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100% Federal Audit Pass Rate
Accessibility Audits. We Test It the Way Your Users Use It.
Most accessibility audits are automated scans with a nice PDF attached. Ours involve an actual engineer testing your site with screen readers, keyboards, and the same methods federal reviewers use. That is why our clients pass on the first try.
100%Federal Pass Rate
12+Years Experience
40+Audits Completed
Trusted by teams who value quality
The Problem With Most Accessibility Audits
Most accessibility audits are automated scans dressed up as expert analysis. A tool runs, a PDF gets generated, and you get a list of color contrast ratios and missing alt text. Things any developer could find with a free browser extension. The hard problems go undetected. Keyboard traps. Screen reader incompatibilities. Focus management that breaks the moment a real user tries to navigate.
Then there is the report itself. Hundreds of issues with no priority, no context, and no clear path forward. Your team spends more time figuring out what the audit means than actually fixing anything.
If your organization has federal compliance requirements, the stakes get real. Section 508 reviewers use manual testing methodologies that automated scanners cannot replicate. A superficial audit tells you everything is fine. Then the real auditors show up and it is not fine. We have cleaned up after this exact scenario more times than we can count.
What We Test Against
Every audit maps to the compliance frameworks that actually apply to your organization. No guesswork, no testing against the wrong standard.
WCAG 2.2 Level AA
The international standard for web accessibility and the baseline for every audit we do. This is what courts reference in ADA cases and what most organizations need to meet.
Section 508
Required for all U.S. federal technology. We follow the DHS Trusted Tester methodology, which is the same process federal reviewers use to evaluate your product. No surprises when the government tests it themselves.
ADA Title III
The law behind most accessibility demand letters and lawsuits targeting private businesses. If you have received legal action or want to prevent it, this is the framework that matters.
EN 301 549
The European standard for ICT accessibility, required for EU public sector procurement. If you sell to European governments or need to meet the European Accessibility Act, we cover this as a VPAT add-on.
What You Get
Detailed Audit Report
Every issue documented with screenshots, the specific WCAG criteria it violates, how severe it is, and step-by-step instructions to reproduce it.
Issue Spreadsheet
Every finding in a sortable, filterable format with severity, affected components, and recommended fixes. Built so your dev team can drop it straight into sprint planning.
Executive Summary
The version you hand to leadership. Overall compliance posture, risk level, and key findings without the technical depth. Clear enough for someone who does not know what ARIA stands for.
Remediation Roadmap
A prioritized action plan organized by impact and effort. Critical issues first, related fixes grouped together, and realistic estimates for how long each phase takes.
VPAT / ACR Documentation
Optional add-on. The formal conformance document that government procurement offices and enterprise vendor evaluations require. We fill it out so you do not have to figure out the format.
Walkthrough Session
A 60-minute live review with your team. We walk through the critical findings, answer questions, and make sure everyone is aligned on what to fix first and why.
How the Audit Works
Scope
We map every unique template, user flow, and interactive pattern in your application. You get a clear scope, timeline, and fixed-price quote before anything starts. No surprises.
Test
Automated scanning first to catch the obvious stuff. Then manual testing: keyboard navigation, screen readers (JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver), cognitive review, and zoom up to 400%. The part most auditors skip.
Report
Every finding documented with severity, WCAG criteria, reproduction steps, and a recommended fix. You get the full report, an executive summary, and a spreadsheet your team can actually use.
Review
Live walkthrough with your team. We go through the critical findings, answer questions, and align on the remediation roadmap. You leave knowing exactly what to do next.
How We Actually Test
Automated tools are where we start, not where we stop. Every audit begins with axe-core and Lighthouse scans to catch the obvious stuff: missing alt text, ARIA misuse, color contrast failures. These tools reliably catch about 30% of real-world accessibility barriers. That is useful. It is also not an audit.
The remaining 70% requires a human at a keyboard. We navigate every interactive flow using only a keyboard, testing tab order, focus visibility, skip links, and trap scenarios. Then we repeat key flows with JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver to confirm that screen reader users can access the same information and complete the same tasks. This is the part that matters, and it is the part most vendors skip.
We also evaluate cognitive accessibility: reading level, error recovery patterns, motion sensitivity, and whether the interface communicates state changes clearly. A site can pass every WCAG criterion on paper and still be unusable. We test for both, from our office in Boise to clients across the country.
