Section 508 Compliance. Built in, then proven.

Federal agencies, their contractors, and organizations spending federal money have to meet Section 508. We build to that standard, remediate sites that do not meet it, and hand you the evidence behind every claim — because a solicitation asks you to demonstrate conformance, not assert it.

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The standard

What Section 508 actually asks for

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Since the 2017 Refresh, the standard incorporates WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA by reference — so in practice, meeting Section 508 on the web means meeting WCAG success criteria, documented against the specific technology you are delivering.

That reference point matters when you are reading a solicitation. "Section 508 compliant" and "WCAG 2.0 AA" are describing the same technical bar in most web contexts. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA, which is a later version of the same standard, so a site built to our baseline clears the Section 508 requirement rather than just meeting it.

Many state governments have their own statutes that mirror Section 508, and federal grant conditions frequently push the same obligation onto recipients who are not federal agencies themselves. If a funder is involved, the requirement usually follows the money.

The work

What conformance requires in a real build

None of this is a plugin. Each item is a decision made during design and development, then verified before launch.

✓

Semantic structure and heading order that a screen reader can navigate without guesswork

✓

Every form field labelled and every error message announced, not just coloured red

✓

Keyboard operability across the whole journey, with no focus traps in menus, modals or carousels

✓

Colour contrast that meets the ratio at the sizes you actually ship, not just in the palette

✓

Text alternatives for images, and real transcripts or captions for audio and video

✓

Content that reflows and stays usable at 200% zoom and on a phone

✓

Tables, lists and landmarks marked up as what they are, so assistive technology can skip and scan

✓

Third-party embeds and PDFs assessed too, because a solicitation does not exempt them

Verification

Evidence, not assertions

We run automated testing across the whole site and then do manual keyboard and screen-reader passes on the journeys people depend on — apply, request, pay, contact. Automated tooling catches a meaningful share of issues; the rest only surface when a person drives the interface the way an assistive-technology user would.

You get the findings in writing: what was fixed, what is inherited from a third-party embed you may not control, and what needs a content decision from your team. We will tell you plainly where a site stands rather than issuing a blanket pass. If your solicitation asks for a VPAT or an Accessibility Conformance Report, say so up front and we will scope that as a deliverable.

If your current site is the problem, we can audit it and hand you the findings with or without doing the remediation. Some organizations need the evidence before they can fund the fix.

Who this applies to

Where Section 508 shows up

The obligation reaches further than federal agencies alone.

Federal agencies

Direct obligation under the Rehabilitation Act, usually with procurement language that names the standard explicitly and asks for conformance documentation.

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Federal contractors

Deliverables procured by an agency generally have to meet the same bar. Our work with government and contractors covers the procurement-facing side of this.

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Grant recipients

Schools, nonprofits and health organizations spending federal money often inherit accessibility conditions through their grant agreements.

State and local government

Many states have statutes modelled on Section 508. Resident-facing services carry the obligation regardless of the funding source — see municipal website design.

Reading

Accessibility guides

Written for the people who have to specify and fund this work.

Blog

Questions

Section 508 questions we get

Is Section 508 the same as WCAG?

Not identical, but closely tied. Since the 2017 Refresh, Section 508 incorporates WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA by reference for web content, so meeting the WCAG success criteria is how you meet Section 508 in practice. We build to WCAG 2.2 AA, a later version of the same standard.

Does Section 508 apply to us if we are not a federal agency?

Often, yes — indirectly. Contractors delivering to a federal agency are generally held to it through the contract, and federally funded organizations frequently inherit it through grant conditions. Many states also have their own equivalent statutes. If you are unsure, send us the clause and we will read it.

Can an overlay or accessibility widget make our site compliant?

No. An overlay cannot fix heading order, an unlabelled form field, a keyboard focus trap or a contrast failure in the underlying markup — and those are the failures that generate complaints. Overlays have also been named in accessibility litigation. The fixes have to happen in the site itself.

Do our PDFs and documents count?

Usually yes. Agendas, forms, reports and notices published as PDFs are part of the electronic content a solicitation covers. We will tell you which documents need remediation and which should become web pages instead, which is often the cheaper and more usable answer.

Can you remediate a site you did not build?

Yes. A substantial share of this work is remediating live sites built by someone else. We audit first so you know the scope and cost before committing to the fix.