33431. ## Terms of use URL: https://esther.ai/terms These terms cover the esther.ai website. Work Esther does for a client is covered by that client's engagement agreement. ### On this page - [What these terms cover](https://esther.ai/#what-these-terms-cover) - [What the site's pages are](https://esther.ai/#what-the-pages-are) - [Dates and the law](https://esther.ai/#dates-and-the-law) - [Using the site](https://esther.ai/#using-the-site) - [Who owns the content](https://esther.ai/#ownership) - [Links to other sites](https://esther.ai/#links-to-other-sites) - [Warranties and liability](https://esther.ai/#warranties-and-liability) - [Governing law](https://esther.ai/#governing-law) - [Changes to these terms](https://esther.ai/#changes) - [Questions](https://esther.ai/#questions) ### What these terms cover These terms apply to anyone using the esther.ai website. The website is operated by Esther.ai Corporation, a Delaware corporation, 901 NW 35th Street, Boca Raton, FL 33431, which "we" means on this page. **Effective date:** October 1, 2026. A client's engagement agreement governs the work Esther does for that client. Where these terms and an engagement agreement differ, the engagement agreement governs. ### What the site's pages are The pages on this site are general information about digital accessibility, the law that governs it, and how Esther works. Advice on one organization's own position comes from that organization's counsel. Court filings, settlements, and regulations described on the site are public records. Where the site cites one, the citation names the document, so a reader can go to the source. ### Dates and the law The law on digital accessibility changes, and so do the deadlines in it. Each page describes the law as it stood when the page was last reviewed, and each post carries its own publication date. ### Using the site Anyone may read the site, link to any page, and quote it with attribution to esther.ai. Using the site to disrupt it, to get around its security, to copy it in bulk, or to present its content as someone else's is outside these terms. ### Who owns the content The text, design, and images on this site, and the Esther and esther.ai names and logo, belong to Esther.ai Corporation. Public records quoted on the site remain public records. ESTHER.AI™ is a trademark of Esther.ai Corporation (US application 97884441). ### Links to other sites The site links to pages run by others: courts, regulators, published sources, and the booking page, which runs on Google Calendar. Each of those pages is governed by its own owner's terms and privacy policy. ### Warranties and liability The site is provided as it is, for general information. ### Governing law These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Delaware, and disputes are heard in the courts of Delaware. ### Changes to these terms When these terms change, the new version is posted on this page with a new effective date. ### Questions Questions about these terms go to [info@esther.ai](mailto:info@esther.ai). ## Accessibility statement URL: https://esther.ai/accessibility Esther measures accessibility risk for others. This website is held to the same standard. ### On this page - [The standard](https://esther.ai/#the-standard) - [How the site is tested](https://esther.ai/#how-it-is-tested) - [Pages outside this site](https://esther.ai/#outside-this-site) - [Reporting a barrier](https://esther.ai/#reporting-a-barrier) - [This statement](https://esther.ai/#this-statement) ### The standard The esther.ai website is designed and built to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Level AA. WCAG 2.2 is the current version of the guidelines, published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The standard covers every page on esther.ai, and work on the site's accessibility is ongoing. ### How the site is tested The site is tested with automated accessibility tools at desktop and mobile widths, and by hand, including using every page with a keyboard alone. ### Pages outside this site Introductions are booked on a scheduling page outside this site, run by a third-party provider, and its accessibility is that provider's. Anyone who cannot use it can write to [info@esther.ai](mailto:info@esther.ai) instead, and we set a time by email. ### Reporting a barrier A barrier on this site can be reported to [info@esther.ai](mailto:info@esther.ai), and the person who sends it hears back. The most useful report names the page, what you were trying to do, and the browser and any assistive technology in use. ### This statement This statement was last updated on October 1, 2026. ## More findings than anyone can fix at once. That's normal. URL: https://esther.ai/intelligence What matters is which findings get addressed first. Esther ranks each one by the urgency of what it blocks, and by what courts and regulators have already required of others. ### A few findings carry most of the risk. > **Four months** (Department of Justice · June 2024) > A county agreed to bring all existing election content on its website to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within four months, and to make new content conform before it is posted. An independent auditor, approved by the Department, reviews the site, and the county reports every six months. > Source: United States and Smith County, Texas · DJ No. 204-75-152 Everything already on the site, in four months, checked by someone else. - [How this has played out for other organizations](https://esther.ai/precedent) Some