Thousands of lawsuits have been filed against businesses across the country, including in Pittsburgh, alleging discrimination against people with disabilities. Frustration is growing from small businesses saying they are being unfairly targeted, despite efforts to make their websites compliant with the law.
The lawsuits claim people with disabilities, specifically those with visual impairments, are being left out, unable to do things like shop online due to a company’s website that is not accessible.
The Americans with Disabilities Act requires businesses to make their product accessible to everyone and to make special accommodations to ensure people with disabilities can get access. An 11 Investigates collaboration found that requirement is easier said than done when it comes to websites, as opposed to physical places.
In Pittsburgh, well-known brands like American Eagle, Dick’s Sporting Goods and GNC have been sued, claiming discrimination for failing to make their websites accessible to someone who is visually impaired.
Small businesses, locally and across the country, are also taking heat and less likely to be able to absorb the legal costs the way giant corporations can.
“It’s just it’s a wipeout machine,” said fashion designer and business owner Sara Campbell.
Campbell runs a women’s clothing brand that has two dozen stores along the East Coast. Her brand has faced three lawsuits for alleged accessibility issues on saracampbell.com. She was hit with the first one in 2022.
“The lawyer threatens us. It’s out of a different state. You know, we’re scared to death,” she said. “They start with 25 (thousand) and you have to negotiate down… I don’t even know what I did wrong. That’s the problem, I don’t even know what we did wrong.”
After the first lawsuit, Campbell hired someone to make her website compliant, but keeps getting sued. Campbell said her company, following legal advice, settled each of the three lawsuits out of court. She believes they have cost her business approximately $200,000 total.
Our investigation turned up similar stories coast to coast, business owners from Boston to Orlando and Jacksonville to Seattle, who have been sued. Business owners, defense attorneys and experts said law firms looking for an easy payday are misusing the law and targeting small businesses unfairly.
11 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.
In 2025, we tracked nearly 4,000 cases. Of those, 90% were filed by just 16 law firms.
“Filing a lot of lawsuits for the right reasons can be a beneficial and necessary thing,” said Bruce Carlson, founding partner of Carlson Brown in Pittsburgh.
Back in 2013, he was one of the first lawyers in the country to file one of these lawsuits and says he has filed hundreds since.
“This is typical of my strategy when my firm gets involved in litigation… If there’s a trend in a particular industry where accessibility is being blocked, we want to move the ball on an industry-wide basis,” Carlson said. “But we also try to be mindful of business reality. I’m never looking to try and put some small business into a financially untenable situation.”
That may not be his strategy, but he agrees that some law firms are abusing the system.
“I’m gonna choose my words carefully. I think that there are low barriers to entry to do these types of lawsuits. You know, it’s easy for somebody to go on the electronic filing system for cases that are filed in federal court, PACER, and essentially plagiarize pleadings from lawyers who know what they’re doing,” he said. “They can go out there and file lawsuits in what I would say can be an abusive manner or an abusive way.”
Martin Krezalek, partner at Blank Rome out of New York, would agree with that. He has become a go-to defense attorney for website accessibility lawsuits.
“I’d say that they are unfair. I think it’s a misuse of a statute with good intentions, and I think it’s been hijacked, I don’t think that’s too strong of a word, by opportunist plaintiff’s lawyers who are using it to pad their own pockets,” Krezalek said.
His firm has defended a number of cases filed in federal court in the Western District of Pennsylvania, including some against Carlson.
Krezalek explained that these cases rarely go to trial, and it is difficult to get to depositions.
“But I did get a deposition in a New York case several months ago, and yeah, what I exposed was shocking,” Krezalek said. “The plaintiff’s lawyer filed dozens of complaints in the months prior, claiming that she wanted to buy a laptop. She sued four different computer companies, HP, Dell. When I asked her whether she was in a market for a laptop, she said no. She sued a company claiming she was wanting to buy nutritious food for her children. When I asked her under oath whether she had children, she said no.”
Carlson said those kinds of cases hurt his cause and can be detrimental to the plaintiffs and attorneys trying to bring about real and necessary change.
“I’m not an advocate of that approach… It can actually be a disservice to the disabled community,” Carlson said.
Small business owners say the lawsuits are also hurting them. Keep in mind their legal costs are often passed along to consumers.
Stephanie Martz is the general counsel of the National Retail Federation. She has been concerned about accessibility cases against small businesses for almost a decade.
“I think that these cookie-cutter complaints at the very least should be sanctioned, and I think there should be investigations into the lawyers who continue to bring them,” Martz said.
Some opponents of the law are in favor of updating the ADA to give website owners clear guidance and a roadmap to compliance.
This is an ongoing investigation. If your business has faced a website accessibility lawsuit or you are visually impaired and have already filed or are in the process of filing a lawsuit and you would like to be part of future coverage, let us know your story at 11investigates@wpxi.com.
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