ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News Investigates found thousands of lawsuits claiming stores and restaurants are not handicap-accessible. But the lawsuits have nothing to do with their brick-and-mortar locations; it’s all about the websites.
“In my experience, I don’t think there’s a website in the universe that’s compliant,” defense attorney Gary Edinger warns.
Blind and visually impaired users claim the sites are not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and an investigation by Channel 2 Action News Investigates and our sister stations across the country revealed thousands of lawsuits targeting business websites.
But some businesses that Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray spoke with believe it’s more about money than helping people with disabilities.
“We’re scared to death,” Sara Campbell said.
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Campbell owns stores and an e-commerce site for her fashion business.
“We’re just so small as a small business, it’s just a wipeout machine,” she said.
Campbell owns a location in Buckhead and several more throughout the eastern United States, but it is her online business that is now her biggest storefront.
That website was caught in a blitz of dozens of business lawsuits by just one plaintiff. Campbell estimates that it has cost her business more than $200,000 to address.
Channel 2 Action News Investigates and our sister stations combed through tens of thousands of lawsuits across the country. We found more than 15,000 in the past four years claiming visually impaired people had trouble accessing a company’s website.
“My attorneys told me, you can fight it, but you’re going to lose,” restaurant owner Jacques Klempf said.
Initially, it was a surprise as well as a shock," Kitty Khanna, who runs a flower shop with her daughter, said. “Did we not help a customer or something? But it was totally different.”
“They told us to settle,” Ajeet Khanna, Kitty’s daughter, said.
Under the law, plaintiffs can’t seek damages, but attorneys are paid for their costs and time.
In 2025 alone, our investigation tracked nearly 4,000 cases, finding that 90% were filed by just 16 specialized disability law firms.
“Accessibility should be about helping people, not scaring small businesses into settlements,” said Shir Donovick, a women’s wear retailer.
“This law needs to be looked at because it is being abused,” Klempf said.
The lawyers behind the lawsuits see it differently.
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Bruce Carlson, an attorney who has filed hundreds of other ADA suits, including against Donovick, said that the repeated suits and mass filing can sometimes be the tactics that finally get an industry to make needed changes.
“I think it can be abused,” Carlson said. “We file a lot of lawsuits because that’s what we need to do to accomplish the goal of impactful litigation.”
Carlson explained that the law varies from place to place across the country as websites were evaluated in court on a case-by-case basis.
For things like handicap accessible ramps and counters, the U.S. Department of Justice sets clear federal guidelines.
But there aren’t similar universal guidelines for websites that guarantee a business can be compliant, especially as technology continues to evolve.
That means even if a business settles a lawsuit, they could be hit again with another.
Sara Campbell hired specially trained ADA coders to reprogram her website and even hired a school for the blind to help fix her website.
“Morally, we’ve done everything we can to be in compliance,” she said.
But even after all the changes and upgrades, Campbell was sued two more times.
“I don’t understand to this day what happened with the last lawsuits,” Campbell said. “I just know we spent a lot of money.”
We found similar lawsuits against metro Atlanta businesses, big and small. The lawsuits hit everything, whether they were small stores and boutiques like Swoozie’s in Buckhead, comfort food spots like the Flying Biscuit or expense account dining at Chop’s Lobster Bar.
They also hit major Atlanta companies like Home Depot, Spanx and Chick-fil-A.
“If you assume that the cost of settling every single one of those cases is at least $15,000 plus possibly attorney’s fees, that adds up,” said Stephanie Martz with the National Retail Foundation. “If you prorate that around to all consumers and all families, that is a cost that is just a silly, pointless cost with no social value that people are having to pay.”
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It contrasts with traditional brick and mortar businesses, where the federal government sets very clear rules on things like wheelchair accessibility, pool lifts and other accommodations. In 2010, the Department of Justice started the legal process to set specific standards for website compliance with the ADA, but the work was never finalized.
It’s left a unique way for law firms to push the boundaries of what the ADA is intended to support, and for some, an opportunity to cash in on the uncertain legal landscape.
“I’ve been really, really disappointed on how people can find ways to come at you,” Campbell said.
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