Wake County Builds Internal Capability for ADA Title II Compliance

Problem Solved

Wake County maintains hundreds of digital touchpoints across more than 20 departments — the main wake.gov site, internal systems, third-party applications and mobile platforms. Auditing each touchpoint one at a time, as other accessibility vendors proposed, would have been expensive and would still not have changed how the county builds and buys digital services.

The harder problems were organizational. Accessibility needed to become standard operating practice rather than one team’s project; decision-makers in legal, procurement and communications needed enough understanding to make good calls without a consultant in the room; and the county needed to build internal capability it could sustain on its own budget and staff.

• Solution

  Wake County’s IT Solutions Development team led the initiative, with two IT Project Managers owning strategy and tactical coordination. Accessiblü supported their objectives through targeted stakeholder education across five sessions:

  • County Attorney’s Office — ADA Title II legal implications and ongoing risk management.
  • Communications Office — website accessibility and content-management integration.
  • IT Business Systems Development — technical accessibility integration for development teams.
  • Accessible procurement — policy development for accessibility-conscious purchasing.
  • Service departments — ADA Title II awareness for digital content managers.

  Alongside the sessions, Accessiblü completed a gap analysis, and provided weekly strategy sessions and expert guidance during policy development. That combination of training and ongoing consulting is what our Managed Accessibility Ops service is built for.

• Results

  • Educated key personnel across five critical departments, establishing accessibility champions who understand compliance as a continuous process rather than a 2026 deadline.
  • Completed a gap analysis against WCAG 2.2 and Section 508, establishing a baseline the county can measure against. The DOJ’s Title II rule itself names WCAG 2.1 Level AA; conforming to 2.2 covers everything 2.1 requires.
  • Drafted an accessibility statement with a regular update process, procurement language that can adapt as requirements evolve, vendor compliance management integrated with existing workflows, and resident complaint procedures.
  • Built internal procurement expertise for ongoing vendor accessibility evaluation, and equipped developers with the technical knowledge for accessible application development.
  • Reached these foundational objectives within 30 hours of consulting time, leaving the county’s budget for implementation rather than assessment.

• What Comes Next

  • The county’s IT Project Managers are expanding their expertise across the organization and guiding departments through accessibility integration.
  • Accessibility is being written into routine operations as standard procedure, so new projects start with it rather than retrofit it.
  • Scalable frameworks are being refined so accessibility is considered from project inception.

  Wake County’s approach is a replicable model for other public entities: start with organizational commitment and internal capability, and use expert consulting to accelerate it, rather than buying an audit that sits on a shelf.

  Related reading: what the DOJ’s ADA Title II rule actually requires by April 2026, and why a gap analysis beats a traditional audit.