Litigation Risk

AllyProof assesses your site's litigation risk by mapping violations against the specific accessibility rules cited most frequently in ADA website accessibility lawsuits. This helps agencies prioritize remediation for issues that carry the highest legal exposure.

Background

Over 5,000 ADA website accessibility lawsuits are filed annually in the US, growing at approximately 37% year-over-year. Analysis of court filings shows that the vast majority of lawsuits cite a small number of recurring accessibility failures. Seven axe-core rules account for approximately 89% of issues cited in litigation.

Top 7 Lawsuit-Cited Rules

The following rules appear most frequently in ADA lawsuit complaints, based on analysis of court filings:

Rank	axe-core Rule	WCAG Criterion	Lawsuit citation rate	Issue
1	`image-alt`	1.1.1 Non-text Content	27%	Images missing alternative text
2	`label`	1.3.1 / 4.1.2	21%	Form inputs without labels
3	`color-contrast`	1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum)	17%	Insufficient text color contrast
4	`link-name`	2.4.4 Link Purpose	11%	Links with no accessible name
5	`html-has-lang`	3.1.1 Language of Page	6%	Missing `lang` attribute on HTML element
6	`bypass`	2.4.1 Bypass Blocks	4%	No skip navigation or landmark regions
7	`aria-*` rules	4.1.2 Name, Role, Value	3%	Invalid ARIA attributes or roles

Combined, these 7 categories account for 89% of issues cited in ADA website accessibility lawsuits. Fixing these rules dramatically reduces legal exposure.

Risk Scoring Algorithm

AllyProof calculates a litigation risk score based on the presence and severity of violations in the top 7 lawsuit-cited rules:

litigation_risk_score = sum(
  for each lawsuit-cited rule:
    violation_count × rule_weight × severity_multiplier
)

Where:
  rule_weight = lawsuit citation rate (e.g. 0.27 for image-alt)
  severity_multiplier:
    critical = 2.0
    serious  = 1.5
    moderate = 1.0
    minor    = 0.5

Risk Rating Thresholds

Score range	Rating	Meaning
0	Low	No violations in lawsuit-cited rules. Minimal legal exposure from automated findings.
1-15	Medium	Some violations in lawsuit-cited rules. Remediation recommended within 30 days.
16+	High	Significant violations in frequently-cited rules. Immediate remediation recommended.

Dashboard Display

The litigation risk rating appears on the site detail page alongside the accessibility score. It includes:

A color-coded badge (green/yellow/red) with the risk level
A breakdown showing which lawsuit-cited rules have violations and their counts
Direct links to the specific violations contributing to the risk score
Recommended priority order for remediation (highest-weight rules first)

Worked Example

A site scan finds the following violations in lawsuit-cited rules:

image-alt:      5 critical violations × 0.27 × 2.0 = 2.70
label:          3 serious violations  × 0.21 × 1.5 = 0.95
color-contrast: 8 serious violations  × 0.17 × 1.5 = 2.04
link-name:      2 serious violations  × 0.11 × 1.5 = 0.33
html-has-lang:  0 violations                        = 0.00
bypass:         1 moderate violation   × 0.04 × 1.0 = 0.04
aria-*:         0 violations                        = 0.00

Total litigation risk score = 6.06
Rating: Medium

Remediation Priority

Based on the litigation risk analysis, AllyProof recommends fixing violations in this order:

image-alt (27% citation rate) — Add descriptive alt text to all informative images, alt="" for decorative ones
label (21% citation rate) — Associate every form input with a visible <label> element
color-contrast (17% citation rate) — Ensure 4.5:1 ratio for normal text, 3:1 for large text
link-name (11% citation rate) — Give every link descriptive text or an aria-label
html-has-lang (6% citation rate) — Add lang attribute to the <html> element
bypass (4% citation rate) — Add skip navigation link or use landmark regions
aria-* (3% citation rate) — Fix invalid ARIA attributes and ensure roles have required properties

Important Limitations

Not legal advice — The litigation risk score is an informational tool based on publicly available lawsuit data. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be the sole basis for legal decisions. Consult an attorney for legal guidance.
Automated coverage only — The risk score is based on violations detectable by automated scanning. Some lawsuit-cited issues (like keyboard traps or inaccessible CAPTCHA) require manual testing to identify.
Historical data — Citation rates are based on historical lawsuit analysis and may shift as litigation patterns evolve.
Zero violations does not mean zero risk — A Low rating means minimal risk from automated findings. Manual-only issues can still create legal exposure.