Accessibility from scoping to handoff

We build websites that work for everyone who shows up. WCAG-aware development, clear-eyed audits, and remediation plans that fit your budget and your timeline.

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The business case

Why this matters for your business

In the last WebAIM audit of one million home pages, 96% had detectable accessibility failures. If your site hasn't been reviewed, there's a good chance you're in that group, and most site owners have no way of knowing until they look. When your site assumes a mouse, perfect vision, and a steady hand, you lose visitors before they ever reach your form.

Most of what breaks accessibility also breaks other things: structure, SEO, load time. Fixing it tends to move more than one needle, which means real impact to your AIO/SEO rankings and conversion rates.

A quarter of your potential customers

More than 1 in 4 US adults has a disability that affects how they use the web. Across any audience, that's a meaningful share of the people you're trying to reach.

1 in 4 US adults has a disability

Small businesses are increasingly targeted

ADA-related website lawsuits have grown significantly year over year. Small and mid-size businesses are increasingly named alongside larger ones.

4,600+ lawsuits for ADA website complaints filed in 2023

Accessibility is also good business

US adults with disabilities represent nearly half a trillion dollars in annual spending power. Accessible sites reach more customers and tend to convert better with the ones they already have.

$490B spending power annually of US adults with disabilities
How we engage

Four ways we work on accessibility

Most accessibility work falls into one of these shapes. We help you pick the right starting point.

Audit only

A structured accessibility review with a written report, prioritized findings, and a 30-day action plan. Includes a walkthrough session so your team understands what is broken and what it actually means for the people trying to use your site. You take it from there. See Audits for the broader audit service.

Remediation project

After an audit (ours or someone else's), we scope a project to fix what's broken and ship it. Usually a few weeks for moderate sites, longer for complex ones.

Built into a retainer

For ongoing relationships, accessibility maintenance is part of the work. Every new feature ships against the agreed standard. See Maintenance.

Training as part of an audit

When your internal team needs to maintain accessibility going forward, we build a walkthrough and training session into the Audit engagement. We find that training works best when it's grounded in your actual site and findings.

How we work

How we approach it

Accessibility is a continuous set of checks woven through the engagement, from scoping to handoff. Here's what that looks like in practice.

Accessibility is in scope from day one

When we scope a project, we identify the accessibility baseline your site needs to hit, based on your audience, your industry, and the legal exposure that matters for your business. For most of our work, that baseline is WCAG 2.2 AA, the current standard and the one most legal frameworks reference or are moving toward. Clients with specific requirements can specify a different version; we scope to whatever target makes sense. For some engagements, the realistic outcome is a documented remediation plan that moves the site closer to AA over time. Either way, we name the target up front.

We audit what you already have

Before we write a line of new code, we run the existing site through an accessibility review: automated tooling (Axe, Lighthouse, WAVE) and manual testing across keyboard navigation, screen reader behavior, color contrast, and focus management. You get a written report with prioritized findings. If you add training to the engagement, we walk through the report together so your team understands the issues in terms of real user impact, not just criteria numbers.

New work meets the standard we set

Everything we build from that point on is designed, developed, and QA'd against the agreed target. Semantic HTML, meaningful alt text, keyboard-operable components, visible focus states, adequate color contrast, form labels that work with assistive technology.... We don't ship features that regress accessibility.

Legacy issues get a documented remediation plan

Some accessibility issues live deep in a theme, a third-party integration, or content we did not write. We document them, prioritize them by risk and effort, and put them on the roadmap. If full remediation is not realistic within your budget, you get an honest plan for what we can fix now, what we can fix later, and what would require a larger investment.

The standard

Standards we work to

Our default target is WCAG 2.2 Level AA, the current version of the standard and the one most US legal frameworks reference or are moving toward. Clients with specific regulatory requirements or legacy procurement processes can specify a different version; we scope the engagement to whatever target makes sense for your situation.

For organizations that need to provide accessibility documentation to procurement or government clients, VPATs and accessibility statements are available as an add-on to the engagement.

Starting points

What to expect on cost

Accessibility work is hard to price without knowing the site. Complexity drives scope as much as anything else. Here are starting points by site type. Final pricing follows a scoping conversation.

Simple Site

Brochure sites, landing pages, small WordPress or Squarespace builds with limited functionality.

Audit:

Starting at $1,500

Remediation:

Starting at $2,500

Audit + Remediation:

Starting at $3,500

Complex Site

E-commerce, membership sites, CMS-heavy builds, custom integrations.

Audit:

Starting at $3,500

Remediation:

Starting at $5,000

Audit + Remediation:

Starting at $7,500

Enterprise

Multi-property, large applications, procurement or compliance requirements.

Audit:

Starting at $7,500

Remediation:

Starting at $12,000

Audit + Remediation:

Custom

Every engagement starts with a scoping conversation. These numbers give you a rough sense of range; your actual quote follows a closer look at your site, your goals, and what is already in good shape.
Common questions

Honest answers to the questions we get most

What does an accessibility issue actually mean for my users?
It depends on the issue, but here is what it looks like in practice. A screen reader user hits a button with no label and has no idea what it does. A keyboard-only user reaches a modal they cannot close without a mouse and is stuck on the page. A user with low vision runs their browser zoom to 200% and your layout breaks. These are not edge cases. They are the everyday experience for a meaningful portion of your audience. The walkthrough we include with every audit is specifically designed to show you what is happening, not just list the WCAG criteria being violated.
I had no idea my site had accessibility issues. How bad can it really be for my business?
Worse than most people expect. Accessibility failures affect your conversion rate, your SEO (search engines rely on many of the same structural cues as assistive technology), and your legal exposure. ADA website lawsuits targeting small businesses have increased significantly year over year. Beyond the risk, there is a real and invisible customer loss: people who would have converted, didn't.... and you'll never know they even tried.
Will my site be WCAG AA compliant after working with you?
For most engagements, yes. For some engagements, usually when legacy code or third-party platforms make full remediation cost-prohibitive in one pass, the realistic outcome is a documented plan that moves you toward AA over time. We let you know what's most likely for your situation before the work starts.
What if my site is built on a platform we can't fully control?
We work with what is controllable and document what is not. Even on locked-down platforms, meaningful improvement is usually available in the content layer, template overrides, and configuration. The audit report will tell you clearly what is fixable and what is a platform constraint.
Is accessibility legally required for my business?
It depends on your business and where you operate. The ADA applies broadly to places of public accommodation, and courts have increasingly interpreted that to include websites, but the specifics matter. We can give you a general read in a free consultation. For certainty specific to your situation, talk to a lawyer.
How long does remediation take?
A few weeks for simpler sites with moderate issues. More complex sites or deeper problems can run six to eight weeks or longer. The audit findings determine the scope, which is why we don't skip the audit step.
Let's take a look

Want a clear-eyed read on where your site stands?

A free consultation is the fastest way to know what you're working with. We'll look at your site briefly together, talk through your audience and your concerns, and tell you which engagement shape fits your situation. eCommerce stores, healthcare practices, community-based businesses, and nonprofits all show up here.

Book a free consultation