Section 508 compliance services for government and public sector work
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities — and it reaches every vendor and contractor that sells them that technology. We test your ICT against the standard 508 is actually measured on, document the findings so they hold up in review, and support you through remediation and procurement.
Section 508 compliance services
Section 508 website compliance
Testing and remediation for websites and web applications against WCAG 2.0 A/AA, including the templates, forms, and flows a reviewer examines first.
Learn moreSection 508 testing
Manual and assistive-technology evaluation of your ICT — keyboard, screen readers, and magnification — with criteria-mapped findings and evidence.
Learn moreProcurement support
Help interpreting accessibility requirements in RFPs and vendor reviews, and producing the documentation they call for.
Learn moreWhat each Section 508 workstream involves
- Website compliance — for most teams Section 508 starts as a website question: is this site 508 compliant, and what does it take to get there. A 508 compliant website can be operated with a keyboard alone, read with a screen reader and used at high zoom, measured against WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA. The failures we find most often are keyboard traps and focus that disappears, missing landmarks and headings, form fields without programmatic labels, contrast below the required ratios, images without meaningful alternative text, and custom components such as menus, modals and tabs that expose nothing usable to a screen reader.
- Testing — automated tools flag part of the picture; they cannot tell you whether a screen reader announces a form error, or whether a custom component can be operated at all. Testing pairs an automated baseline with manual keyboard, screen reader and magnification passes through your real user journeys, following the federal test procedures in the ICT Testing Baseline for Web, with every finding mapped to its WCAG 2.0 criterion.
- Procurement support — under FAR Part 39 and Subpart 39.2, federal buyers have to consider accessibility when they acquire ICT, which is why RFPs and vendor questionnaires reach you at all. We help you answer them consistently, agree the scope before work starts, and prepare the evidence and the VPAT/ACR in the correct 508 edition.
Section 508 compliance that holds up in procurement and review
A Section 508 obligation is ultimately tested by a reviewer: a contracting officer reading your VPAT, an agency compliance team examining your documentation, an auditor checking your ICT. Work that consists of an automated scan and a green checkmark does not survive that. What survives is manual testing mapped to the right success criteria, findings a reviewer can verify, and documentation in the format procurement expects.
That is what we build. Our testing pairs automated checks with manual and assistive-technology evaluation — keyboard navigation, screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver), and screen magnification — and every finding is tied to the specific WCAG 2.0 Level A or AA criterion it fails, with its location and evidence.
Who must comply with Section 508
- Federal agencies — required to build, buy, and maintain accessible ICT, and to show documentation that withstands oversight.
- Vendors and contractors selling software, hardware, or digital services to federal agencies — accessibility is a condition of the purchase, checked during procurement.
- Organizations receiving federal funding whose obligations flow down through contracts and grants.
- State and local government entities are covered by a different rule — ADA Title II, measured against WCAG 2.1 Level AA. We confirm which framework applies to you before recommending any work, so you never buy an audit against the wrong law.
What Section 508 covers: WCAG 2.0 A/AA and the Revised Standards
Section 508 applies to websites and web applications, software, digital documents, and hardware that federal agencies use or procure. The Revised 508 Standards incorporate WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA by reference — so Section 508 conformance is measured against WCAG 2.0, not the later 2.1 or 2.2 versions that belong to other obligations.
This version question is where budgets get wasted — not on the testing itself, but on remediating 2.1-only criteria your contract never asked for while the reviewer scores you against 2.0. We test against the exact standard your obligation is based on, and we confirm it with you before the engagement starts.
Section 508 vs ADA vs WCAG
These three get used interchangeably, and mixing them up is how accessibility work ends up scoped against the wrong standard:
- Section 508 — federal procurement law under the Rehabilitation Act. Applies to federal agencies and their vendors; measured against WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA.
- ADA — a civil rights law with no technical checklist. Courts and the Department of Justice use WCAG as the benchmark, and its Title II rule adopts WCAG 2.1 Level AA for state and local government.
- WCAG — the technical standard both point to, and what our testing maps every finding against. WCAG conformance is the evidence; compliance is the legal or contractual state that evidence supports.
For the private-sector side, see ADA website compliance. And if you tell us your situation — who is asking, under what contract — we will tell you plainly which framework applies and what evidence it requires. That conversation costs you nothing and prevents scoping the work against the wrong law.
A practical path to Section 508 compliance
Section 508 pays off most when it is a standard part of your delivery process, not a scramble after a complaint or ahead of a deadline. We take your team through a defined path.
Scope
We identify the products, templates, user flows, and documents that carry the obligation and the risk.
Test
Automated checks first to clear the machine-detectable issues, then manual and assistive-technology testing against WCAG 2.0 A and AA.
Prioritize
We rank findings by user impact and by what fails a federal review, so fixes land in the order that de-risks the contract fastest.
Document
Criteria-mapped findings, remediation guidance your developers can execute, and VPAT/ACR-ready evidence.
Retest
We verify the fixes and confirm what is resolved, so your record shows closed issues rather than open findings.
Maintain
For teams shipping on a release cycle: accessible components and a repeatable procedure, so the next release does not reopen what you just closed.
What you receive in a Section 508 engagement
- A findings report listing each issue, its location, the WCAG 2.0 A/AA success criterion it fails, and supporting evidence.
- Results from manual and assistive-technology testing — screen reader, keyboard, and magnification — not automated output alone.
- Remediation guidance ranked by user impact and compliance risk, written for implementation.
- A clear statement of coverage: which templates, components, user flows, and documents were tested.
- A retest after remediation confirming which issues are resolved.
- A VPAT/ACR in the correct 508 edition where procurement requires one.
- An executive summary your stakeholders and reviewers can read without a translation layer.
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Common questions about Section 508
A federal buyer asked for proof of Section 508 compliance. What do we need?
Do you test against WCAG 2.0 or 2.1 for Section 508?
What do we hand to a contracting officer?
Is a validator or a scanner enough for a 508 review?
We are a state or local government entity. Is Section 508 our standard?
How do you scope work across websites, software and documents?
Do you retest and update the documentation after we remediate?
Do we need a VPAT as well as testing?
How long does Section 508 work take?
We have already run our own Section 508 testing. Can you work from that?
How often does Section 508 testing need to be repeated?
Who does this work
David LoPresti works directly with government contractors, technology manufacturers, and software vendors to evaluate accessibility conformance and prepare the documentation procurement and contract reviews call for. On a Section 508 engagement that means findings mapped to the WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA success criteria the Revised 508 Standards incorporate by reference, remediation planning your developers can act on, and an ACR when a buyer asks for one.
The standards this page refers to
- The Revised 508 Standards in the Code of Federal Regulations (36 CFR Part 1194)
- U.S. Access Board: the ICT accessibility standards and guidelines
- WCAG 2.0, the version the Revised 508 Standards incorporate by reference
- Section508.gov: how federal buyers request accessibility information
- Section508.gov: how federal buyers evaluate accessibility conformance claims
Get the Section 508 compliance 101 guide
A practical explainer covering who Section 508 applies to, how it maps to WCAG 2.0 and the Revised 508 Standards, and what federal procurement teams expect to see.
Section 508 compliance 101
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Ready to meet Section 508 requirements?
Tell us what you are up against — an audit, a reviewer's questions, or a VPAT a buyer is waiting on — and we will scope the testing and documentation on a call.
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