Two regulations carry dates. The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. The ADA Title II web rule carries compliance deadlines in April 2026 and April 2027. Both point at WCAG 2.2 AA. NovaLab does the technical work against that standard, starting at $300.
The two regulations that carry dates
- European Accessibility Act. Applies since 28 June 2025. It covers a defined set of products and services offered to consumers in the European Union, including many websites and mobile applications.
- ADA Title II, United States. The Department of Justice rule carries compliance deadlines in April 2026 and April 2027, with the applicable date depending on the size of the public entity. Title II covers state and local government entities, not private businesses.
Those are facts about the regulations. They are not advice about your situation. Whether either rule reaches your organisation depends on what you sell, where you sell it, how large you are and which legal entity is doing the selling. NovaLab provides technical remediation and not legal counsel, so that question belongs with a qualified lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction.
Both point at the same technical standard
The regulations differ. The standard underneath them does not. Web accessibility work is measured against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and NovaLab works to WCAG 2.2 AA, the current version at the AA conformance level.
WCAG 2.2 AA is a numbered list of success criteria rather than a philosophy, which is what makes it auditable. A finding maps to a criterion and a reviewer can repeat the test that found it. The criteria cover four areas.
- Perceivable. Text alternatives, captions, contrast ratios, reflow at small viewport sizes, and content that does not depend on colour alone.
- Operable. Everything reachable and operable by keyboard, visible focus indicators, no focus traps, enough time to complete tasks, and target sizes large enough to hit.
- Understandable. Predictable navigation, labelled form fields, and error messages that say what went wrong and how to fix it.
- Robust. Markup that assistive technology can parse, including correct roles, states and names on custom components.
What a scanner catches and what it does not
Automated scanning catches only a portion of WCAG 2.2 AA issues, commonly cited at around a third. The remainder needs a person operating the site. Any accessibility offer sold as a scan alone is a third of the job, and the missing two thirds contains most of what actually stops somebody using the page.
A scanner can see
- A missing alt attribute on an image.
- A contrast ratio below the required threshold.
- A form field with no programmatic label.
- A heading level skipped in the document outline.
A scanner cannot judge
- Whether alt text describes the image usefully or just repeats the file name.
- Whether focus order follows the visual order of the page.
- Whether a custom dropdown announces its state correctly to a screen reader.
- Whether somebody using only a keyboard can finish your checkout.
How to prepare, in order
- Count your templates. Accessibility work is scoped per distinct template, not per page. A site with 800 pages and 8 templates is a smaller job than a site with 80 pages and 40 templates.
- Scan for size, not for a score. A $300 Risk Check tells you how large the problem is and how many distinct templates you have. It does not tell you the site is compliant, and it does not claim to.
- Audit by hand. A keyboard pass and a screen-reader pass on the key templates, with every finding mapped to a numbered WCAG 2.2 AA success criterion and a reproduction path.
- Fix in code. Semantic structure, labels, ARIA, focus management, contrast and reflow corrected on a branch, in severity order, each fix verified by repeating the test that found it.
- Add a regression test. An accessibility check in the build pipeline, so a later deploy that reintroduces a violation fails the build rather than quietly undoing the work.
Documentation matters as much as the fixes. A record of what was tested, what was found, what was changed and what remains is the evidence a legal review asks for. NovaLab produces that record as part of the Audit and Conformance Report.
What the work costs
| Tier | What it is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Risk Check | Automated scan across templates, one-page severity summary, plain statement of what automated scanning does and does not catch. | $300 |
| Audit and Conformance Report | Automated scan plus manual keyboard and screen-reader pass on up to 8 templates, with WCAG 2.2 AA criterion references. | $1,800 |
| Remediation | Standard template set brought to conformance, with a CI regression test. | $4,500 |
| Monitoring | Ongoing scanning and fixes. Higher-volume publishers quoted separately. | $1,200 / month |
The $300 Risk Check is credited against the $1,800 Audit and Conformance Report. Full method and scope are on the Accessibility and Compliance page, and every NovaLab price sits on the pricing page.
Questions people ask
What is the European Accessibility Act deadline?
The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. It covers a defined set of products and services offered to consumers in the European Union, including many websites and mobile applications. Whether it covers your organisation depends on what you sell, where you sell it and your size. That is a question for a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction.
When are the ADA Title II web accessibility deadlines?
The United States Department of Justice rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act carries compliance deadlines in April 2026 and April 2027, with the applicable date depending on the size of the public entity. Title II covers state and local government entities. Private businesses fall under different parts of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Does an automated accessibility scan make a site compliant?
No. Automated scanning catches only a portion of WCAG 2.2 AA issues, commonly cited at roughly a third, and the rest need a person operating the site. A scanner sees a missing alt attribute or a contrast failure. It cannot judge whether alt text is useful, whether focus order makes sense, or whether a screen reader announces a custom widget correctly.
How long does accessibility remediation take?
NovaLab scopes two to four weeks for Remediation on a standard template set, once the audit is agreed. Complex single-page applications and custom widget libraries take longer. Add one to two weeks before that for the Audit and Conformance Report, and two days for the Risk Check. Those are scoping estimates rather than commitments.
Can an agency make my site legally compliant?
An agency can do technical remediation against WCAG 2.2 AA and document every change, which is the evidence a legal review needs. It cannot tell you whether a regulation applies to you or what compliance means for your organisation. NovaLab is not a law firm and does not provide legal counsel. That part is a qualified lawyer's work.
Do accessibility overlay widgets satisfy these rules?
NovaLab does not install them and does not recommend them. An overlay sits on top of a page and attempts to patch behaviour in the browser. The underlying markup stays wrong, which means keyboard order, labels and screen-reader output stay wrong. Remediation changes the code so the page is correct without a script propping it up.
What does accessibility work cost?
NovaLab's Risk Check is $300 and returns a severity summary across your templates. The Audit and Conformance Report is $1,800 and covers up to 8 templates with WCAG 2.2 AA criterion references. Remediation of the standard template set is $4,500. Ongoing monitoring runs at $1,200 a month. The $300 Risk Check is credited against the audit.
Where to go next
Accessibility remediation touches the same templates as performance work, so the two are cheaper shipped together than separately. Site Performance and Technical Fixes covers that side. What does SEO cost sets out every NovaLab figure in one place, and all five services sit on the services overview.
Start with the Risk Check
$300. Every template scanned against WCAG 2.2 AA machine-checkable rules, a one-page severity summary, a count of your distinct templates, and a plain note on what automated scanning did not cover. Credited against the Audit and Conformance Report.
Book the Risk CheckLast updated 14 September 2026 · NovaLab Digital · Dubai, UAE