This guide is general information drawn from public reporting and court data. It is not written as, and does not represent, the personal or professional opinion of Ken Kuscher, and it is not legal advice.
A new kind of lawsuit is landing on Florida restaurants, and it has nothing to do with the kitchen. Over the past year, a small number of law firms have sued hundreds of Florida restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops and small businesses over their websites, claiming the sites cannot be used by blind and visually impaired customers. The claims cite the Americans with Disabilities Act, the same law behind accessible restrooms and parking. Most of the owners had never heard that it applied to a website until the letter arrived. This guide explains what is happening, what the claims cite, and what an operator can do about it before the letter comes.
Key takeaways
- The ADA requires businesses open to the public to serve people with disabilities equally, and the Department of Justice has said for years that this includes websites.
- One Florida attorney has filed more than 200 of these website suits. Restaurants named in the news include Al’s Pizza, Cowford Chophouse, European Street Cafe and Dockside Seafood in Jacksonville, and Satchel’s Pizza and Uppercrust bakery in Gainesville.
- Reported settlements run from about $6,500 to roughly $20,000 including attorney’s fees. The ADA does not award money to the plaintiff, so settlements mostly pay the lawyers.
- Restaurants, food and beverage businesses were the most sued industry in the country for website claims in early 2026, and most defendants are small businesses.
- The claims cite the same handful of technical problems on every site: PDF menus, photos with no descriptions, ordering buttons that do not work from a keyboard, and low contrast text. All of them are fixable.
- Pop-up “accessibility widget” plugins do not fix the code. Businesses running them are still being sued.
What is happening in Florida
In February, Action News Jax reported that Pembroke Pines attorney Aleksandra Kravets had filed more than 200 ADA website lawsuits across Florida, many with the same Jacksonville plaintiff. The businesses named included Cowford Chophouse, European Street Cafe, Al’s Pizza and Dockside Seafood Restaurant. The owner of Cowford Chophouse told the station that settling cost roughly $20,000 including attorney’s fees, and said, “This law needs to be looked at because it’s being abused.”
The same month, WFTV Channel 9 in Orlando reported on Leaf & Blossom, a five-employee flower shop that paid more than $7,000 in legal fees and settlement after being sued by a plaintiff who had also sued Disney, SeaWorld and Fun Spot. The station found more than 15,000 of these cases nationwide over four years, with 90 percent filed by just 16 law firms.
The volume keeps rising. The law firm Seyfarth Shaw, which tracks these cases, counted 961 federal website accessibility suits in Florida in 2025, almost double the year before, and Florida ranks second in the country. The accessibility firm UsableNet reports that about two thirds of the businesses sued have under $50 million in revenue, and that Florida is the most active federal jurisdiction in the nation for these claims. In the first quarter of 2026, restaurants, food and beverage businesses were the most sued category of all, about a third of every case filed.
What the law requires
Title III of the ADA requires a place of public accommodation, which includes every restaurant, to provide equal access to people with disabilities. The Department of Justice takes the position that a business website is part of that access. There is no official government certification for websites. Instead, courts and plaintiffs’ attorneys measure a site against a published technical standard called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1, Level AA (WCAG 2.1 AA).
A blind guest uses a program called a screen reader that reads the page out loud, and moves through the site with the keyboard instead of a mouse. If the site was not built for that, the guest cannot read the menu, find the hours, or place an order. That is the barrier the lawsuit describes.
What the claims cite on restaurant websites
The complaints are nearly identical from one restaurant to the next, because the firms use software to find the same defects on thousands of sites. On restaurant websites, these are the items that come up again and again:
| Problem on the site | What the guest experiences | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| The menu is a PDF, often a scanned image | The screen reader reads one long block of text, or nothing | Publish the menu as a real web page; keep the PDF for printing |
| Food photos and the logo have no text description | The guest hears “image, image, image” | Add a short description to every image |
| Online ordering, reservations and the mobile menu button need a mouse | The guest cannot order or open the menu | Make every button work from the keyboard |
| No visible indicator of where you are on the page | The guest cannot tell what they are about to click | Add a visible focus outline |
| Light gray text on white | People with low vision cannot read it | Raise the contrast |
| Photo galleries that rotate on their own | The screen reader keeps restarting | Add a pause button or stop the rotation |
None of these are exotic. Most were left behind by whoever built the site, because accessibility is not something most web designers check.
