DOJ ADA enforcement in 2025 and 2026 has been a study in contrasts: a handful of high-profile Title III lawsuits against Uber, SeaWorld’s parent company, and intercity bus lines are moving forward, while overall disability rights activity at the Civil Rights Division has dropped sharply under new leadership, the Section Chief post sits vacant, and the compliance deadline for the Title II web accessibility rule has been pushed back a year. Below is what the Justice Department is actually doing right now, case by case, and where the enforcement floor has moved.
The Uber Lawsuit
The department’s most consequential active case is United States v. Uber Technologies, Inc., filed September 11, 2025 in California under Title III of the ADA. The complaint alleges Uber routinely denies rides to riders who use service animals or stowable wheelchairs and charges disability-related surcharges. Uber argued it is a software platform, not a transportation provider subject to public-accommodation rules. On March 5, 2026, the federal court rejected that theory, citing Uber’s control over pricing, driver matching, and fees, and ordered the case into full discovery.1U.S. Department of Justice. United States v. Uber Technologies, Inc.
The government is seeking policy overhauls, mandatory driver training, and $125 million in damages for individual complainants.2Galloway Law Firm. DOJ v. Uber: Federal Court Greenlights Major ADA Pattern-or-Practice Lawsuit The case is styled as a pattern-or-practice action, meaning the DOJ is not litigating a single incident but a company-wide course of conduct.
SeaWorld and the Wheeled Walker Ban
In March 2026, the DOJ sued United Parks & Resorts Inc., which owns SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and Aquatica, over a November 2025 policy prohibiting guests from bringing wheeled walkers with seats, including rollators, into its parks.3U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Sues SeaWorld and Other Theme Parks Over Wheeled Walker Ban Filed in the Middle District of Florida, the complaint describes children, veterans, and other disabled guests forced to either use a substitute device that may not fit their needs or skip the visit. The DOJ pointed to an 8-year-old child whose prescribed pediatric posterior walker was turned away at the gate.4Disability Scoop. SeaWorld, Other Theme Parks Accused of Violating ADA
The government wants a court order changing the policy, ADA staff training, monetary damages, and a $118,225 civil penalty.5WFLA. DOJ Sues SeaWorld, Busch Gardens Owner Over Alleged Discrimination Against Disabled Guests United Parks called the ban a safety response to “repeated safety incidents involving misuse of rollators with seats” and said it offers alternative mobility devices at no charge. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay removed the ban from its website in March 2026; as of late March, the policy remained in effect at SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica Orlando, and Discovery Cove Orlando.4Disability Scoop. SeaWorld, Other Theme Parks Accused of Violating ADA
FlixBus and Greyhound Investigation
In August 2025, the DOJ opened a Title III investigation into Flix North America, FlixBus, and Greyhound Lines.6U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Opens Investigation Into Flix North America, FlixBus, and Greyhound Complaints allege the companies fail to maintain bus lifts, refuse to help passengers use them, improperly turn away service animals, abandon disabled passengers between legs of a trip, and don’t help riders exit and re-board at rest stops.7U.S. Department of Justice. Disability Rights Cases The matter is in the information-gathering phase, and the department has asked affected passengers to file complaints through the ADA.gov portal.8Emerging Horizons. DOJ Investigating Greyhound and FlixBus
Recent State Settlements and Findings
On December 18, 2025, the DOJ settled with South Carolina over allegations that the state violated the ADA and Olmstead v. L.C. by unnecessarily housing adults with serious mental illness in institutional Community Residential Care Facilities.9U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Reaches Agreement With South Carolina to Ensure Adults Access Community-Based Services The state must expand intensive community mental health services, housing, and peer support, provide statewide mobile crisis response, and identify people living in or referred to those facilities to connect them with community care. Notably, the DOJ itself will serve as the monitor rather than appointing an independent monitor, a departure from its prior practice.
