Accessibility and Section 508 Compliance

Accessibility is the part of government web work that most teams underestimate, because it is audited rather than self-declared. I have shipped conformant work on federal platforms including SSA.gov and the NIH BRAIN Initiative, and I do the same remediation for commercial sites facing ADA exposure.

What the federal standard actually requires

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act governs federal information and communication technology. The 2017 refresh harmonized the standard with WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and in practice agencies now expect WCAG 2.1 AA as the floor, with 2.2 AA increasingly requested for new builds. OMB M-24-08 tightened how agencies manage and report conformance.

The practical consequence is that conformance gets documented, usually in an Accessibility Conformance Report, and verified by testing. Asserting it in a proposal is not the same thing as passing.

What I do

• Remediating existing sites against Section 508 and WCAG, working within markup, themes, and content someone else wrote
• Building new templates that are conformant from the first commit rather than retrofitted
• Keyboard navigation, focus management, and screen reader behavior, not just automated-scanner scores
• Semantic structure, heading order, form labeling, and color contrast
• Fixing regressions before they become audit findings

Remediation is a different job from building

Rebuilding a site to be accessible is comparatively easy. Making an existing site conformant without breaking what already works, inside a codebase you did not write and cannot fully replace, is the harder and more common problem. That constraint is most of the work.

Commercial sites too

ADA exposure is not limited to government. The same standards and the same testing apply, and the same remediation work brings a commercial site into line.

Working together

Available full-time, part-time, contract, freelance, or as a subcontractor through an agency. Remote across the United States, with occasional on-site work in the San Diego area. The FAQ covers how engagements usually run, or you can get in touch directly.