A health inspector is going to have more options than "fine a buisness", "close a buisness" or "do nothing". They can also answer questions and hold a dialog or offer resources if it's clear that the people running the buisness are actively trying to do things right, but have gotten something wrong.

Where is the equivilant accessability inspector?

We also have food grades of A, B and C - A being the best and most commom, but B being good enough for a buisness to keep running without much penalty as they work to address the issues.

Where is our B grade option for the ADA? Because the likely cherrypicked story from the article absolutely described a B grade buisness. Scales too high? Reasonable complaint that needs fixing, but not a crisis. Reserved space next to parking lot large enough to be used but doesn't pass the measure test? I mean worth noting but not a huge deal. Customers in wheelchairs easily navigating technically too small isles? Again, minor issue.

Yeah, this is the only recourse people have. Lawsuits and maybe getting lucky with someone publishing a story about it

ADA went into effect in the 90s and it’s still on disabled people to complain instead of city permitting offices refusing businesses to open without meeting the standards, and more importantly landlords shouldn’t be able to rent out space that isn’t compliant.

They should be paying for it, not the mom and pop stores.

The buisnesses are facing pentalties in part because they are not able to access a legal system (in which a judge could respond to the suit with "Technically yes, this is a violation, but the law's spirit was followed. Defendant, bring your stuff up to the letter of the law. Dismissed.")

The number of complaints is limited to a few people because the knowledge and skill to actually complain is absurdly high.

This is going to the courts because we are missing accessability auditing infrastructure that would provode a cheaper means of handling the situation for all parties - and a trained auditor would be able to reward good faith efforts with a "No penalties, here is a list of issues to address".

The first response to an ADA violation should not be a lawsuit... but the other options are literally missing from our system.