Accessibility requirements for Government & Public Sector websites

Regulations that apply

Government & Public Sector sits at the intersection of general digital-accessibility law and sector-specific obligations. The most relevant items to track:

• Section 508

  Active since 1998; refreshed 2017 to align with WCAG 2.0 AA.

  US federal

• DOJ Title II Final Rule (2024)

  WCAG 2.1 AA required; phased deadlines.

  US state/local

• Web Accessibility Directive (EU 2016/2102)

  EN 301 549 / WCAG 2.1 AA. Audited annually.

  EU public sector

The accessibility risks specific to Government & Public Sector

Every industry has its own failure pattern. The combination below is what audits, complaints, and lawsuits in this sector keep returning to. Fixing them clears the most-cited issues without touching every page.

• Form-heavy services without proper labels

  Tax, benefits, and licence renewal forms are most-cited issues.

  1.3.1, 3.3.2

• Document portals serving image-only PDFs

  Common in older municipal sites.

  1.1.1

A short remediation checklist

Most Government & Public Sector teams do not need a 200-item audit before they fix anything. They need an ordered list of the highest-impact moves. Start with these and re-audit after each pass.

• Audit highest-traffic services first

• Publish a public accessibility statement with current conformance score

• Establish feedback channel and 30-day response

Scoping an audit for Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector carries 3 distinct obligations to satisfy — Section 508, DOJ Title II Final Rule (2024), Web Accessibility Directive (EU 2016/2102) — spanning US federal and US state/local and EU public sector. An auditor prices the work by how many of those regimes are in scope and how many distinct task flows carry them, not by page count.

The 2 failure patterns above map to 1.3.1, 3.3.2, 1.1.1. Every one of those is machine-detectable, which means a scan can clear them before an auditor starts charging by the hour. What remains for manual review is the judgement work: whether form-heavy services without proper labels actually functions end to end for a screen-reader user.

• Scan first, audit second

  Clearing the 2 automated patterns above shortens the manual pass to the flows that need a person.

• Scope by template, not by page

  A site with thousands of pages usually has fewer than twenty distinct templates. Price the templates.

• Re-test after remediation

  The conformance claim rests on the re-test, not the first report.

• Evidence for US federal

  Keep dated scan history — it is what turns a conformance claim into something a regulator accepts.