18F Accessibility Guide

18F Accessibility Guide: a comprehensive accessibility guide with resources published by 18F, a digital services agency under the General Services Administration (GSA).

Accessibility is one of the most important aspects of modern web development. Accessibility means the greatest number of users can view your content. It means search engines will be able to read your site more completely. Users of all types will have a better experience if you take accessibility concerns into account. And least of all, it is required by law for all federal information and communication technology (ICT) products to be accessible (with a few minor exceptions).

Accessibility works best when incorporated into an agile production environment. It’s very hard to adequately address accessibility concerns at the end of a project, but if taken into account at the beginning, it’s quite straightforward and cost effective. The best way to ensure this is done is through training and education. Every member of a production team should be aware of what accessibility concerns are and have a basic understanding of how they are addressed.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) have long been the gold standard for accessibility on the web. Here at 18F we follow WCAG2.0 AA as our minimum standard for accessibility.