findings are an inconvenience. Others stop someone from finishing what they came to do: paying a bill, booking an appointment, completing an application. Those shut someone out, and they are the barriers other organizations have been required to fix. Esther puts them first. Four findings, and where each one lands: | What was found | Where it ranks | Why | | --- | --- | --- | | A checkout that cannot be used without a mouse | **Critical** | Stops a purchase | | An application form that cannot be read aloud | **Critical** | Stops someone from applying | | A photo with no description | Lower | Blocks nothing someone came to do | | An old notice, rarely opened | Lower | Rarely needed | Each finding carries a date, where it was found, and its evidence: enough to hand straight to whoever owns it. (A composite example, not a client's data.) ### Right in March. Wrong by September. How a single report goes out of date: | When | What changed | A one-time report | | --- | --- | --- | | March | A form is checked, and it passes | Accurate | | May | A department replaces a PDF | Now silent | | July | The website software is updated | Now silent | | September | An update stops a form working without a mouse | Now wrong | Two things happen after a report is written, and they are different problems. - **What you have online keeps moving.** Every service on your websites and apps matters. Keeping track of every update is a job nobody has. - **You need more than a moment in time.** A report describes the day it was written. Findings have to keep up. How often the record is refreshed is set with you: on a schedule, on every release, or both. - [ADA compliance for PDFs and files](https://esther.ai/published-documents) ### Nobody is a fair judge of their own work. > **$2,050,000** (Alameda County Superior Court · November 2023) > A claim alleged that a state parks reservation website, built by a vendor under a state contract, did not meet the contract's accessibility requirements. The court-approved settlement totaled $2,050,000. The vendor paid for an audit by an outside accessibility firm, directed by the parks department, and addresses the issues it finds at the department's direction. > Source: State of California ex rel. Bashin v. Conduent Incorporated · Alameda County Superior Court, No. RG18888208 The standard was already in the contract. The settlement paid for someone else to check the work against it. The obligation stays with you, whatever your vendor promised. A vendor cannot objectively grade its own work. Verification comes from someone with nothing at stake in the answer. Each vendor has its own pattern of issues across its clients' sites. (The settlement agreement, paragraph 17. Public record.) ### Many accessibility calls are black and white. Some are not. They are plain, and they apply the same way everywhere. A form works without a mouse or it doesn't. A page lets you skip its menus or it doesn't. There is nothing to argue about, and Esther applies those the same way on every page, on every date. The rest depend on the page: what it is for, who uses it, and what sits around it. Here, qualified people read the same rule and sometimes reach different opinions. That is how the standard is written, not a failing in anyone's work. Esther has a position on those, the way any expert does. It also carries the reason: what was found, what it was read against, and why it was called the way it was. Every judgment call is reviewed by an accessibility practitioner before it reaches you. Someone can disagree with the conclusion and still use the record, because the thinking is in it. And the reading does not drift between checks. The same rules are applied the same way every time, so when a finding changes between one date and the next, what changed is the site and not the opinion. ### Where to start, what to show counsel, and proof of progress. (A composite example, not a client's data.) - **It tells you where to start.** Every finding carries its evidence and its place in the ranking, so whoever owns the work can begin with the barriers that matter most. - **It gives your counsel something to answer with.** What was found, where, on what date, and what came first: a record of diligence, rather than a position somebody has to construct later. The engagement can run through your counsel. - **It shows progress.** Every check is dated, so the record shows what was found, when, and the list getting shorter as issues are resolved. A fixed item can be re-tested on request, and the record updated. ### The hard part is knowing which findings matter. Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## No federal deadline. A lawsuit does not need one. URL: https://esther.ai/for-business For businesses and nonprofits open to the public, from shops and banks to clinics, private schools, and museums, there is no federal requirement that a website meet a specific standard. Claims are filed in federal court every week, and a claim arrives without warning. ### Claims are being filed now. > **$6,000,000** (U.S. District Court, Northern District of California · March 2009) > Shoppers who are blind could not use Target.com. In 2006, the court ruled that the ADA covered the website where it connected customers to the stores. In the settlement the court approved in March 2009, Target paid $6,000,000 to a class of California shoppers, and agreed to make the site usable with software that reads the screen aloud, tested every year by people who are blind. The