This is still not clear under the law. There are competing statutes and case law. We have written extensively on the topic throughout this site. Here's the rule of thumb. If people come to your place of business in order to transact business, you should likely make your website ADA compliant. Start your journey of understanding here.

{
"@context": "https://schema.org",
"@type": "FAQPage",
"mainEntity": [{
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Does ADA apply to small businessess?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "This is still not clear under the law. There are competing statutes and case law. We have written extensively on the topic throughout this site. Here's the rule of thumb. If people come to your place of business in order to transact business, you should likely make your website ADA compliant. Start your journey of understanding here."
}
}, {
"@type": "Question",
"name": "How is my site affected if I get sued?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "The exposure to a lawsuit is sort of frightening because if a lawsuit gets filed, that means the event already happened (where someone with a disability could not access your website. And that could cost $4,000 per occurrence). Even if you fix your website now to be in compliance, that only helps going forward. Bottom line is fix it now if you are scared or cautious or want to simply provide equal access to all."
}
}, {
"@type": "Question",
"name": "What if we update our website and the laws change?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "If you update your website and make it ADA compliant, then if the laws change you may have to do more work to comply with the new laws. The point of doing the work now though is to both provide equal access and separately to avoid disability lawsuits."
}
}, {
"@type": "Question",
"name": "How is the Americans with Disabilities Act enforced?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text": "All it takes is one person with a disability (covered by the ADA) to come to your site and not be able to access the site (based on the guidelines covered under ADA and WCAG). That person can then find an attorney who can sue you for noncompliance. It's statutory which means the penalties are sort of set in stone. And there could be legal fees too."
}
}, {
"@type": "Question",
"name": "Are there benefits to making my website accessible?",
"acceptedAnswer": {
"@type": "Answer",
"text":"There are a variety of reasons to make your site comply with ADA. First, is to simply provide equal access. Second, is to avoid lawsuits. Third is it's good for business. Read more about it here."}
}]
}

The exposure to a lawsuit is sort of frightening because if a lawsuit gets filed, that means the event already happened (where someone with a disability could not access your website. And that could cost $4,000 per occurrence). Even if you fix your website now to be in compliance, that only helps going forward. Bottom line is fix it now if you are scared or cautious or want to simply provide equal access to all.

If you update your website and make it ADA compliant, then if the laws change you may have to do more work to comply with the new laws. The point of doing the work now though is to both provide equal access and separately to avoid disability lawsuits.

All it takes is one person with a disability (covered by the ADA) to come to your site and not be able to access the site (based on the guidelines covered under ADA and WCAG). That person can then find an attorney who can sue you for noncompliance. It's statutory which means the penalties are sort of set in stone. And there could be legal fees too.

There are a variety of reasons to make your site comply with ADA. First, is to simply provide equal access. Second, is to avoid lawsuits. Third is it's good for business. Read more about it here.