A warning about “accessibility widget” plugins
Many owners have installed a pop-up widget, usually around $50 a month, that promises to make a site accessible. It does not change the site’s code, and the lawsuits keep coming. UsableNet found that in August 2026 alone, 134 of the 432 businesses sued were running one of these widgets. In January 2025 the Federal Trade Commission ordered the largest widget company, accessiBe, to pay $1 million over its accessibility claims. If your site has one, do not rely on it as protection.
The courtroom view
Training and documentation gaps are often the pivot point of a lawsuit, and website claims work the same way. The question is not whether your site is perfect. It is whether you can show, on paper, that the site was tested against the standard, that the problems were fixed, and that someone checks it on a schedule. In April 2026 a federal court in New York dismissed a website suit because the business could produce a documented audit and repair record. Nobody can promise you will not receive a letter. A dated record changes what happens after you do.
For inspectors and consultants
If you inspect or consult for restaurants, this belongs on your checklist next to certificates and temperature logs. Operators trust you, and most have no idea their website is a liability. Forward this guide to the owners you work with. The check described below is free and takes them two minutes to request.
What to do this week
- Look at your own site the way a claim would. Is the menu a PDF? Can you reach every button with the Tab key? Do the photos have descriptions?
- Get it checked by someone who knows the standard. We had our own websites checked this month, including this one and our online course site, and fixed what was found.
- Keep the record. Whoever does the work should give you a dated document listing what was found, what was fixed and how it was tested. That is what you hand your attorney and your insurance carrier.
The company that built and maintains our online course site, JubilantWeb in Orlando, does exactly this work for Florida restaurants: real code repairs, not a widget, independent testing, and a signed remediation record, at a price well below the large accessibility firms. They offer readers of this newsletter a free website check that shows what a claim would cite on your site.
Request your free website check here
There is also a federal tax credit for this kind of work. The Disabled Access Credit (IRS Form 8826) covers half of eligible accessibility spending between $250 and $10,250 for businesses with under $1 million in revenue or 30 or fewer employees. Ask your CPA whether you qualify.
Frequently asked questions
Does the ADA really apply to a restaurant website?
The Department of Justice says yes, and Florida federal courts have allowed these cases to go forward for years. There is no separate website law; the claims are filed under Title III of the ADA.
My restaurant is small. Am I really a target?
Most of the businesses sued are small. UsableNet reports about 68 percent have under $50 million in revenue, and the Florida cases in the news include pizza shops, a bakery, a coffee chain and a five-person flower shop.
Is a PDF menu a problem?
Usually yes, especially a scanned one. A screen reader either reads it as one block of text or cannot read it at all. Attorneys who defend these cases list inaccessible PDF menus among the most common items cited.
Will an accessibility widget protect me?
No. It does not fix the site’s code, businesses using widgets are still sued, and the FTC fined the largest provider $1 million in 2025.
What does it cost to fix?
It depends on the site. Most restaurant sites are small, and the repairs are a few days of work. Start with the free check and you will know exactly what needs to be done before spending anything.
I already received a letter. What now?
Talk to an attorney first. Then get the site fixed and documented quickly, because the repair record is what your attorney will use.
Your kitchen is inspected, your certificates are current, and your procedures are written down. Your website deserves the same discipline. Look at it this week, get it checked, and keep the record. If you have questions about food safety compliance or need guidance on a case as a food safety expert witness, you can contact Ken Kuscher.
This guide is a summary of public reporting and court data for operators to evaluate. It is not legal advice, and it is not written as or intended to represent the personal or professional opini