court then awarded $3,738,864.96 in legal fees and costs. > Source: National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corporation · No. C 06-01802 MHP The damages were only part of the bill. > **3,117** (Seyfarth Shaw · March 2026) > Federal lawsuits filed in 2025 claiming that a website could not be used by people with impairments, up 27% on the year before. The count covers federal court only. Demand letters and suits in state court sit outside it. > Source: Federal Court Website Accessibility Lawsuit Filings Bounce Back in 2025 · Seyfarth Shaw, ADA Title III News & Insights A claim asks what was known, and when. A dated record answers it. Size is no protection. A small family blueberry farm in Michigan received a demand letter over its online store, from a law firm in California. - [How this has played out for other organizations](https://esther.ai/precedent) ### Not every barrier is equal. 5 places a barrier can sit, and where each one ranks: | Page/Function | Blocks | Priority | | --- | --- | --- | | Checkout | Paying for what is in the cart | **Critical** | | Booking | Reserving a table, a room, or an appointment | **Critical** | | Account login | Getting into an account at all | **Critical** | | Donating or registering | Giving to a cause, or signing up for a program or event | **Critical** | | A page of text | Reading about a product or service | Lower | Barriers on a page of text may make a page harder to read. A barrier in checkout, booking, a donation form, or an account login stops someone from finishing. Behind each of those is a person who came to buy, book, or give, and could not finish. That not only costs you a gift or a sale, it can also become a complaint or a claim. Claims under the ADA treat shutting someone out because of an impairment as discrimination, and that is what makes a barrier like this grounds for one. These are the places where a barrier turns someone away, so they are where to look first. - [How findings are ranked](https://esther.ai/intelligence) (A composite example, not a real retailer's page.) ### Your site has changed since the audit. (A composite example, not a client's data.) An audit describes your site on the day it ran. Sites keep changing after that, even when no one on your side touches them. New pages and documents go up. A form or a checkout step is updated. The technology under the hood is updated by vendors or internal team members. Any of these can bring back a barrier you already paid to fix, or add a new one. That is why your website should be checked again as it changes. **A vendor cannot objectively grade its own work.** The company that built or runs your site is reporting on its own work. An independent check comes from someone with nothing at stake in the answer. A product that promises to make your website compliant on its own is making the claim a federal regulator has already challenged. ### Start the record before the letter. When a demand letter arrives, a record of what was found, and what was put first, cannot be written after the fact. What changes your position is a dated, independent record that already exists: begun before the letter, and kept as the site changed. The record can start today. - [What a demand letter asks for](https://esther.ai/demand-letter) ### What the Department of Justice says, and federal funds. For private organizations, the Department of Justice "does not have a regulation setting out detailed standards." It has "consistently taken the position" that the ADA applies to what businesses offer, "including those offered on the web." It calls existing technical standards, WCAG among them, "helpful guidance." Its own settlements with private businesses have required WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. Private organizations that receive federal financial assistance, as many clinics, private schools, and nonprofits do, also answer to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, on the funding agency's terms. The requirements that apply depend on the agency and the program. One group does have a federal date. Organizations that receive funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, as many clinics, hospitals, and health nonprofits do, must bring their websites and mobile apps to WCAG 2.1 Level AA under a 2024 rule: from May 11, 2027 with fifteen or more employees, and from May 10, 2028 with fewer. - [ADA compliance for PDFs and files](https://esther.ai/published-documents) ### Common questions **Is there a legal deadline for a business website to be accessible?** For most businesses and nonprofits, no. No federal regulation sets a date or a standard for their websites. The Department of Justice has "consistently taken the position" that the ADA applies to what businesses offer, "including those offered on the web," and claims are filed in federal court every week. Organizations funded by the Department of Health and Human Services are the exception, with dates in May 2027 and May 2028. **How many ADA website lawsuits are filed?** Seyfarth Shaw counted 3,117 federal lawsuits in 2025 claiming that a website could not be used by people with impairments, up 27% on the year before. The count covers federal court only. Demand letters and suits in state court sit outside it. **Are small businesses affected?** Size is no protection. A small family blueberry farm in Michigan received a demand letter over its online store, from a law firm in California. **Which barriers matter most on a business website?