For cities, counties, districts & libraries
Accessible public websites, and someone to keep them that way.
Public websites that residents can actually use, and the steady work of keeping them that way when the staff is already stretched. This practice is built for cities, counties, and other public entities that need someone ongoing — not a one-time project.
Where most public entities actually are right now.
Last reviewed August 2026 — verify before relying
The Department of Justice's 2024 Title II rule set WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the enforceable standard for state and local government web content and mobile apps. In April 2026, DOJ issued an interim final rule extending the compliance dates by a year: April 26, 2027 for entities serving populations of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller entities and special district governments. The substantive requirements did not change.
That extension is genuinely good news, and I'd rather be straight with you about it than sell you a panic. You now have a realistic window to build accessibility into how you operate instead of retrofitting under deadline pressure.
Two things worth knowing anyway:
- The extension delays the technical standard's compliance dates. It does not suspend Title II's underlying nondiscrimination and effective-communication obligations, which have supported accessibility claims for years without a specific standard attached.
- The rule covers content provided or made available by the entity — which includes what your vendors host on your behalf. Your agenda portal, permit system, and payment processor are in scope even though you didn't build them.
Then the everyday reality
- Residents can't find the permit form, so they call, and someone answers the phone instead of doing their job.
- Half your public documents are scanned PDFs that a screen reader treats as a picture.
- Staff can't change a page without submitting a ticket to a vendor.
- Your CMS contract renews at a number nobody can justify anymore.
- Nobody on staff has accessibility as part of their actual job description.
The work, specifically.
- Accessibility audits
- A real inventory of where you stand against WCAG 2.1 AA, prioritized by what residents actually use, not by what's easiest to fix.
- Remediation
- Templates, forms, navigation, contrast, keyboard access, document handling.
- Vendor accountability
- Reviewing what your third-party systems claim, testing whether it's true, and getting requirements into your contracts.
- Website rebuilds
- Fast, accessible, and editable by your staff.
- Resident-facing services
- Permits, payments, requests, and reporting flows that work on a phone.
- Procurement support
- RFP language, scope review, and evaluating proposals. Including proposals that aren't mine.
- Staff training
- So the accessibility you paid for survives contact with the next content update.
Compliance isn't a project. It's a condition.
This is the part most vendors don't say out loud: you can pass an audit in March and fail by June, because someone uploaded an untagged PDF and added a page with an unlabeled form field.
Accessibility holds when someone is responsible for it continuously. That's what an ongoing arrangement buys you — regular checks, staff who know who to ask, and remediation handled as it appears instead of accumulating into another six-figure project in 2029.
For entities under the 2028 date, this is a genuinely comfortable pace: steady work, budgeted annually, done well before anyone is looking.
I've worked inside public institutions.
My first development job was with the Department of Defense. Before that, eight years teaching in public schools. I understand why a four-month procurement cycle exists, why documentation matters, and why "just move fast" is not useful advice to give a public body.
I've also spent a decade across enterprise data security, business intelligence, fintech consulting, and running a startup's entire stack, where the accessibility and audit posture is not optional and someone checks.
I'm not going to be surprised by your process, and I'm not going to ask you to work around it.
Questions I get
Do we need to go out for bid?
Depends on your thresholds and your charter — you'll know better than I will. Work of this size often sits under bid thresholds as ongoing professional services. If you do need to bid it, I'll help you write scope language that gets you honest, comparable proposals, whether or not I submit one.
One person for a city website? Isn't that a risk?
Fair question, and here's the honest answer: everything I build is documented, standards-based, and in your accounts, not mine. If I disappear tomorrow, a competent developer can pick it up. I'm not building anything that requires me.
Can you help us evaluate a proposal we already have?
Yes, and that's often a good first engagement. A short paid review of what's on the table, with a plain-language read on whether the scope and price make sense.
Are you local?
Based in St. Louis. Distance isn't a barrier, but if you're in the region I'll come to the meeting.
Start with an honest read on where you stand.
A half-hour call, no pitch. Tell me what you've got and what's worrying you, and I'll tell you what I'd actually prioritize.