A Reminder About What’s Required
WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance means that the following content meets specifications:
- All web content (including public-facing and authenticated areas)
- Mobile apps
- PDFs and other documents
- Video and audio content
- Third-party integrations (to the extent you can control them)
- Forms, course registration systems, LMS interfaces
Exceptions can include archived content, pre-existing documents (with some caveats), and some third-party content.
A note about WCAG Versions 2.1 and 2.2:
The April 24, 2026 ADA Title II deadline requires WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance. WCAG 2.2, released in October 2023, includes additional criteria but is not yet mandated. While meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA satisfies the current legal requirement, your individual organization may have more specific requirements.
NewCity’s Steps To Compliance
The specifics depend on your situation, but here’s our standard process:
Assessment
- Running automated crawling scans (Dubbot, SiteImprove, Pa11y)
- Working to identify a set of representative URLs that cover different page structures and critical conversion points across your properties
- Conduct manual testing on these representative URLs:
- Manual assessment with tools like Lighthouse, WebAIM’s WAVE, Deque’s Axe
- Performing screen reader testing (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver)
- Navigating them with a keyboard, focusing on logical tab index ordering, and appropriate visibility of focus indicators, and verification of non-disappearing focus during navigation..
- Using WebAIM’s WAVE testing to review errors, warnings and contrast of page elements
- Using Simulated colorblindness testing with browser extensions or desktop tools to make sure contrast remains consistent
- Exercising responsive behavior across browsers and devices – this is usually closely accessibility-adjacent
- Checking for JavaScript errors and console issues that can indicate problems that may affect performance or accessibility in the browser
- Performing enhanced scrutiny of the accessibility of high-traffic pages and critical user journeys
- Review any third-party solutions (integrations, plug-ins) that are embedded with the website for compliance.
- Compiling, sorting, and triaging results to distinguish code issues from content issues for more efficient mitigation, and filtering out false positives that the automated tests may have identified
Typical Remediation Areas
- Improving kip-to-content support
- Implementing code-level fixes (updating semantic HTML, tweaking or adding ARIA hints, improving keyboard navigability, adjusting general styling, content, and templates that house the content)
- Making adjustments to colors where needed to meet color contrast requirements – this can be dependent on computed text size.
- Adding/improving alt text in images and figures
- Improving form labels and instructions
- Adjusting or adding video captioning / transcripting
- Remediating PDF and Word documents, or assisting in converting them to HTML
- Improving link text so that they accurately convey destination (i.e. no “Click here”)
Note: Depending on the volume of issues and documents coupled with the availability of source material, PDF and document remediation or extensive content updates may need to be assessed and scoped flexibly outside of a standard remediation project.
Validation
- After adjustments, we re-run automated and manual tests to identify verify fixes, identify any new issues, and hedge against regressions
- Additionally verifying fixes with screen readers
- Documenting what was fixed and how
Knowledge Transfer
If the fixes identify any systemic issues, additional steps like documentation for developers and content creators, or process adjustments may be indicated.
How We Work With Your Team
Most of our accessibility engagements fall into one of these categories:
Option 1: Full Audit + Remediation
You would like fresh eyes on everything, plus the resources to fix issues.
- Comprehensive scan of your web properties, apps, PDFs, and multimedia
- Manual testing
- Prioritized remediation plan
- Our team handles the fixes
- Validation testing before handoff
- Documentation of testing results for posterity, optionally with related recommendations for how to help ensure more accessible going forward.
Option 2: Audit + Handoff
You’ve got the dev resources, you just need someone to identify and prioritize the issues.
- Periodic comprehensive scans of your web properties, apps, PDFs, and multimedia
- Manual testing on the same
- Prioritized remediation plan(s) with detailed technical reporting informing the plan
- We’re available for questions as your team works through fixes
Option 3: Targeted Support
You already use a scanning tool like SiteImprove or Axe Monitor, but don’t have the time or team resources to meet the April deadline. Here we can:
- Jump in to remediate specific pieces as identified by your team, handling the time-intensive items so your team doesn’t have to
- Work alongside your team more generally
Option 4: Consulting + Training
You want to build internal capacity for the long haul. Here we can offer:
- Audits and related recommendations
- Training for content creators, developers, designers to help ensure accessible content creation and rendering in your online properties
- Process recommendation for maintaining compliance
- Governance framework recommendations to make management of the above possible
A Realistic Timeline
Completion time for an engagement depends on your unique web situation. These can be one-time efforts coupled with recommendations so that you can carry the work forward from there (on the scale of several months), to a longer term engagement that starts with an initial test/mitigate projects followed by a regular cadence of lighter tests and mitigation going forward.
- How many properties you’re managing
- Your content volume
- Current state of accessibility
- Whether you need full remediation or just the audit
- Number of dedicated team members
We’ll give you an honest assessment once we understand your scope.
NewCity’s Remediation Approach: Four WCAG Principles
Our remediation work is guided by the four WCAG principles. This framework helps us prioritize fixes and ensure we’re addressing the full scope of accessibility:
- Content should be perceivable – everyone can should be able to access your content
Common ways in which this tends to translate into mitigations:
- Alt text for images (they should be descriptive, contextual, 125 characters or less)
- Color contrast between text and backgrounds (4.5:1 for text less than 18 px, or 3:1 for larger text and UI components)
- Captions and transcripts for video and audio content – this may involve external tools to generate them if they don’t already exist, and mechanisms to make them available within the page.
- Content should be operable – everyone should be able can navigate and use your interface
This usually translates into:
- Adjusting header hierarchies to make them logical and consistent
- Fixes that support keyboard navigation
- Form labels – all the form labels. Make sure your inputs have labels.
- Exercising anything that changes content in the page after load – this usually generates or adjust ARIA attributes.
- Fixing or improving focus indicators
- Improving link text that might be vague “click here”-style content
- Understandable – content should be structured and semantic to make its intent and meaning clear for all users
Typical fixes here include
- Rewrapping content into proper semantic HTML 5 structures
- Writing clear, descriptive form error messages and filling instructions
- Limiting choices and showing user progress for things like multi-page forms or when pagination is involved
- Simplifying navigation and content organization where possible – removing cruft
- Robust – content should play nicely across devices and assistive technologies
Around this, we usually:
- Double-check the HTML elements in use in templates to ensure they’re being used properly.
- Ensuring components render and work correctly within screen readers, magnifiers, and via keyboard navigation
- Run tests across different browsers and devices – this is the Venn diagram union between accessibility and responsiveness.
Let’s Start a Conversation
Accessibility isn’t just about meeting regulations—it’s about creating better digital experiences for all humans. At NewCity, accessibility is built into our human-centered approach and is at the heart of everything we create. Our developers, designers, content strategists and UXers work in accessibility every day, and we’re here to help you navigate this new landscape, with strategies and tools to make your digital content work for all.
Ready to take the next step?
