State & Local Government

Public documents should be readable by the public.

Every meeting minute, ordinance, budget, and permit your agency publishes is a promise that residents can actually read it. Federal accessibility standards apply to all of them — and enforcement is increasing.

Illustration representing State & Local Government

Regulatory landscape

State and local government agencies are covered by multiple overlapping federal requirements. Here is what applies and when.

ADA Title II

Requires state and local governments to make all public-facing digital content accessible. The DOJ issued a final rule in April 2024 establishing WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard.

Deadline: April 24, 2026 for entities serving populations of 50,000 or more. April 24, 2027 for smaller entities.

Section 508

Applies to any state or local agency that receives federal funding. Requires electronic documents shared with the public to conform to the Revised 508 Standards, which reference WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

State-level statutes

Many states have adopted their own accessibility requirements for government content. California (AB 434), Illinois (IITAA), and New York State all impose obligations beyond the federal baseline.

Common document types

Government agencies publish a wide range of document types. These are the ones we see most often — and the accessibility challenges each one presents.

Meeting minutes & agendas

Often published as flat PDFs without heading structure, making them difficult to navigate with a screen reader. Proper tag structure and reading order are essential.

Ordinances & resolutions

Legal documents with nested numbering, cross-references, and dense formatting. Correct list nesting and heading hierarchy ensure these are parseable by assistive technology.

Budget & financial reports

Table-heavy documents where row and column headers must be programmatically associated with data cells. CAFRs and annual reports often exceed 100 pages.

Building permits & applications

Form-based documents with labeled fields, checkboxes, and signature blocks. Proper form tagging ensures every field is reachable and identifiable.

Public notices & legal ads

Short documents that still require correct language declaration, reading order, and structure tags to be fully accessible.

Zoning & planning documents

Contain maps, diagrams, and reference tables. Figures need meaningful alt text and tables need proper header associations.

Where we focus

Government agencies face unique challenges: large document backlogs, CMS platforms that produce inconsistent PDFs, and recurring publication cycles. Here is where we focus.

Batch processing for backlogs

Many agencies have years of archived PDFs that need remediation before the compliance deadline. Our batch pipeline processes thousands of documents without manual intervention.

Table structure repair

Budget reports, CAFRs, and financial disclosures rely on complex tables. We detect and tag row headers, column headers, and spanning cells so the data reads correctly in a screen reader.

VPAT & compliance evidence

Procurement offices and oversight bodies often request a VPAT or conformance report. We generate these automatically after remediation so you have documentation on file.

CMS-compatible output

Whether your documents come out of Granicus, CivicPlus, Laserfiche, or a manual export, the remediated PDFs work with your existing publishing workflow.

Compliance Analysis