Built for public libraries

Public libraries serve everyone. Your website should too.

Patrons with disabilities should be able to search the catalog, place a hold and sign up for storytime like anyone else. We monitor and fix your site and PDFs to the latest accessibility standard, make them ready for AI agents, and provide plain-English board reports that arm you to make a stronger case for additional funding.

A bright public library reading area with teal and yellow chairs in front of full bookshelves.

Your Title II deadline

Serving 50,000+ residents
April 26, 2027
Under 50,000
April 26, 2028

The standard is WCAG 2.1 AA either way.

Tested with

Free accessibility scanner

Check your library website's accessibility for free

Our accessibility team will help you understand what the results mean for your patrons and your Title II plan.

95.9%

of the top one million home pages had detectable WCAG failures.

WebAIM Million, 2026

1 in 4

U.S. adults has a disability, more than 70 million people.

CDC, 2024

2027

Title II deadline for public entities serving 50,000+ residents.

U.S. DOJ, 2026

55

WCAG 2.2 success criteria at Levels A and AA, out of 86 total.

W3C, 2023

WCAG 2.2 EXPLAINED

The standard, in plain English.

WCAG 2.2 is the W3C's web accessibility standard: 86 success criteria across four principles, 55 of them at Levels A and AA. Level AA is the technical level referenced by the DOJ's Title II rule and by Section 508.

Every criterion falls under one of four principles, known as POUR. Get all four right and your library website works for more patrons, including the screen-reader user searching the catalog, the keyboard-only user reserving a meeting room, the colorblind user reading event flyers, and the patron with low vision navigating your homepage.

Perceivable
Alt text on book covers, captions on storytime videos, sufficient color contrast.
Operable
Full keyboard navigation through the catalog, no time-out traps in renewal forms.
Understandable
Clear labels on hold/place/reserve buttons, helpful error messages on hold queues.
Robust
Semantic HTML and ARIA so JAWS and NVDA read your catalog correctly.
Target Level AA. Level A is the floor, and not enough for Title II. Level AAA is aspirational and rarely achievable for content-heavy library sites. The DOJ's 2024 rule cites WCAG 2.1 AA; WCAG 2.2 AA includes every 2.1 AA requirement except one that W3C retired, plus six more.

The same six problems cause 96% of detected accessibility errors across the web (WebAIM Million, 2026). Here's how they show up on library sites:

  1. 1.4.3 AA Low-contrast textEvent dates and times in pale gray 83.9%of home pages
  2. 1.1.1 A Missing alt textBook covers with no title or author 53.1%of home pages
  3. 3.3.2 A Missing form labelsPlaceholder-only fields on hold and room-booking forms 51.0%of home pages
  4. 2.4.4 A Empty linksIcon-only social and "more" links 46.3%of home pages
  5. 4.1.2 A Empty buttonsSearch and filter buttons with no accessible name 30.6%of home pages
  6. 3.1.1 A Missing page languageScreen readers mispronounce the whole page 13.5%of home pages

Automated tools catch only part of the picture. Keyboard traps in renewal pop-ups and unannounced hold confirmations need manual testing, which every Accessrank plan includes.

Source: WebAIM Million, 2026, a study of the top one million home pages.

WHICH LAWS APPLY

Three frameworks. One accessibility target.

Public libraries sit at the intersection of three frameworks for digital accessibility, each with different scopes. Accessrank for Libraries can guide you through all three.

FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS LAW

ADA Title II

Applies to: state and local government services, including public libraries.

The Department of Justice's April 2024 final rule made WCAG 2.1 Level AA the technical standard for state and local government websites. Public entities serving 50,000+ residents have until April 26, 2027; smaller entities have until April 26, 2028. The DOJ extended the original deadlines by one year in April 2026. The standard didn't change, only the calendar.

Target standard WCAG 2.1 AA
FEDERAL PROCUREMENT LAW

Section 508

Applies to: federal agencies, federal libraries, and the technology they procure.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act covers federal agencies and the information and communication technology they buy. Public libraries that receive federal funds have separate obligations under Section 504. Library vendors selling to government are routinely asked for a VPAT/ACR.

Target standard WCAG 2.0 AA
INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL STANDARD

WCAG 2.2

Applies to: any website wanting current best-practice accessibility.

