In most cities accessibility is good practice. In Washington it is frequently the thing that decides whether you are eligible to bid at all.
Web design in Washington DC costs $5,000 to $45,000. The defining requirement in this market is accessibility: federal agencies and their contractors work to Section 508, which references WCAG, and associations and nonprofits are held to similar expectations. A site that cannot demonstrate conformance is a commercial problem rather than a design one.
Federal agencies and the contractors serving them work to Section 508, which references WCAG. Demonstrating conformance means testing against named criteria and documenting it, not asserting that you care about accessibility.
Members, chapters, committees, events, publications, a directory and frequently a separate advocacy arm. That is several products sharing a domain, and treating it as one website is how association sites become unusable.
Joining, renewing, lapsing, member-only content and tiered access. This is where association sites break, and it is usually an integration with an association management system rather than something built from scratch.
Advocacy, policy positions and grant-funded work all pass through review. Reusable components for required language and a staged approval workflow make that loop survivable rather than paralysing.
The public and the members, with content that is sometimes shared and sometimes gated. Deciding what search engines can see, and what sits behind login, is a structural decision to take before design.
Code, design files, domain and hosting in your name. Institutional and federal procurement asks this. Leaving should cost nothing but a conversation.
| Project | Range (USD) | Timeline | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small organisation | $5,000 to $11,000 | 4 to 7 weeks | Home, about, programs, contact, accessible build, editable by your team |
| Association or nonprofit | $11,000 to $28,000 | 7 to 16 weeks | Above plus membership integration, events, resources, gated content |
| Larger organisation | $28,000 to $60,000 | 14 to 26 weeks | Multi-audience structure, chapters, advocacy, approval workflow, migration |
| Accessibility audit and remediation | $3,000 to $18,000 | 2 to 8 weeks | Testing against named criteria, fixes, retest, written documentation |
| Accessible new build | Add 5 to 10 percent | Within the build | Contrast, focus, labels, headings and components correct from the start |
| Care plan | $250 to $1,800 per month | Ongoing | Updates, monitoring, accessibility checks, content support |
We build and test to WCAG and can document it. Whether your organisation is legally required to meet Section 508, and at what level, is a question for your own counsel rather than for us.
| Ask them | A good answer sounds like | Walk away if |
|---|---|---|
| What standard do you test to? | WCAG, named version and level, documented | Fully 508 compliant |
| How much testing is manual? | Most of it, and they name who does it | Our scanner covers it |
| Have you integrated an AMS before? | Named systems and what went wrong | We can integrate anything |
| Who owns the code and design files? | You do, unconditionally, in the contract | Ownership ends when the retainer does |
There is no certification called fully 508 compliant. A supplier using that phrase is telling you they have not done this work before.
| What people search | What it usually means | Whether it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Web design company | Designs and builds sites end to end | This, for the whole thing |
| Web design agency | Often the same, sometimes with marketing | Ask what is actually included |
| Web design services | Individual pieces bought separately | Yes, for accessibility work alone |
| Website design company | Identical, phrased differently | No |
| Website accessibility | WCAG and Section 508 conformance work | Yes, frequently a procurement gate |
| Website developers | Individual engineers rather than a firm | Yes, for scoped work |
| Web developer | One engineer, usually freelance | Fine for a fix, not a whole site |
Labels vary and mean little. In Washington the questions that decide a shortlist are about accessibility standards, membership systems and who owns the result.
A small organisation runs $5,000 to $11,000. An association or nonprofit with membership integration runs $11,000 to $28,000. Larger organisations run $28,000 to $60,000.
Section 508 governs accessibility for federal agencies and references WCAG. Whether it applies to your organisation, and at what level, is a question for your counsel. What we do is build and test to WCAG and document the result.
No, and be wary of anyone who says they can. There is no certification called fully 508 compliant. We test against named WCAG criteria, remediate what fails, retest and give you the documentation.
Members, chapters, committees, events, a directory and sometimes an advocacy arm. That is several products sharing a domain, and the membership and renewal mechanics usually mean integrating an association management system rather than building one.
By deciding early what is public, what is gated and what search engines are allowed to see. Retrofitting that after design produces a worse product and frequently an accidental leak of content that was meant to be paid.
Yes, with the workflow designed for it: drafts, preview links, staged approval and reusable components for required language, so a wording change is one edit rather than sixty.
A minority. Automated tools catch perhaps a third of real issues. The rest needs a person using the page with a keyboard and a screen reader, which is where the findings that matter come from.
No. We work with DC organisations remotely on Eastern hours and would rather say that than imply otherwise. Accessibility documentation and standards are the same regardless of where the work is done.
Send us the URL and we will tell you what a keyboard and screen reader cannot reach before a reviewer finds it.