For federal contractors
Agencies must ensure the ICT they procure, develop, maintain or use conforms to the Revised 508 Standards, so contracts often ask for accessible deliverables.
Electronic content follows WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA (E205.4), with four criteria exempt for non-web documents. See the Section 508 Word checker page. Your contracting officer decides what your contract requires.
Sources (checked 25 October 2026): Revised 508 Standards, E205.4 (U.S. Access Board).
What Accessmith does
- Pictures and objects without alt text, or alt text that is just a file name
- Skipped heading levels and empty headings in Word
- Tables without a header row
- Missing or duplicate slide titles in PowerPoint
- Document title not set
- Text colour contrast below the WCAG 2.1 AA ratio
- Vague link text such as "click here", and bare web addresses
- Empty paragraphs used for spacing, and lists typed with "-" or "•"
A person still has to check what no automatic tool can judge: whether alt text is accurate and useful, reading order on complex slides, meaning carried by colour alone, captions for media, plain language, and anything Accessmith flags as "check by hand".