The W3C's most recent guidelines, released October 2023. Adds nine new success criteria over WCAG 2.1, most notably around mobile usability, focus appearance, and dragging movements. WCAG 2.2 AA meets or exceeds the technical standards referenced by Title II and Section 508.

Target standard WCAG 2.2 AA

We audit and remediate to WCAG 2.2 AA, which meets or exceeds the technical standard referenced by Title II and Section 508. Your counsel decides legal conformance; we give them the evidence.

HOW IT WORKS

One audit. Three problems solved.

Accessibility, discovery, and patron experience aren't separate goals. Many of the same fixes make all three better.

Continuous WCAG 2.2 AA

Continuous automated monitoring plus expert manual review against the 55 WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA success criteria. Catch new issues before they reach your director's desk.

Discoverability lift

Alt text, semantic markup, and fast-loading pages are accessibility fixes, and many of them are also signals search engines use to understand your catalog. Patrons find what they need faster.

Fix what you control. Document what you don't.

We remediate your website, CMS theme, templates and any catalog customizations you manage, in the source code, not an overlay widget. For vendor-hosted systems like BiblioCommons, Polaris, Sierra and OverDrive, we test them, document every issue with evidence, and give you a vendor-ready report and VPAT review, so your Title II file shows you did your part.

What happens after you sign up

  1. Week 1

    Baseline audit

    Automated scan plus expert manual review of your key pages: homepage, catalog search, account and holds, events, and forms.

  2. Weeks 2–4

    Remediation

    We fix the issues in the code you control and document vendor-platform issues for your vendors.

  3. Ongoing

    Monitoring and reporting

    Scheduled audits, alerts when new issues appear, and a board-ready report you can put in your Title II file.

Timing depends on the size of your site.

Become a Founding Library.

We're selecting our first ten library systems to shape Accessrank for Libraries. Founding Libraries receive 50% off their first year on any plan, direct access to our accessibility team, and input on the product roadmap. In return, we ask for a case study once your results are in and a renewal conversation at year end.

Apply to be a Founding Library
SEO / AI SEARCH SERVICES

Accessibility opens the door.
Discovery brings the patrons through it.

Accessibility makes your site usable. Optimized SEO and AI search help patrons actually find you. Many of the fixes that help screen readers — clear headings, descriptive links, alt text, clean markup — are also signals search engines and AI assistants use to understand your site. We build on that with the on-page, technical and AI search work that turns digital shelves into discovered services.

On-page SEO

Semantic HTML, heading hierarchy, internal linking, metadata, schema markup. Many of the structural cues screen readers depend on are the same cues search crawlers read.

Included in System pricing

Technical SEO

Core Web Vitals, crawlability, sitemap optimization, indexation health, mobile responsiveness. The engineering work that helps patrons find the pages you've made accessible.

Included in System pricing

AI search

Content and structure optimized for AI search across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews, where patrons increasingly ask about library hours, programs, and resources.

Included in Metropolitan pricing
PRICING

Tiered to your service population.

Annual subscriptions sized to fit your library's scale, billed annually. All plans include a 30-day free trial and full setup support. Procurement-ready: W-9, certificate of insurance and sample contract on request.

BRANCH

$1,800/year
For libraries serving fewer than 25,000 residents.
  • Up to 1,000 catalog pages
  • Monthly WCAG 2.2 AA audit
  • Title II accessibility summary report
  • Email support
Start free trial

SYSTEM · MOST POPULAR

$5,400/year
For multi-branch systems serving 25,000–250,000 residents.
  • Up to 10,000 catalog pages
  • Weekly audits + alerts
  • Source-code fixes to the pages you control
  • Vendor-platform testing and issue reports
  • On-page + technical SEO
  • Title II documentation file
Start free trial

METROPOLITAN

$8,400+/year
For systems serving 250,000+ residents and library consortia.
  • Unlimited pages
  • Continuous monitoring
  • On-page + technical SEO
  • AI search optimization
  • Dedicated accessibility specialist
  • Custom integrations + branch rollouts
  • Security documentation + DPA (SOC 2 Type 1 in progress)
Talk to us

Consortium and state library pricing: 25–40% off for cooperatives and state library systems buying on behalf of member libraries. Talk to us

Add-ons

  • VPAT/ACR authoring from $2,500
  • Vendor VPAT review from $500 per product
  • PDF remediation priced per page

Buying Accessrank

Everything your procurement office will ask for.

Request procurement documents

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