How RSG Made Product Accessibility a Competitive Advantage
Summary
- RSG helps public agencies understand how communities travel. The firm’s location-aware market research app, rMove®, is how many of their travel surveys reach participants.
- In 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that set specific digital accessibility requirements for state and local governments. As a contractor serving many state and local agencies, RSG chose to act early.
- To strengthen its accessibility efforts, RSG partnered with Level Access. Level Access evaluated rMove across iOS, Android, and web, combining automated scanning with manual testing by native assistive technology users.
- Level Access delivered findings into RSG’s Azure DevOps boards, complete with screenshots, explanations, and suggested code that developers could act on without leaving their workflow.
- Thanks to their proactive approach, RSG reached conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, the technical standard for ADA Title II compliance, ahead of the original deadline. The team also obtained accessibility conformance reports (ACRs) for all three versions of rMove.
- By bringing credible accessibility documentation into client conversations, RSG proves that agencies can count on them to support their own Title II compliance. This gives RSG a competitive advantage as the 2027 and 2028 deadlines approach.
Provide a barrier-free research experience while supporting clients’ compliance
RSG helps public agencies understand how their communities travel. The firm has combined market research, data modeling, and demand forecasting for clients across all 50 states and 30 countries. Its location-aware market research app, rMove®, is how many of those household travel surveys reach participants.
Making participation possible for everyone has never been a new idea at RSG. For years, the firm has offered alternatives for people who cannot use the mobile app, including a call center and online options. “Accessibility is one of the most important ways we can make sure we have the broadest possible range of people taking part in our surveys,” says John Olszewski, Director of Software & Technology at RSG.
While those alternatives remain valuable, in recent years, RSG noticed a rise in research participation through rMove as smartphone use has grown. That shift raised the stakes for the app’s accessibility, because a participant who cannot finish a survey is a participant whose travel behaviors may never reach the dataset.
“When somebody can’t participate in a survey because of an accessibility barrier, we lose a data point. In our world, that’s a gap in the data. And that means the community we’re trying to understand is a little less represented, and we’re not getting the complete picture.”
These stakes grew even higher amid regulatory changes. In 2024, the DOJ published a new rule under ADA Title II, establishing WCAG 2.1 AA as the technical compliance standard for state and local government digital services. State and local government agencies depend on contractors, like RSG, to deliver products that support that obligation.
The initial deadline was April 2026 for agencies with a population of 50,000 or more, and April 2027 for those with a population under 50,000. (The deadlines have since been extended to April 2027 and 2028, respectively.)
RSG decided its role was to lead rather than wait, which meant bringing rMove into conformance with WCAG 2.1 Level AA across every platform participants use. To achieve this, RSG needed a partner with the technical depth to evaluate three distinct applications, and the rigor to document the results in a format that agency clients could trust.
Expert testing and findings developers could act on
RSG evaluated several providers before choosing Level Access. The deciding factor was a solution that fit with how RSG already builds software.
“We’re a technology-first organization, so it really mattered that we had a partner who had the right technology,” says Olszewski. “Level Access integrated with our team really well, especially on the software development side.”
The work began with the iOS version of rMove and expanded to Android and the browser-based version. For each one, Level Access combined automated scanning with manual testing by accessibility professionals. That pairing mattered to RSG, because automation alone can’t always reveal how an interface behaves for someone navigating it with assistive technology.
Findings flowed from the Level Access Platform directly into RSG’s Azure DevOps boards, so developers could swiftly make accessibility improvements without switching tools or losing context. “The Level Access Platform made it seamless for us to bring findings straight into our own development workflow,” Olszewski says. “Because findings were imported into our environment, developers could address them quickly.”
The context surrounding each issue further accelerated remediation. Each finding carried a screenshot, an explanation of the barrier, and suggested code for resolving it. RSG’s developers did not have to rely on their own interpretation of WCAG to ship fixes.
“The information Level Access gave us in the individual tickets, with screenshots and explanations and suggested code, was an enormous help for our developers and really sped up the process.”
After RSG completed initial remediation, Level Access produced ACRs, based on the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT®), for all three versions of rMove. This documentation allowed RSG to provide clients with credible evidence that the app satisfied ADA Title II compliance requirements.
Broader research participation and a competitive edge
RSG’s accessibility efforts had the most direct payoff for the users of its surveys. “Participants who rely on screen readers and other assistive technologies can now move through the app in ways that just weren’t possible before,” says Olszewski. “So people who may have opted for another method of participation, or did not get the full experience of our rMove app, now can use the app without issue.”
Expanded research participation translates to richer results for RSG’s clients. Agencies commission household travel surveys to understand how an entire region moves. Every participant who can now complete a survey in rMove is a travel pattern that reaches the dataset, and a decision about transportation made on a fuller picture.
RSG’s proactive accessibility work has also put them in a stronger position as a business. Many of the agencies that RSG serves are actively coordinating their Title II compliance efforts. Because RSG obtained ACRs ahead of the initial deadline, they arrive at those conversations with documentation already in hand.
“Many agencies are still figuring out how to navigate the new ADA Title II rule. By coming to them with credible ACRs, we’re solving a problem for them up front,” Olszewski says.
“We’re not just meeting a standard for ourselves—we’re also helping to educate our clients. Accessibility is a real competitive advantage for us.”
RSG’s advantage only grows from here. With the new compliance deadlines of April 2027 and April 2028 approaching, RSG expects agency interest in documented, tested tools to rise—and the firm is ready to meet that demand.
RSG is building on the results they’ve achieved by approaching accessibility as an ongoing priority rather than a finished project. The team continues to work with Level Access to ensure rMove remains conformant as it evolves, and they’re applying what they’ve learned to other applications and digital tools.
In particular, RSG now focuses on embedding accessibility into products from day one, rather than retrofitting it later. Olszewski’s advice to peers? “When you’re designing a product or tool, treat accessibility as a starting requirement, as part of the definition of done.”