Shopify ADA demand letter: what it means and how the response window works

What a demand letter is, and is not

A demand letter is a private notice, not a court document. Nothing has been decided, no judge has seen it, and you are not yet a defendant. What it is, is a deadline: the firm states that it will file a complaint if you do not respond by a date. Firms that send these letters send many of them, and most follow the same template.

The letter is also a test report of sorts. The failures it lists were usually found by a tester using a screen reader on a handful of your store's pages. They are real in most cases, they are almost never the complete list, and they are the starting point of the technical work.

Anatomy of the letter

Most letters against Shopify stores contain the same parts:

• The plaintiff. A named person with a disability, usually a screen reader user, who says they tried to use your store and could not.
• The failures. A list of barriers found on your pages, often with references to WCAG success criteria and sometimes with screenshots: images without alternative text, unlabeled buttons and form fields, menus that do not work with a keyboard, low contrast.
• The legal basis. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and often a state law in addition, depending on where the plaintiff lives.
• The demand. A settlement payment. According to TestParty's review of 2025 and 2026 lawsuit data, initial demands usually sit between $1,500 and $5,000.
• The remediation commitment. A request that you fix the store, usually within 60 to 90 days, and sometimes that you publish an accessibility statement and allow a re-test.
• The deadline. Usually 30 to 60 days to respond before the firm files.

How the response window works

The window opens on the day you receive the letter and closes on the date it names. What happens inside it follows a pattern:

1. Your attorney acknowledges the letter

   A short response from counsel stops the firm from treating silence as a reason to file, and usually opens the door to a short extension if remediation is already under way.

2. The store is audited and a plan is written

   A technical audit against WCAG 2.2 AA covers the failures the letter names and the ones it missed. The result is a remediation plan with dates. This is the document that changes the conversation from "how much" to "what will be fixed and when".

3. Counsel negotiates

   With a plan in hand, your attorney negotiates the payment and the remediation terms. Firms respond to evidence that the barriers are being removed; it is what they say they are suing for.

4. Remediation runs against the agreed dates

   The theme is fixed, retested and documented. If the agreement includes a re-test by the plaintiff's expert, the evidence package is what shows the work was done.

If the window closes with no response, the firm files. A complaint carries its own, shorter deadline set by the court, and a default judgment if that one is missed too.

What to send your attorney in the first week

• The letter itself, with the date you received it
• A copy of the live theme, downloaded from the Shopify admin, and full-page screenshots of the pages the letter names
• The list of apps installed on the store, since app markup is a frequent source of failures
• The technical audit, as soon as it is ready
• The remediation plan with dates

What the remediation plan must contain

A plan your attorney can use is specific. For each failure it says which template it appears on, which WCAG 2.2 success criterion it fails, how it will be fixed (in the theme code, not with an overlay), by when, and how the fix will be verified. It also covers what the letter missed, because the plaintiff's expert will not stop at the letter's list on a re-test. It ends with an accessibility statement for the store and a short routine for keeping new products, images and apps accessible.

Why the letters keep reaching Shopify stores

Shopify stores share themes, apps and patterns, so a tester who knows one knows most of them. In EcomBack's report on the first quarter of 2026, Shopify was identified in 459 lawsuits, 44% of the ADA website lawsuits it tracked, and 265 lawsuits, about one in four, targeted stores that already had an accessibility widget installed. Restaurants and food and beverage (32%) and fashion and apparel (25%) were the most sued industries. A widget does not change the theme's code, which is why it does not stop the letters.

Frequently asked questions

Start with the letter

If you want the technical side handled inside the response window, send the letter and your store URL to gersen@gersenmedina.com. Gersen reads every message himself and replies with the scope for the audit and the next step. If the store was already sued, read what happens after a Shopify store is sued for ADA non-compliance.