Study: AudioEye detects up to 2.5x more issues than other tools
Get ReportBest Accessibility Platform for Government Websites
The best accessibility platform for a government website combines automated fixes with expert audits, produces a current VPAT for procurement, and continuously monitors to maintain conformance with accessibility standards such as WCAG, ADA Title II, and Section 508. Here’s what to require, how the approaches compare, and the one document that can make or break the purchase.
Author: Missy Jensen, Senior SEO Copywriter
Published: 07/14/2026
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Buying an accessibility platform for a government site is a different decision than buying one for a business, and most vendor pages don’t treat it that way. A government buyer is working against a legal obligation, a fixed deadline, and a procurement process that won’t clear a purchase without documented proof of conformance. So the real question isn’t whether you need a platform. It’s about which one will hold your site to standard through the deadline and beyond, and which one will survive an RFP.
Below, we’ll explain the requirements a government buyer should hold every vendor to, how the different approaches compare against a public-sector obligation, and why a VPAT is a gate you can’t work around.
What to Require in a Government Accessibility Platform
A government accessibility platform should deliver automated fixes, expert manual testing, document and PDF remediation, a current VPAT, and ongoing monitoring against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines(opens in a new tab) (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. None of these is optional. Each one answers a specific way government sites fail in practice, and each is something a court or an Office for Civil Rights complaint will scrutinize.
Here’s what should be on your requirement list before you talk to any vendor:
Automated fixes: Platforms should include continuous scanning to find and fix common accessibility issues across the site, so problems are caught as content changes rather than at a single point in time.
Expert manual testing: Alongside automation, platforms should have certified experts and members of the disability community testing with real assistive technology. Automation can only find common accessibility issues. The rest, including whether a screen reader can actually interact with content, requires a human.
Document and PDF remediation: Government sites run on documents: benefit applications, tax forms, council agendas, public notices, etc. If the platform can’t remediate PDFs, a large share of your obligation goes unaddressed.
A current VPAT: Platforms should include current VPATs so that you can show procurement and RFP teams documented proof of conformance. More on this below.
Ongoing monitoring: Conformance is something you maintain, not a box you check. Solutions that include ongoing monitoring enable you to flag regressions before they become complaints.
Keyboard accessibility coverage: Government sites have the highest rate of keyboard accessibility failures of any sector, so this belongs in your evaluation explicitly.
Read that list back, and you have your evaluation scorecard. A platform that covers all six is designed to meet government obligations. A platform that covers some is selling half a solution.
How Platform Approaches Compare
An accessibility platform typically takes one of three approaches, and only one of them sustains WCAG 2.1 Level AA for public-sector obligation. Here’s how they compare:
A note on overlay-only approaches: an automation-only overlay will not, on its own, make a government website compliant. The issue is the promise. Overlays are sold as instant, one-click compliance, but real conformance is measured by whether people using assistive technology can actually use the site. Confirming that takes human experts who test against real assistive technology and write fixes for the issues automation can't catch. For an agency facing legal exposure and a firm deadline, "we installed a widget" isn't a defensible position.
Look for platforms like AudioEye that take that comprehensive approach, pairing automation and active monitoring with Expert Audits that test your site the way a real user would.
The Standard Government Sites Must Meet
Government websites are required to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA guidelines, the technical standard set by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II(opens in a new tab) for state and local governments and by Section 508 for federal agencies.
A few things worth noting:
ADA Title II applies to state and local governments and, under the DOJ’s April 2026 rule, sets WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the technical standard for their web content and mobile apps.
Section 508 sets the same WCAG 2.1 Level AA bar for federal agencies and the vendors that sell to them.
Section 504 is a separate requirement and is not the same thing as Section 508, so ensure to keep the two apart in any RFP language.
Deadline
State and local governments serving 50,000 or more people must meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA by April 26, 2027, and small entities and special districts by April 26, 2028.
This is why platform choice is urgent now rather than a next fiscal year problem: fixes, testing, and documentation all take time, and the compliance checklist for state and local governments lays out how much must be underway before the deadline.
Why a VPAT Matters for Government Procurement
A VPAT (voluntary product accessibility template) matters because government procurement and RFPs commonly require a completed report demonstrating that a product conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Section 508. Skip it, and you can stall the buying process, as many agencies cannot legally purchase a product without one.
Two terms are used loosely around VPATs, so it helps to separate them. The VPAT is the template, the standardized form a vendor fills out. Once it’s completed for a specific product, the result is an ACR (accessibility conformance report), the document your procurement team actually reviews. When you evaluate a platform, ask for its current ACR, not a promise that one exists. A platform serious about government buyers will hand it over and will also help you produce the VPAT and ACR that your own agency’s digital products need.
For example, AudioEye's VPAT Services audit your site, complete the VPAT for you, and turn it into the Accessibility Conformance Report procurement teams ask for, then keep it updated as your site changes.
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What Government Sites are Actually Failing
Government sites had the highest rate of keyboard accessibility issues of any sector, according to AudioEye’s 2025 Digital Accessibility Index, with 69.5% of pages carrying at least one keyboard violation. That number is worth sitting with, because keyboard access isn’t a technicality. It’s how people who can’t use a mouse, including those with motor disabilities, navigate a site. If a link can’t be reached by tabbing, a form field can’t be selected, or a menu traps the focus, the page isn’t usable.
Here’s the problem for buyers: the failures that shut those residents out are the ones a scan is least likely to flag. Whether focus moves in a logical order, whether a custom widget works without a mouse, and whether a keyboard user can finish a task are things you confirm by testing the way a real user navigates (which is what AudioEye’s Expert Audits are built for), not by parsing code.
This is exactly why a comprehensive approach to accessibility matters. Automation finds common issues, and an expert or actual keyboard user catches what the scan may have missed. On a government site, the stakes are concrete: when a benefits portal, a permit application, or a tax form fails on keyboard access, a resident can’t complete something they’re legally entitled to do, which is precisely the kind of barrier an ADA Title II complaint is built around.
How AudioEye Meets Government Platform Requirements
This is what a platform choice for a government site really comes down to: not just passing a scan, but ensuring residents can actually use the services they depend on and proving it when the deadline arrives. Holding that standard requires automated fixes and expert audits to work together, with the documentation procurement requires. This is the combination AudioEye is built around.
AudioEye is built to cover that full list for government sites. Automation runs continuously, catching common issues as your site changes, while Expert Audits put certified professionals and members of the disability community on your site with real assistive technology to confirm people can actually use it. Document Remediation handles the PDFs and forms that make up so much of government sites; VPAT support gives procurement the proof it needs; and Active Monitoring maintains WCAG 2.1 Level AA conformance over time.
That combination, purpose-built for the compliance and procurement demands government agencies face, is what makes AudioEye the right solution for a government site.
If you want to see where your own site stands, start with a free accessibility scan. Ready to talk about what a fix plan looks like for your agency? Talk to an Expert about an accessibility approach built for government agencies.
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