Avalon Technology Services | User Experience and Accessibility

Avalon Technology Services | User Experience and Accessibility | Accessibility Modernization

THE PROBLEM & THE APPROACH

A governmentwide score of 1.96 out of 5 is not a design problem. It's a testing and remediation problem.

The Challenge

Our Approach

Every agency's ICT conformance is now measured annually and reported to Congress, the FY 2025 governmentwide assessment scored average conformance at just 1.96 on a 5-point scale, with testing and remediation the weakest area governmentwide.
Avalon audits digital properties against the Revised 508 Standards using the DHS Trusted Tester methodology and the federal ICT Testing Baseline, then fixes the failures directly in code, content, and documents rather than just reporting them.
More than one in four U.S. adults reports a disability, and an inaccessible benefits portal, claims form, or recruiting site excludes the very public the agency exists to serve, while inaccessible internal tools create Section 501 exposure for the agency's own workforce.
Remediation runs at the source: semantic HTML, ARIA usage, form labeling, and, where the agency has a design system, shared-component fixes that propagate everywhere at once.
Accessibility retrofitted after deployment costs a multiple of accessibility built in during development, and unmanaged PDF backlogs quietly turn into six-figure remediation liabilities.
A triage-first document workstream decides remediate, convert, or retire before a single page is fixed, so the agency pays to fix the pages worth fixing, not the whole backlog.
46% of agencies report they sometimes or never verify the accessibility of ICT deliverables they accept from contractors, and an inaccessible system built by one vendor is routinely graded by tests from that same vendor.
Avalon delivers an independent, evidence-backed Accessibility Conformance Report and can serve as the objective verifier on systems Avalon did not build, plus the CI/CD accessibility gates and training that keep the next release from reintroducing the same failures.

Aligned To

Section 508 / 36 CFR Part 1194
WCAG 2.0 / 2.1 / 2.2 AA
DHS Trusted Tester v5
OMB M-24-08
FAR Part 39
ITI VPAT / ACR

FREQUENTLY ASKED

Questions, Answered.

Straight answers about scope, evidence, and what Section 508 conformance actually requires.

Talk to Our Team →

Federal Frameworks Addressed

Section 508
WCAG 2.2 AA
DHS Trusted Tester v5
ITI VPAT

No, and there is no accredited path that lets anyone claim otherwise. There is no accredited certifying body for Section 508; nobody, including Avalon, can "certify" compliance. This engagement produces documented conformance status against the tested sample, remediation of identified failures, and an Accessibility Conformance Report, the conformance claim itself belongs to the agency.

Automated scanners reliably detect only a fraction of WCAG failures, and overlay widgets do not make the underlying ICT conform to the Revised 508 Standards, complaints against overlay-equipped sites continue to be filed. Manual testing against the DHS Trusted Tester methodology is what the annual assessment actually asks about.

Accurate, and Avalon puts it in writing rather than leaving a CO to discover it. What we offer instead: Trusted Tester–certified staff testing to the government's own methodology, a fixed-price pilot sized under the simplified acquisition threshold so your exposure is capped, and full evidence transparency, every finding and fix is inspectable.

Most 508 offices report resourcing, not governance, as their binding constraint. Avalon isn't proposing to replace your program, it's surge capacity for manual testing throughput, remediation engineering inside your repos, and document backlog burn-down.

Remediation of a fielded system is legitimate O&M on that system's existing budget, it doesn't need a new line, and a fixed-price audit fits cleanly into year-end (Q4) expiring funds. The real cost comparison isn't audit-vs-nothing; it's audit-now versus retrofit-under-complaint later.

This service audits, remediates, and reports, it isn't a legal determination, it doesn't adjudicate complaints, it doesn't serve as your Section 508 Program Manager, and it doesn't fix third-party COTS code Avalon doesn't control. We're explicit in the SOW about exactly where the line falls.

Accessibility Modernization

A governmentwide score of 1.96 out of 5 is not a design problem. It's a testing and remediation problem.

From inventory to sustained conformance.

Inventory & Conformance Audit

Code & Document Remediation Engineering

Validation, Reporting & Sustainment

A single-property engagement runs 8–12 weeks.

Kickoff & Access

Inventory & Triage

Conformance Audit

Remediation Sprints

Validation & ACR

Sustainment Setup & Training

Closeout

Independent testing from a firm with no incentive to grade its own homework.

Independent by Design

Speed to Start

Fixed-Price at the Market Floor

Fixes What It Finds

Questions, Answered.

Ready to know exactly where your digital services fail Section 508, and get it fixed?

Accessibility Modernization

Inventory & Conformance Audit

Code & Document Remediation Engineering

Validation, Reporting & Sustainment

Kickoff & Access

Inventory & Triage

Conformance Audit

Remediation Sprints

Validation & ACR

Sustainment Setup & Training

Closeout

Independent by Design

Speed to Start

Fixed-Price at the Market Floor

Fixes What It Finds

Often engaged alongside this service.

Questions, Answered.

Will this get us certified 508 compliant?

Can't an automated scan or an accessibility overlay widget handle this?

What should we look at instead of past performance for 508 work specifically?

We already have a 508 office and an incumbent support contractor, why bring Avalon in?

Is there a budget line for this?

What's out of scope for this service?

Ready to know exactly where your digital services fail Section 508, and get it fixed?