Protect Your Website: Accessibility Lawsuit Insights Part 2

Join Natalie Garza and Natalie MacLees for the 30th episode of the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast to explore statistics and dive into state-level compliance with accessibility laws and the prevalence of ADA lawsuits. The hosts discuss specific state requirements in Texas, Illinois, and Minnesota, and elaborate on the differences between Section 508 and WCAG guidelines. They also analyze the statistics of ADA lawsuits targeting WordPress, Shopify, and custom-coded websites, and provide crucial compliance deadlines for the European Accessibility Act (EAA) and ADA Title II.

Natalie Garza: Hello everybody, and welcome to the AAArdvark Accessibility Podcast. I’m Natalie Garza, and with me today is,

Natalie MacLees: Natalie MacLees.

Natalie Garza: And in this episode, we’re gonna go over some more statistics and dive into them. So first statistic, I’m going to read out:

“The key areas of focus for businesses in 2025 include state-level compliance, proactive accessibility measures, and preparation for the EAA, which will begin enforcement in June 2025.”

And I looked into the United States. That’s where we live. I actually found, in addition to the ADA, that each state may or may not have its own accessibility requirements. So I wanted to talk about state level accessibility.

So, Natalie, I know you talked about California last time and also New York. Do you wanna go over some of the other states?

Natalie MacLees: Yeah, Sure. We can go over some of the other states. So we have Texas, which has Administrative Code Section 206 that generally is aligned with Section 508, Section 504, saying that websites are required to meet specific standards.

(Texas Administrative Code Chapter 206 is only applicable to state agencies and higher education websites as of 08/2025)

Do you know Natalie, if that is just government websites or does it apply to private business websites as well?

Natalie Garza: I am gonna have to look into that. But you mentioned that there is a difference, and most states, and most laws apply to government sites, don’t they?

Natalie MacLees: In the United States, that’s generally true. Most of our accessibility laws that apply to websites apply only to government websites.

There are a few states and, like local governments, that have requirements for private websites, but most of the laws are focused on government websites or websites that are associated with the government in some way, like public universities, public libraries and things like that.

So you know, our borders, our political borders that we use as humans, kind of become meaningless on the web, and it gets a little bit sticky about who can apply, which laws where and how.

So we could talk about Illinois, which has a law that applies to the state agencies, so any of their state agencies must have accessible websites. So following similar rules to Section 508.

(Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act applies to state agencies and universities; however, it does not apply to local governments, school districts, community colleges, or private organizations.)

And, Minnesota has a similar law, and that also applies to all of their state websites, and they were one of the earliest states to have a law, an accessibility law that applied to their government websites.

(Minnesota Statutes 16E.03, 363A.42, and 363.43 apply to state agencies, continuing education, or professional deve...