Section 508 (Refresh 2018)
All U.S. federal agencies and federal contractors. WCAG 2.0 AA technical baseline. Enforced by Access Board, GSA. VPAT 2.5 required. Failure = procurement disqualification.
For Government
For government agencies
Accessibility isn’t optional — it’s a procurement mandate
Federal agencies must meet Section 508. State and local governments answer to ADA Title II and often their own state accessibility laws. VPAT authoring, procurement reviews, and the PDF remediation mountain are your reality.
Procurement compliance
Every FAR solicitation requires Section 508 conformance. Lacking a current VPAT? Disqualified. Don’t waste contract opportunities.
PDF remediation at scale
Public records, agency forms, benefits paperwork — thousands of PDFs. Find them, remediate them, prove they’re fixed.
Multi-jurisdiction mapping
Section 508, ADA Title II, state laws (CA Unruh, NY ADAAA, etc.), federal contractor rules — which laws bind you depends on your role.
Evidence for audits & complaints
When an OCR complaint or FOIA request arrives, you need audit-ready evidence that you tested, remediated and verified compliance.
Jurisdiction & scope
Which laws apply to your agency?
Government accessibility is shaped by five overlapping legal regimes. Which ones bind you depends on your level, funding source, and contractor status.
ADA Title II
State and local government entities, public universities, K-12 districts. DOJ 2024 final rule mandates WCAG 2.1 AA (effective Nov 2025 for web, later for PDFs). More private right of action than Section 508.
Section 504 & Section 508(f)
Hospitals, universities, research institutes receiving federal funding. Section 504 covers programs and services; Section 508(f) allows private right of action against federal agencies.
State accessibility mandates
California (Unruh Act), New York (ADAAA amendments), Texas, Virginia, Massachusetts — many states have adopted Section 508 verbatim or WCAG 2.1 AA. Some include private right of action.
The practical consequence: a state agency that fails accessibility testing can face complaints under ADA Title II, its own state law, Section 504 (if federally-funded), and, if it procures ICT, Section 508 via its vendors. A federal contractor with a non-conformant product loses FAR bids and faces Section 508(f) litigation.
Our tools
Scan the entire portfolio at once
Government agencies typically run all three checkers: websites and portals (Web Checker), public-facing forms and records (PDF Checker), and internal documents (Document Checker).
Web Checker
Agency portals, intranets, public websites. 77 WCAG 2.2 detections. VPAT-ready evidence.
PDF Checker
Court filings, agency forms, public records, benefits applications. 161 checks. UA compliance.
Document Checker
Word, Excel, PowerPoint. Policy documents, training materials, internal reports.
Volume & automation
Scan 100 sites or 10,000 PDFs. API integration for continuous compliance. Reports in batch.
VPAT-ready evidence
Every failure linked to Section 508 chapter + WCAG criterion. Auditable, defensible, ready for procurement.
Jurisdiction mapping
Reports show which failures trigger Section 508, ADA Title II, state law. Know exactly what you need to fix for which audience.
Workflow
Your path to compliance in four steps
Scan → Review → Remediate → Re-scan. Built for government timelines, not marketing cycles.
1
Scan the portfolio
Submit your agency website, intranet, PDFs, documents. Automated + manual audit. No setup required.
2
Generate VPAT-ready evidence
Get a detailed report mapping each failure to Section 508 chapter, WCAG criterion, impact. Share with procurement.
3
Remediate & prioritize
Use our roadmap (critical first, then important). Work with your dev/content teams. Test as you go.
4
Re-scan & certify
Verify fixes. Maintain compliance with annual scans. Document evidence for OCR, OIG, or internal audit.
FAQ
Questions government asks
What’s the difference between Section 508 and ADA Title II?
Section 508 applies to federal agencies and federal contractors. It requires WCAG 2.0 AA and includes hardware/software/documentation obligations.
ADA Title II applies to state and local government entities, public universities, and K-12 schools. The DOJ’s 2024 final rule mandates WCAG 2.1 AA (effective Nov 2025 for web). Title II also has a private right of action, so individuals can sue directly.
If you’re a state agency, you answer to both if your state has adopted Section 508 as a standard, and to ADA Title II.
Do state and local agencies need Section 508?
Section 508 itself applies only to federal agencies and federal contractors. However, many states (California, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Virginia) have adopted Section 508 verbatim as their state ICT standard. Check your state CIO office or state IT procurement rules.
All state and local government entities must comply with ADA Title II regardless.
Can we use your reports for VPAT authoring?
Yes. Our Web, PDF, and Document Checker reports map every finding to the Section 508 Revised Standards (chapters and clauses) and to WCAG 2.0/2.2 criteria. Federal contractors can use this as the evidence base for filling in a VPAT 2.5 template. VPAT authoring itself (the structured Q&A form) is still your responsibility, but we give you the audit-ready findings.
How do we handle bulk PDF remediation?
Start by discovering: our PDF Checker can scan a folder of 10,000 PDFs and prioritize by severity. Then remediate high-impact documents first (public-facing forms, benefits applications, court filings). Use our reports to identify the exact accessibility issues. Some documents may not be remediable (scanned images without OCR); for those, you may create an HTML alternative instead.
Re-scan periodically. Many agencies implement a policy where new PDFs must be created accessibly before publication.
What about classified or FOIA-exempt content?
Classified and FOIA-exempt content is still subject to accessibility obligations for employees and authorized users who access it. You don’t scan it through our public checkers, but you must audit it internally and include findings in your agency’s accessibility statement or VPAT.
Internal intranets and portals used only by federal employees still fall under Section 508; they must be accessible to employees with disabilities.
How often do we need to re-scan and certify?
Federal contractors should maintain a current ACR/VPAT (typically re-audited annually or after major releases). Federal agencies typically document compliance in their Accessibility Statement and respond to complaints as they arise.
Best practice: scan your top 20 public-facing assets every 6–12 months, and re-scan after major updates or CMS migrations.
Ready to comply
Start your compliance audit today
One scan tells you which Section 508, Title II, and state law violations exist. Get audit-ready evidence in hours, not months.