Standardizing Accessibility: A Compliance Roadmap for State and Local Government

If you work in state or local government, you know achieving—and maintaining—compliance with accessibility laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is easier said than done.

Results from accessibility scans and audits arrive piecemeal. You’re left digging through endless spreadsheets, trying to stitch together data on different websites, platforms, and documents, all managed by different people. This makes it difficult to get a reliable understanding of your organization’s compliance status and how to improve it.

With enforcement of new ADA Title II accessibility requirements beginning in April 2026, fragmented reporting and siloed ownership is no longer practical. What’s needed is a single source of truth: a governance framework that makes risks visible, progress measurable, and accountability clear. The challenge is knowing where to begin.

This blog will cover five practical steps any agency can take to standardize compliance, build accountability, and turn accessibility from a patchwork effort into a sustainable practice.

The case for standardizing compliance

It’s tempting to think the simplest way to sustain compliance is to let each department manage its own accessibility efforts. In sprawling agencies, this distributed approach feels like a logical solution. But this model unravels quickly. Some teams stay ahead, others fall behind, and soon leaders are unable to answer the most basic question: Are we meeting our obligations—to the law, and to the people we serve?

Now picture an alternative: every department working from the same playbook. Progress measured. Accountability clear. Your digital services are inclusive, consistent, and accessible.

That’s exactly what standardizing compliance makes possible.

Five steps to standardize compliance in government agencies

With the right tools, skills, and approach in place, standardizing compliance is achievable for any agency. Here are five steps you can take to turn standardization into an everyday reality.

1. Get the right people in the room.

Accessibility isn’t a one-team job. From IT and legal to procurement and communications, if a team helps create, maintain, or publicize digital services, they’re part of the accessibility effort. Standardizing compliance starts by pulling them together under one mandate. With expectations set early and roles defined, everyone moves in the same direction and accessibility becomes a shared responsibility across the whole agency—not a side project for a few.

2. Define ownership from the start.

One of the biggest barriers to compliance is ambiguity. From day one, decide who tracks compliance, who updates policy, who fields questions, and who reports progress. With ownership defined upfront, accountability is built in. Work is shared, not shouldered by a single champion, and momentum is steady.

3. Equip your teams with the right tools.

Standardizing compliance doesn’t mean piling on more work. It means working smarter. There are tools on the market built specifically for this challenge: platforms that monitor accessibility across sites, services that flex to fit your procurement process, and accessibility training programs that help staff grow their skills. AI-powered tools can help teams spot issues faster, prioritize the highest-impact fixes, and speed up remediation. The right tools turn a heavy lift into something manageable.

4. Make training part of the job.

Content creators, developers, staff—everyone benefits from training. Effective education empowers teams to share the load, while cutting remediation costs and building confidence across the board. Organizations should take advantage of the many resources available to upskill employees.

Level Access Academy, for example, is a training hub built to help teams tackle real-world digital accessibility challenges. Academy’s role-specific, self-paced learning paths help professionals develop practical skills they can put to work right away.

5. Standardize reporting to turn data into direction.

Explore tools that bring all your websites, apps, and documents into one reporting system. The right platform will make progress visible, flag risks early, and highlight where to prioritize effort. Dashboards and consistent metrics turn accessibility into something you can track, celebrate, and share confidently with regulators and the public.

Build a standardized governance framework.

Standardizing compliance can be complex, but with the right approach and tools, agencies can define ownership, establish oversight, and build lasting accountability.

We’ve spent 25+ years helping state and local governments meet ADA and Section 504 requirements, combining AI-powered technology with expert-led accessibility guidance. From audits and remediation to governance and reporting, we support every step of your digital accessibility journey.

Our end-to-end solution delivers capabilities across the three pillars of successful digital accessibility programs: Audit & Test, Build & Fix, and Governance & Reporting. This holistic approach empowers organizations to not only reduce legal risk but ultimately deliver inclusive digital services to the communities they serve. To learn more, contact our team today.