We test the journeys your users and buyers depend on, repair barriers at the source, and leave your team with retested evidence, not a scanner dump or a magic-widget promise.
Built for teams whose digital products serve the public.
Government-facing SaaSState & local organizationsHHS-funded careDigital agencies
Trusted across platforms
WordPress
Shopify
Webflow
Wix
Squarespace
WordPress
Shopify
Webflow
Wix
Squarespace
02 The evidence loop
Measure the barrier. Close the loop.
Automation gives breadth. Human testing finds meaning, interaction, and context. Engineering changes the experience. Retesting proves whether it improved.
01
Scope real journeys
Choose representative pages, shared components, and tasks such as apply, pay, book, enroll, or submit.
02
Test beyond the scan
Combine automated coverage with keyboard, zoom and reflow, semantics, and targeted assistive-technology review.
03
Repair at the source
Turn evidence into prioritized, developer-ready changes across code, content, documents, and third-party flows.
04
Retest and document
Record outcomes, remaining limitations, ownership, and safeguards that reduce regression risk after release.
03 Engagement path
Start with the journey. Scale with evidence.
One accountable path from diagnosis through implementation, with scope and limitations stated plainly.
Best first step
Priority Journey Review
One critical flow or 5-10 representative pages, examined with automation and focused manual testing.
Evidence-backed issue register
Developer-ready priorities
90-day remediation plan
Executive readout
Typical scope $2,500-$6,000
Usually 7-10 business days after access and scope confirmation.
Implement
Remediation & rebuilds
Fix defined barriers in the existing product, or rebuild when architecture, design-system, or CMS debt makes repair uneconomic.
We use WCAG 2.2 AA as a forward-looking engineering target where appropriate, while testing and reporting against the version actually named by the applicable rule or contract.
ADA Title II
Current compliance date for public entities serving 50,000 or more people. Every special district government uses the 2028 date, regardless of population.
HHS Section 504
Current compliance date for covered recipients of HHS financial assistance with 15 or more employees.
Smaller entities
Later dates apply to smaller covered entities and, under Title II, all special district governments. Coverage and exceptions remain fact-specific.
These dates reflect 2026 interim final rules. The cited rules codify WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA, not 2.2. Existing accessibility duties continue during implementation periods, and requirements may change. This page is general information, not legal advice.
05 Plain-language primer
What "ADA/WCAG 2.1 AA" actually means.
Both federal rules driving current deadlines point to the same technical standard. Here is what it covers, and what it does not.
The standard the rules actually name
DOJ's ADA Title II rule (28 CFR part 35) and HHS's Section 504 rule (45 CFR part 84) both incorporate the Level A and Level AA success criteria of the static June 2018 version of WCAG 2.1 — not 2.2. We test and report against the version your rule or contract actually names, and treat WCAG 2.2 AA as a forward-looking engineering target, not a claim of legal compliance.
Neither rule requires a specific vendor, scanner, or overlay widget. They require that the experience itself — the markup, focus order, labels, contrast, and structure — meets the named success criteria.
Who the current federal dates cover
Apr 26, 2027 — ADA Title II public entities (other than special districts) with population 50,000 or more.
Apr 26, 2028 — ADA Title II entities under 50,000 population, and all special district governments regardless of size.
May 11, 2027 — HHS Section 504 recipients of HHS financial assistance with 15 or more employees.
May 10, 2028 — HHS Section 504 recipients with fewer than 15 employees.
Dates reflect the 2026 interim final rules that extended both original compliance dates by one year. Existing nondiscrimination and effective-communication duties continue during the extension. This is general information, not legal advice; confirm applicability with qualified counsel.
What shows up in almost every audit
Seven violations we find most often
Missing or non-descriptive alt text — meaningful images and icons with no text alternative, or a redundant one.
Insufficient color contrast — body copy, placeholder text, or disabled-looking controls below the 4.5:1 (text) / 3:1 (large text, UI components) AA thresholds.
Keyboard traps and invisible focus — a removed focus outline with no visible replacement, or a focus order that skips controls entirely.
Unlabeled form fields — placeholder text standing in for a real, programmatically associated label.
Non-descriptive link and button text — "click here" or "read more" that means nothing out of context to a screen-reader user browsing by link list.
Heading structure used for visual styling — skipped or decorative heading levels that break the page outline assistive technology relies on.
Inaccessible PDFs and documents — scanned images with no OCR text layer, missing tags, or a reading order that does not match the visual layout.
06 Ungated field guide
The procurement-ready accessibility checklist.
Use this before an RFP, renewal, redesign, or ACR request. Read it free, right here, no email required.
Which standard and version is named? Capture the law, contract, RFP, or customer requirement rather than assuming.
02
Which complete journeys matter most? Include authentication, payment, forms, documents, and third-party handoffs.
03
Can keyboard and assistive-technology users finish them? A clean automated score cannot answer this.
