ADA vs. Section 508 vs. EAA: Which Attorney Do You Need?

If you have ever received a demand letter about your website, you already know how confusing the legal landscape can feel. Someone mentions the ADA. Someone else mentions Section 508. A colleague with European customers brings up the EAA.

Suddenly you are trying to figure out not just what these laws require, but are left asking, which attorney do you need.

The truth is that these three laws serve different purposes, cover different organizations, and come with different legal exposure. Picking the right attorney starts with understanding which law actually applies to you.

Why Picking the Right Attorney Matters

Digital accessibility litigation has grown into one of the most active areas of civil litigation in the United States.

According to Seyfarth Shaw, a law firm that has tracked ADA Title III filings since 2013, plaintiffs filed 3,117 federal website accessibility lawsuits in 2025, a 27 percent jump from 2024. Website accessibility cases now make up 36 percent of all ADA Title III lawsuits filed in federal court, up from 28 percent the year before.

That litigation is not limited to big-name retailers, either. According to the American Bar Association, more than 28 percent of adults in the United States, or roughly 70 million people, have some type of disability, according to CDC data. That is a significant share of potential customers who may run into barriers on an inaccessible website, and it is a big part of why plaintiff firms keep filing new cases.

With that much legal activity, it helps to know exactly which statute is relevant to your organization before you start calling attorneys.

ADA, Section 508, or EAA: Which Attorney Do You Need?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in places of public accommodation. Title III, the part most relevant to businesses, applies to private companies that serve the public, including retailers, restaurants, hotels, healthcare providers, and virtually any business with a public-facing website.

Because the ADA is enforced primarily through private lawsuits and DOJ complaints, businesses of every size, not just large corporations, have been named as defendants. Seyfarth Shaw’s research shows that nearly half of 2025’s federal filings targeted companies that had already been sued at least once before.

You likely need an ADA-focused attorney if:

• You run a private U.S. business that serves customers online, in a physical location, or both
• You received a demand letter or lawsuit alleging your website is inaccessible
• You want a legal risk assessment before launching a new website or app
• You are trying to understand your exposure in states like New York, Florida, or California, which see the highest volume of filings

This is where the comparison of an ADA compliance lawyer vs Section 508 lawyer usually starts, because many business owners assume the two laws work the same way. They do not.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

Section 508 is a different animal entirely. It applies to federal agencies and to organizations that do business with the federal government or receive federal funding, not to private businesses generally.

Under Section 508, federal agencies must ensure that the electronic and information technology they develop, procure, maintain, or use is accessible to people with disabilities, both employees and members of the public.

Section 508 complaints are typically filed as administrative complaints with the agency involved, though individuals can also pursue remedies through federal court.

The technical requirements are based on WCAG standards as well, so there is real overlap with ADA best practices, but the legal mechanism, the enforcement body, and the parties who can be held accountable are all different.

You likely need a Section 508-focused attorney if:

• You are a federal contractor or subcontractor selling technology, software, or digital services to a federal agency
• Your organization receives federal funding and needs to understand your ICT accessibility obligations
• You are a federal agency responding to an administrative complaint
• You need help preparing a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) as part of a government contract or procurement process

This is the second half of the ADA compliance lawyer vs Section 508 lawyer question. If your accessibility exposure comes from government contracts rather than general public-facing commerce, you need someone who understands federal procurement law and agency complaint procedures, not just Title III litigation.

The European Accessibility Act (EAA)

The EAA is the newest piece of this puzzle, and it matters to any business, including U.S. companies, that sells products or services to consumers in the European Union.

The directive covers sectors like e-commerce, banking, transportation, and telecommunications, and it relies on the EN 301 549 standard, which itself incorporates WCAG requirements.

Enforcement authority became active on June 28, 2025, but each of the 27 EU member states transposes the directive into its own national law and enforces it through its own regulators. That means penalty structures, complaint procedures, and enforcement priorities vary significantly from country to country, and a business could face separate proceedings in more than one country for the same underlying accessibility gap.

You likely need an EAA-focused attorney if:

• Your business sells goods or services to consumers based in the EU
• You operate an e-commerce platform, banking service, or transportation booking system with EU customers
• You have already received a formal notice or complaint from an EU regulator
• You want to understand your obligations before expanding into European markets

How to Choose the Right Attorney

In practice, these three legal frameworks are not mutually exclusive.

A mid-sized e-commerce company might face ADA litigation risk domestically while also selling to European customers and needing EAA guidance.

A software vendor might need Section 508 expertise for a government contract while also worrying about ADA exposure on its commercial-facing marketing site.

Here is a simple way to think about it:

1. Start with your business model. Do you serve the general public, sell to the federal government, sell to EU consumers, or some combination of the three?
2. Match the law to the relationship. ADA applies based on your relationship with the public. Section 508 applies based on your relationship with the federal government. The EAA applies based on your relationship with EU consumers.
3. Look for litigation experience, not just familiarity. Given how active ADA Title III litigation has become, an attorney who has actually defended demand letters and lawsuits will be far more useful than one who has only read about the law.
4. Ask about technical fluency. All three frameworks lean on WCAG or WCAG-derived standards. An attorney who can work alongside your accessibility remediation team, rather than treating the technical side as someone else’s problem, will help you close gaps faster and avoid repeat claims.

The Bottom Line

The ADA, Section 508, and the EAA all aim to make digital experiences accessible, but they answer to different enforcement systems and protect different populations.

Knowing which one applies to your organization, and sometimes it is more than one, is the first step to finding the right legal counsel and reducing your actual risk, rather than guessing at compliance and hoping for the best.

If your organization is trying to sort out where its accessibility obligations begin and end, the right move is to get a clear picture of your legal exposure first, then bring in counsel who specializes in that specific framework.