For many state and local governments, digital accessibility issues only surface after they’ve already impacted users. A resident can’t apply for benefits. A parent can’t access a school update. A constituent can’t read an emergency notice.
These barriers don’t just damage public trust—they can also have legal repercussions, especially with the deadline for compliance with new rulemaking under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) approaching. So, what’s stopping your organization from addressing them earlier?
The reality is that most teams lack a clear picture of their risk exposure—a problem we call the “risk gap.” They don’t have a way of knowing how many issues exist across their digital assets, or which issues have the biggest impact on users or compliance. As a result, barriers continue to accumulate in PDFs, outdated templates, vendor portals, and aging web pages, unnoticed until they disrupt a resident’s experience or trigger regulatory scrutiny.
So how can your agency gain clarity on its accessibility status and reduce exposure under Title II? While compliance efforts begin with inventory, ownership, and clear roles, closing the risk gap depends on having the right accessibility testing strategy. This piece outlines key testing approaches to help your agency chart an effective path to compliance.
How to start testing for ADA Title II compliance
If you work in state and local government, you’re likely already familiar with the new ADA Title II requirements for web and mobile content accessibility, and the standard for compliance: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level A and AA. But even with that awareness, many agencies struggle to benchmark their current levels of compliance and identify the most critical gaps across their digital assets.
Once you’ve determined which digital experiences to evaluate, the following testing approaches can help you find accessibility barriers across your content. We’ll also introduce tools that make it easier to prioritize the fixes that have the biggest impact on your ADA Title II compliance, and on the communities you serve.
Use automated testing to surface common issues
Automated testing tools offer a fast way to spot common issues—like missing alt text, incorrect headings, and color contrast problems—across websites, apps, and documents. It’s an effective first step, but automation alone can’t detect every barrier or evaluate every experience.
You have two options for approaching automated testing:
Option 1: Ad-hoc approach
In an ad-hoc approach, you choose the automated tools that fit your daily workflows. It’s quick and familiar, but results often stay siloed, visibility is limited, and efforts become fragmented without strong coordination.
If you take this approach, prioritize tools that support design, development, and QA workflows—and meet your security requirements.
Consider the following list of common automated testing tools to help you get started.
- Website accessibility tools: For a quick survey of a website’s accessibility, you can start with a free page scanner. The WAVE tool by WebAIM offers a more in-depth scan, providing a report of accessibility errors and warnings. To support ongoing, sustainable progress, consider integrated tools (like those provided by Level Access) that help developers catch issues before production begins.
- Document accessibility tools: Microsoft Word’s Accessibility Checker helps authors find and fix common accessibility issues—such as missing alt text, unclear headings, and insufficient color contrast—before publishing. For PDFs, tools like PAC (Windows) and Adobe Acrobat Pro (Mac/PC) offer final checks. Scalable solutions—such as LevelDocs—may be more useful for organizations managing large document libraries.
- Design accessibility tools: Color contrast tools, like the Level Access Accessible Color Picker for Chrome, make it easy for designers to check the contrast between foreground and background colors. Additionally, many teams use accessibility-focused Figma kits to build accessible components without leaving their workflows.
- Mobile accessibility tools: There are two free tools that serve the mobile accessibility space. Accessibility Scanner checks the accessibility of Android apps. For iOS, Accessibility Inspector can be used. Both apps are utilized by development and quality assurance (QA) teams. For more comprehensive testing, agencies should consider paid mobile accessibility solutions, including our Mobile Testing SDK and no-code Live App Testing tool.
These tools are a useful starting point, but to gain deeper, agency‑wide visibility across sites, portals, and documents, you’ll need a more integrated approach.
Option 2: Integrated approach (recommended)
When digital services span multiple departments and vendors, disconnected tools make it difficult to identify and manage accessibility risk. An integrated accessibility management platform brings testing data, issues, and remediation into one system. This single source of truth allows you to:
- Track progress across content types.
- Spot recurring patterns to prevent the same issues from resurfacing.
- Prioritize high‑impact fixes.
- Reduce redundancy, strengthen accountability, and gain end-to-end visibility to manage compliance at scale.
Seek out solutions that offer role-specific tools (designer and developer suites), integrations with developer workflows and platforms like Jira, CMS integrations, and centralized monitoring and reporting dashboards.
Combine automation with human insight: Manual and functional testing
Manual and functional testing build on automated testing by adding the human insight automation can’t provide. Accessibility experts—including people with disabilities—evaluate pages, components, and user flows with assistive technologies (e.g., screen readers).
This layer of testing helps validate findings from automated scans and uncovers barriers automation alone can’t detect. Together, automated scans and manual evaluation provide the most reliable way for your agency to understand real-world accessibility and ensure websites, apps, and documents work for all residents.
Manual testing can be approached in several ways:
- Test in-house: Build an in-house team to perform accessibility QA during development and release cycles. This can help teams identify issues early but should typically focus on new or updated content, rather than existing digital assets or third-party systems.
- Hire a consultant: Engage an outside consultant to conduct a one-time accessibility audit and provide a report of accessibility barriers. This can help identify initial issues, but follow-up testing and monitoring are often needed to manage risk as digital content evolves.
- Partner with an expert: Partner with a third-party accessibility expert who can bring automated testing and expert-led manual reviews together, giving you a complete, accurate picture of accessibility across your digital portfolio. This approach is recommended for state and local government organizations, particularly those with large, decentralized digital ecosystems.
Accessibility testing: A critical step toward ADA Title II compliance
Effective accessibility starts with knowing where issues exist and addressing them before they reach residents or regulators. With the right testing strategy and support, you can understand your risk status, and get a clear, prioritized roadmap to compliance.
Level Access has spent 25+ years helping state and local governments meet ADA Title II requirements, combining AI-powered technology and platform automation with expert guidance.
Explore Level Access’s audit and testing solutions to learn how we can help your agency meet ADA Title II requirements, reduce risk, and improve services for every resident.
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