A month earlier, on August 28, 2025, the department settled a Title II investigation of the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction, which runs more than 50 prisons holding over 30,000 people.10U.S. Department of Justice. Justice Department Secures Agreement With North Carolina Department of Adult Corrections Investigators found that deaf and hard-of-hearing inmates were denied sign language interpreters, hearing aids, cochlear implants, and video telephones, and were shut out of educational, vocational, counseling, and religious programming. The agreement requires individualized communication plans, 24/7 interpreter access, timely provision of hearing devices, expanded telecommunication time for people with hearing disabilities, and a prohibition on using other inmates as interpreters except in emergencies.11U.S. Department of Justice. North Carolina Department of Adult Correction Settlement Agreement
Three findings letters issued between December 2024 and January 2025 identified systemic problems in state systems:
- Alabama was found to unnecessarily segregate children with physical disabilities, including children in foster care and those with complex medical needs, in nursing facilities and hospitals.12U.S. Department of Justice. State of Alabama
- Idaho was found to push adults with physical disabilities into nursing facilities despite higher per-person costs; as of October 2024, 65% of Idahoans in nursing facilities wanted to live in the community but 82% had no active discharge plan.13Idaho Capital Sun. DOJ: Idaho Violating ADA With Lack of Services for People With Physical Disabilities
- The Arizona Department of Child Safety was found to discriminate against parents and children with disabilities by failing to provide effective communication, making custody decisions based on disability stereotypes, and tolerating derogatory staff language.14Arizona Capitol Times. Feds: Arizona Child Safety Agency Discriminates Against Parents, Children With Disabilities
Fashion Nova and Website Accessibility Settlements
On February 2, 2026, the DOJ filed a Statement of Interest opposing a proposed $5.15 million class settlement in Alcazar v. Fashion Nova Inc., a Title III case alleging the retailer’s website is inaccessible to blind and low-vision users.15U.S. Department of Justice. Alcazar v. Fashion Nova Inc. The department argued the injunctive relief amounted to a “mere recitation of the ADA obligation” with no monitoring, auditing, or enforcement, and that the settlement website itself was inaccessible to blind and low-vision class members. The DOJ also flagged the fee split: of the $5.15 million fund, about $2.5 million was earmarked for attorneys’ fees and costs, leaving roughly $2.43 million for class members. Class counsel had filed more than 500 similar suits, most ending in undisclosed settlements.16Hinckley Allen. DOJ Signals Heightened Scrutiny of ADA Website Accessibility Compliance Efforts The Northern District of California set an evidentiary hearing for March 30, 2026 on whether website barriers impaired class participation.
Title II Web Accessibility Rule and the Delayed Deadline
In April 2024, the DOJ finalized a rule requiring state and local government websites and mobile apps to conform to WCAG 2.1, Level AA, with compliance deadlines of April 24, 2026 for entities serving populations of 50,000 or more and April 26, 2027 for smaller entities and special districts.17ADA.gov. Web Accessibility Rule for State and Local Governments18Federal Register. Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability; Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities Limited exceptions apply to archived content, preexisting documents, third-party posts, password-protected individual records, and older social media posts.
On April 26, 2026, the DOJ issued an Interim Final Rule delaying both deadlines by one year. The National Federation of the Blind sued in the District of Maryland on May 27, 2026 to challenge the delay.19Law Office of Lainey Feingold. Title II Action Needed For private-sector sites, the DOJ has never set a binding technical standard under Title III, and no rulemaking is pending. Bipartisan legislation (H.R. 3417) introduced in 2025 would require the DOJ and EEOC to create enforceable technical standards for private websites and apps, but has not been enacted.20American Bar Association. Digital Accessibility Under Title III of the ADA
The Enforcement Slowdown Under New Leadership
Harmeet K. Dhillon was confirmed as Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division in early April 2025.21The Guardian. Justice Department Civil Rights Division Under Trump According to one tracking organization, disability-related enforcement activity has fallen roughly 85% from the final Biden year, and the Disability Rights Section Chief position has been vacant since the previous chief was removed in April 2025.22Redline Civil Rights. Disability
An internal policy statement now directs the section to devote its “resources, actions, attention, and energy to the priorities and objectives of the President,” which are tied to executive orders on gender identity policy rather than traditional disability enforcement. A Senate memo reports that no new disability rights investigations have been opened under this guidance; the only case to show progress in that window was the April 2025 Sea Mar dental clinic settlement, which had been negotiated earlier.23U.S. Senator Peter Welch. Welch Memo on DOJ Civil Rights Division
The division has also retracted findings from pattern-or-practice investigations into police responses to people with behavioral health disabilities in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Memphis, and Phoenix, and dismissed related lawsuits, including the Minneapolis case (dismissed with prejudice on May 27, 2025) and Louisville Metro (dismissed December 31, 2025).22Redline Civil Rights. Disability The active matters that continue to move (Uber, SeaWorld, FlixBus) were largely developed before the leadership change and, in some respects, align with the current administration’s stated interest in challenging large private-sector entities on service animal and mobility access.24U.S. Department of Justice. Disability Rights Section
What Doesn’t Change: Private Title III Suits
One boundary worth noting. Private ADA lawsuits under Title III proceed directly under the statute and are not affected by DOJ regulatory delays or enforcement rollbacks aimed at Title II state and local government entities.25WCAG Safe. ADA Lawsuit Statistics A business that reads the current federal posture as permission to slow accessibility work is misreading the risk map.