Screen Reader Testing
Keyboard Navigation
Automated Scanning
Cognitive Review
400% Zoom Testing
Trusted Tester Method
Investment
$150/hrBase Rate · All Engagement Types
$2.5K–$50K+Typical Project Range
1–12 WeeksTypical Timeline
Pricing depends on the number of unique templates, interactive complexity, and documentation requirements. A 10-page marketing site and a 50-template enterprise application are fundamentally different audits. We scope based on actual complexity, not page count. You know the price before we start.
VPAT Documentation Add-Ons
WCAG Edition$1,500
Section 508 Edition$2,000
EU EN 301 549$2,000
International Edition$3,000
Federal and government engagements: contact us for pricing and contract vehicle information.
Results in Practice
Case Study
Federal ServiceNow Portal Accessibility Overhaul
Comprehensive audit and remediation of a federal agency's ServiceNow portal serving 10,000+ employees. Achieved Section 508 compliance across all portal widgets.
100%Audit Pass Rate
47Widgets Remediated
3moTimeline
Case Study
Healthcare Patient Portal Accessibility Audit
Full WCAG 2.2 AA audit of a patient-facing healthcare portal handling sensitive medical data. Identified and prioritized 200+ issues across 30 unique templates.
200+Issues Found
30Templates Audited
6wkTimeline
Case Study
E-Commerce Checkout Redesign
WCAG 2.2 AA audit of a high-traffic e-commerce checkout flow. Identified critical keyboard traps and screen reader barriers across the multi-step purchase process.
42Issues Found
5Flows Audited
2wkTimeline
Let's Figure Out Where You Stand
No "discovery call" that is secretly a sales pitch. Just a conversation about your application, your compliance needs, and whether we are the right people to audit it. We might be. We might not be. Only one way to find out.
What our clients say
Real feedback from teams we've worked with.
We came to Modern Softworks with an outdated website that was hurting our business. They didn't just rebuild it, they rethought the entire user experience. The site went from embarrassing to something we're proud to send people to. They walked us through every decision like we were part of the team.
Common Questions
What people usually ask before starting an audit. The honest answers.
Automated tools like axe-core and Lighthouse catch about 30% of accessibility issues. Missing alt text, color contrast failures, malformed ARIA attributes. Useful, but limited. The other 70% requires a human at a keyboard: navigating interactive flows, testing with screen readers, checking focus management, and evaluating cognitive accessibility. Every audit we do includes both. The automated part takes about an hour. The manual part takes the rest of the engagement. That should tell you something about where the real work is.
Yes, as an add-on to any audit. We offer WCAG Edition ($1,500), Section 508 Edition ($2,000), EU EN 301 549 ($2,000), and an International Edition covering all three ($3,000). These are formal compliance documents used in government procurement and enterprise vendor evaluations.
Depends on the size of your application. A small site with 1 to 10 unique templates typically takes 1 to 2 weeks. Medium applications (11 to 25 templates) take 2 to 4 weeks. Large or enterprise applications with 26 to 50+ templates can take 4 to 12 weeks. You get a firm timeline during the scoping phase before any work starts.
Auditing and fixing are separate engagements. The audit gives you a complete picture of what needs attention and a prioritized roadmap for getting there. If you need the issues fixed, our Accessibility Remediation service picks up exactly where the audit leaves off. Same team, no context lost.
JAWS, NVDA, and VoiceOver screen readers. Keyboard-only navigation across every interactive flow. Browser zoom up to 400%. For government work, we follow the DHS Trusted Tester methodology. We also evaluate cognitive accessibility: reading level, error recovery patterns, and motion sensitivity.
We scope by unique template, not total page count. If your 500-page site uses 8 templates, we audit those 8 templates. This keeps scope and cost proportional to the actual complexity of your application, not the volume of your content. We've audited 500-page sites that had 6 templates. The scope was smaller than you'd think.
WCAG 2.2 Level AA is the baseline for every audit. For federal projects, we also evaluate against Section 508 and follow the DHS Trusted Tester methodology. International standards like EN 301 549 are available for organizations with European compliance needs.
Yes, and it is often more cost-effective than auditing after launch. We can test against a staging environment, catch issues before they ship, and provide guidance that prevents accessibility debt from piling up. The earlier you audit, the less you spend on fixes later. We've seen teams ship an entire application and then discover the modal component traps keyboard focus on every single page. Catching that in staging costs a fraction of what it costs in production.
Related Services
Accessibility Emergency?
Facing an ADA demand letter, failed audit, or critical compliance deadline? We offer rapid-response accessibility remediation at $250/hr (minimum $5K engagement).