Florida Dental Association advising dentists to address website accessibility

January 15, 2026 - David Hall
Category: Accessibility

Last Wednesday, the Florida Dental Association sent out a notice to dental offices advising them to make sure their websites are accessible to people with disabilities. They attached a PDF with a flow chart explaining how to check the website for accessibility. You can see that here.

I have done a fair amount of research about website accessibility requirements and have published a couple of posts on this blog that go into quite a bit of detail on this. To read them, check the link on the right to the accessibility category. I have also written articles for Dental Economics and for Search Engine News on website accessibility. Let me here only reference three points I made in these posts and articles.

• First, contrary to what some people who are selling website accessibility services claim, federal law does not require your website to be 100% compliant with the stringent WCAG guidelines. There is a reasonableness standard that has been established. That takes the cost for most non-compliant websites down from the five-figure neighborhood to usually well under $1000.
• Second, you can’t insulate yourself against an accessibility lawsuit simply by installing a plug-in. AccessiBe is a leading marketer of these plug-ins. We like AccessiBe and have a licensure agreement with them that allows us to sell those plug-ins. If you want one, we’ll be happy to sell you one. But that won’t deter a lawyer. Read the posts I wrote where I quote an expert’s opinion on this. Your website needs to meet certain structural requirements.
• Third, you have to realize that the lawsuits are rarely instigated by a disabled person who has become frustrated with trying to use your website. Almost always, they are instigated by lawyers who are cruising the internet looking for targets. So the object is to make your site an unattractive target.

I’m guessing that this move by the Florida Dental Association is tied to a recent uptick in website accessibility lawsuits in Florida. I was recently forwarded a link to an article in the Main Street Daily News of Gainesville Florida about 49 ADA lawsuits filed in Gainesville against businesses, alleging that their websites weren’t accessible. Curious, I decided to research the lawyer, Aleksandra Kravets, who was representing the blind person, Makeda Evans, who was the plaintiff for all 49 lawsuits.

I found a post by another law firm, Barclay Damon, from September, 2025. This firm thoroughly searched court records for Aleksandra Kravets. It turns out that she had filed, as of the date of the post, a total of 178 website accessibility lawsuits representing five different plaintiffs in different communities. It is clear to me that what is happening is that this lawyer is recruiting plaintiffs and that it was her idea to file the suits. And while she may claim to the media that she is merely on a crusade to improve the accessibility of the internet, it kind of seems like her main motivation isn’t public service.

The bottom line is that, while you need to be mindful of the disabled person in updating your website, you main goal is to make it a less attractive target to a lawyer. And if you need help, contact us. All our newer websites are made to required accessibility standards. We also know how to upgrade the coding of your website to make it compliant.