Black Hawk County Builds a Practical Path to ADA Title II Compliance

Problem Solved

Black Hawk County needed to know exactly where its digital properties stood against WCAG 2.1 Level AA — the standard the DOJ’s Title II rule requires public entities to meet. That meant assessing five separate county websites, a backlog of PDFs across departments, internal systems including SharePoint and the employee intranet, and a list of third-party vendors whose own accessibility documentation was largely unknown.

Beyond the assessment itself, county staff — content creators, legal and procurement among them — needed practical training so accessibility did not rest on one person’s shoulders. And with a hard deadline on the calendar, the county needed a plan that produced usable documentation, not just a list of problems.

• Solution

  • Conducted a gap analysis of five primary county websites using both automated scanning (WAVE, axe DevTools, Lighthouse) and manual testing — keyboard navigation, JAWS screen reader testing, contrast checks, and testing of key user journeys like forms and applications.
  • Audited a representative sample of PDFs from across departments and categorized them by remediation complexity, flagging which ones made sense to convert to HTML rather than remediate directly.
  • Reviewed internal systems, including SharePoint and the employee intranet, and inventoried third-party vendor platforms to flag missing VPATs or accessibility statements.
  • Delivered a prioritized Gap Analysis Report and Remediation Roadmap, plus accessibility statements and conformance reports for all five county websites.
  • Ran three training sessions tailored to different audiences: a core team workshop, a content creator session on accessible documents and social media, and a procurement and legal session on reading VPATs and writing accessibility requirements into contracts and RFPs.
  • Provided biweekly check-ins and on-demand technical consultation throughout the engagement.

• Results

  • Delivered accessibility statements and conformance reports for all five county websites, giving the county documentation it did not have before.
  • Produced a PDF inventory and decision framework so departments know when to remediate a document versus replace it with an accessible HTML page or Word file.
  • Trained core staff, content creators, and procurement and legal teams, spreading accessibility knowledge beyond a single point of contact.
  • Delivered an ADA Title II Conformance Plan, revised partway through the engagement as the county’s priorities became clearer.
  • Gave county leadership a documented, prioritized roadmap they can act on with their own budget and staff, instead of an audit that sits on a shelf.
  • Helped the county stand up an internal accessibility team without new headcount. Accessibility was folded into existing roles, and Accessiblü advised on how to divide the responsibilities so the work was shared out rather than landing on one person.
  • Black Hawk County was the first organization to receive our ADA Title II Handbook and Toolkit, and now uses it as the roadmap for their own work toward the DOJ deadline.

• Where the County Stands Now

  The county’s team now runs its own accessibility work, using the Handbook and Toolkit as the guide. Standing meetings with Accessiblü have dropped to once a month — not because the work slowed down, but because the county no longer needs us in the room to keep it moving.

  They have processes and procedures they are confident in, and they already meet most of what the DOJ’s rule asks for, with a documented plan for what is left. That is the outcome worth having: a trained staff, a clear picture of where they stand, and something to point to if anyone asks.

  Related reading: what the DOJ’s ADA Title II rule actually requires by April 2026. Another county’s route to the same place: how Wake County built internal capability.