** The ones that stop someone from finishing: checkout, booking, account login, and donating or registering. A barrier on a page of text may make it harder to read. A barrier in checkout turns someone away, and that is what can become a claim. **Which standard does a business website have to meet?** No regulation names one for private organizations. The Department of Justice calls existing standards such as WCAG "helpful guidance," and its own settlements with private businesses have required WCAG 2.1 at Level AA. ### The record should exist before the claim. Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin. ## How this has played out for other organizations. URL: https://esther.ai/precedent These are matters on the public record: settlement agreements, consent decrees, and a regulator's order. Each shows what an organization was required to do about a website, an app, or its documents, and each carries the citation to look it up. They were chosen because every fact shown comes from the agreement or order itself. They are terms the parties accepted, not rulings after a trial. Where the record is silent, so is the page. A court clerk, a law library, or the agency named will have each one. ### Public bodies Two public universities, a city, a transit district, a state agency, and a county. Each was required to meet a named standard by a set date. #### Aleeha Dudley and United States v. Miami University > **Eighteen months, and $25,000** (Consent decree · December 2016) > **At issue:** whether people with disabilities could use the university's technology and course materials on an equal basis. > **Required:** existing web content Miami created and published since January 2012 brought to WCAG 2.0 Level AA within eighteen months. For outside systems used for "critical or important transactions (e.g., websites used for campus housing, campus dining, registering for classes, paying bills, obtaining transcripts)," conformance or equally effective alternate access. Payments totaling $25,000 to individuals the United States named. > Source: U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, No. 1:14-cv-38 #### United States and the City and County of Denver, Colorado > **Six months, vendors included** (Settlement agreement · January 2018) > **At issue:** the accessibility of the city's websites and online services. > **Required:** within six months, websites and all online services, "including those websites or online services provided by third parties upon which Denver relies to provide services or content," to WCAG 2.0 Level AA. An independent consultant, approved by the United States, to evaluate them. > Source: DJ # 204-13-298 · justice.gov #### United States and Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District > **Nine months, and $100,000** (Settlement agreement · December 2021) > **At issue:** the accessibility of the district's websites, web content, and mobile applications. > **Required:** all of them to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within nine months. An investment of "a minimum of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) over the term of the Agreement to improve its services for individuals with disabilities." > Source: DJ No. 204-24-129 · justice.gov #### United States v. The Regents of the University of California > **Nine months to three years, podcasts and YouTube included** (Consent decree · December 2022) > **At issue:** the accessibility of the University of California, Berkeley's free public online content: its website, its online courses, and its audio and video. > **Required:** that content to WCAG 2.0 Level AA: online-course content and new audio and video within nine months, the website within eighteen, and existing audio and video within thirty-six. Channels the university controls on outside platforms, "such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify" and "such as YouTube," are included. An independent auditor, approved by the United States, "whose team includes individuals with disabilities who are experienced users of assistive technology." > Source: U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 4:22-cv-07345-DMR #### United States and Service Oklahoma > **Six months** (Settlement agreement · January 2024) > **At issue:** a state agency's mobile ID app. A federal letter of findings (November 2023) concluded that "because of accessibility barriers, people with vision disabilities cannot use it." > **Required:** any mobile app the agency "creates, administers, or maintains" to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within six months. The agency decided to withdraw the app within thirty days. > Source: Settlement agreement, United States and Service Oklahoma · justice.gov #### United States and Smith County, Texas > **Four months** (Settlement agreement · June 2024) > **At issue:** the accessibility of the county's online election content. > **Required:** "all existing information on the County's Election Website and Election Online Content, including audio and video content," to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within four months, with the help of a Website Auditor. Reports to the United States within four months "and every six (6) months thereafter." > Source: DJ # 204-75-152 · justice.gov (Denver ¶36(a), Champaign-Urbana ¶11, Smith County ¶17. Public records.) - [For state and local government](https://esther.ai/for-government) ### Businesses For businesses and nonprofits, no regulation sets a web standard or