04
Who can change the source? Name owners for code, content, PDFs, design systems, and vendors.
05
Is every claim backed by dated evidence? Record versions, environments, methods, defects, and limitations.
06
How will fixes be retested? Define acceptance criteria and preserve before-and-after evidence.
WCAG.World / ADA-WCAG readiness checklist
Print or save this. No email required. wcag.world
A. Standards you must meet
WCAG 2.1 AA (2018) - the technical baseline named by DOJ's ADA Title II rule and HHS's Section 504 rule. Treat WCAG 2.2 AA as the forward-looking engineering target, not a compliance claim.
ADA Title II - state and local government websites, apps, and digital services (28 CFR part 35).
Section 504 - any program or service that receives federal financial assistance (45 CFR part 84).
Section 508 - federal agencies and the contractors delivering technology to them.
EAA / EN 301 549 - required if you sell products or services to people in the EU; enforcement is phasing in through 2025-2026.
B. The readiness checklist
Concrete, developer-actionable checks - grouped the way WCAG groups them.
Perceivable
Text and UI components meet 4.5:1 (body) / 3:1 (large text, icons, borders) contrast.
Every meaningful image has accurate alt text; decorative images use alt="".
Color is never the only way a state or instruction is conveyed.
Video has accurate captions; audio-only content has a transcript.
Content reflows to 400% zoom / 320px width without loss of function.
Operable
Every interactive element is reachable and operable by keyboard alone.
Focus order follows a logical, visual reading order.
A visible focus indicator is never removed or hidden.
No keyboard traps - modals, menus, and widgets can always be exited.
Touch targets are at least 24×24 CSS px, or have equivalent spacing.
Skip links exist and land on real content.
Time limits can be extended, paused, or turned off.
Understandable
Every form field has a programmatic label, not just placeholder text.
Errors are identified in text, in context, next to the field.
Instructions don't rely on shape, position, or sound alone ("click the round button").
Page language and language changes are marked in code (lang attribute).
Navigation and naming are consistent across the site.
Robust
Markup validates - no duplicate IDs, unclosed elements, or invalid nesting.
Custom widgets expose correct ARIA name, role, and value, including state changes.
ARIA is used only to fix a real gap, not sprinkled on elements that already have a role.
Status messages (toasts, cart updates) are announced without moving focus.
Process
A current VPAT/ACR exists and names the actual standard and version tested.
A public accessibility statement lists known issues and a contact for feedback.
Accessibility is checked before launch, not only after a complaint.
Someone is named as the owner for code, content, PDFs, and vendor components.
Fixes are retested with actual keyboard and screen-reader use, not just a rescan.
C. You are not compliant if...
An overlay or widget script is your only accessibility work - it can't fix markup, focus order, or missing labels, and several have been named directly in ADA lawsuits.
Your only evidence is an automated scanner score - automated tools catch roughly a third of WCAG failures; the rest need a human tester.
Nobody has actually tried the core journeys with a keyboard and a screen reader.
Your VPAT was filled out once, years ago, and never retested against the current site.
PDFs, forms, and third-party embeds were excluded from the review.
D. What a real audit delivers
Human-tested findings, not just a scan - observed behavior, impact, a source-level fix, and retested evidence for each issue, plus a VPAT/ACR your procurement team can actually use.
Free 5-minute automated audit, or talk to a human: wcag.world
Real documents, not a lead-gen trick. Enter a work email and the file downloads immediately — we store the email so a human can follow up, nothing more.
Fastest next step
Get a free 5-minute audit of one page.
Enter a URL and get a real automated scan, right here in your browser — score, full-page screenshot, and the top issues found, in plain English. No sales call required to see the results.
Audit of up to 3 key pages — for example home, contact, and a form or checkout — a consolidated report, risk-based prioritization, and a 30-minute consult.
Full site audit — automated scan plus manual review of key flows like navigation, forms, and media — a detailed remediation roadmap, a VPAT/ACR document, and support for your dev team.
These are indicative ranges based on comparable engagements, not a quote — final pricing is scoped to your page count, flow complexity, and deadline after a short call. This page is general information, not legal advice, and no engagement guarantees a specific compliance outcome.
09 See it, don't just read it
A compliant page, working in your browser.
Turn on WCAG mode in the header, then try the panel below — every control here is a real, keyboard-operable element, not a screenshot.
Tab to the button — the focus ring is real, try it
Try it yourself · 3 live controls
Text adaptation
Resize and re-space this passage — the same kind of control WCAG mode applies site-wide.
Public entities must test the journeys people actually rely on — not just run a scanner and call it done.
Audio on text
Have a clear, natural voice read the same passage aloud.
Colorblind-friendly view
Status should never rely on color alone. Toggle to see the fix.
Pass
Needs review
Fail
10 Fit call
Bring one journey. Leave with a clear next step.
Tell us what is driving the work. We will use the call to determine whether a focused review, remediation sprint, rebuild, or another specialist is the honest fit.