a date. These records show what individual businesses have been required to do anyway. #### National Federation of the Blind v. Target Corporation > **$6,000,000, and three years of testing** (Class settlement · March 2009) > **At issue:** whether shoppers who are blind could use Target.com. In 2006 the court held that the ADA covered the website to the extent it connected customers to the goods and services in Target's stores. > **Required:** "the payment by Defendant of $6,000,000 to the California Settlement Class." A website on which "blind guests using screen-reader software may acquire the same information and engage in the same transactions as are available to sighted guests with substantially equivalent ease of use." Testing by the National Federation of the Blind, including testing by people who are blind every year, for at least three years. Legal fees and costs, awarded separately: $3,738,864.96. > Source: U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. C 06-01802 MHP #### National Federation of the Blind v. HRB Digital LLC > **$55,000, paid to the Department** (Consent decree, the United States intervening · March 2014) > **At issue:** whether people who are blind could use H&R Block's website and its online tax preparation. > **Required:** www.hrblock.com and "the Online Tax Preparation Product" to WCAG 2.0 Level AA by January 1, 2015, and the mobile apps by January 1, 2016. An independent consultant, "approved by all parties," evaluating the work every year. "A civil penalty of $55,000," and $22,500 to each of two people who brought the claim. > Source: U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, No. 1:13-cv-10799 #### United States and Hy-Vee, Inc. > **Ninety days, tested by users** (Settlement agreement · December 2021) > **At issue:** a supermarket chain's COVID-19 vaccine registration website. A federal compliance review found it was not accessible to some people with disabilities, "including those who use screen reader software and those who have difficulty using a mouse to navigate the website." > **Required:** the registration website, the paths leading to it, and any vaccine content on the site to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within ninety days. An independent consultant, approved by the United States, within five days. Testing every thirty days by at least one person who uses a screen reader and one who cannot use a mouse. > Source: Settlement agreement, United States and Hy-Vee, Inc. · ada.gov #### United States and Rite Aid, Kroger, Meijer, and CVS > **Thirty days, four more chains** (Four settlement agreements · November 2021 to April 2022) > **At issue:** the barrier Hy-Vee's agreement addressed, at four more pharmacy and grocery chains: online COVID-19 vaccine booking that people using screen reader software could not complete. At Kroger, "appointment selection buttons erroneously told screen reader users that available appointment times were unavailable." At CVS, a keyboard user "would need to press the Tab key hundreds, or potentially thousands, of times to move past one control." > **Required:** the booking websites to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within thirty days (Rite Aid, Kroger, and Meijer), or from the day the agreement took effect (CVS). Regular testing by people who are blind, people with low vision, and people with disabilities who have difficulty using a mouse. Critical problems found in testing fixed within ten days at Rite Aid, Kroger, and CVS. > Source: Settlement agreements between the United States and Rite Aid Corporation (November 2021), The Kroger Co. (January 2022), Meijer, Inc. (February 2022), and CVS Pharmacy, Inc. (April 2022) (The Hy-Vee agreement, ¶12(b) and ¶18. Public record.) - [For private organizations](https://esther.ai/for-business) ### Vendors These do a different job. The matters above show what organizations were required to do. These show what happened when a vendor's own account of its work was tested. #### State of California ex rel. Bryan Bashin v. Conduent Incorporated, et al. > **$2,050,000** (Settlement · November 2023) > **At issue:** a claim that ReserveCalifornia.com, the reservations website built under a state contract for California's Department of Parks and Recreation, did not meet the contract's accessibility requirements. Brought under the California False Claims Act and the Unruh Civil Rights Act. > **Required:** "the total aggregate lump sum of Two Million Fifty Thousand Dollars ($2,050,000.00)," including up to $50,000 to fund "a comprehensive audit of the Website by Prime Access Consulting." > Source: Superior Court of California, County of Alameda, No. RG18888208 #### In the Matter of accessiBe Inc. and accessiBe Ltd. > **$1,000,000, paid to the Commission** (Federal Trade Commission order · April 2025) > **At issue:** how the company described what its product could do for a website's conformance with WCAG. > **Required:** no representation that the product "can make any website compliant with WCAG," or that it "can ensure continued automatic compliance with WCAG over time as website content changes," unless the claim is non-misleading and supported by competent and reliable evidence. A payment: "Respondents must pay to the Commission $1,000,000." > Source: Federal Trade Commission, Docket No. C-4817 (The Bashin settlement agreement, ¶24, and the FTC order, Provision I. Public records.) ### Where does your organization stand? Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin.