A Federal Test Methodology
The DHS Trusted Tester methodology is the federal government’s own Section 508 test method. Your evaluator is named, and the certificate (TT-2606-09221) is published.
Section 508 & WCAG Accessibility Audits
Manual Section 508 and WCAG 2.2 AA audits under the DHS Trusted Tester methodology, the federal government’s own test process. You get a finished VPAT/ACR, the document government and enterprise buyers ask for.
Your ACR on a Date Committed at Signing*
The day counts above describe a Standard engagement. The Focused engagement runs the same four phases on a shorter clock and commits the signed ACR on day 21; Professional commits day 60.
Built for SaaS Products and Web Apps
Authenticated views, dashboards, and single-page applications tested by hand with a keyboard and a screen reader. If your product lives behind a login, this is the engagement built for it.
What’s Included
E&O Insurance Backing
Engagements are backed by Harbor's Errors & Omissions insurance policy, subject to policy terms and conditions. Ask and we will send you the coverage details.
Work Product Protection
Your audit data is version-controlled and backed up throughout the engagement, not assembled at the end. If anything interrupts the engagement, you receive all completed work product and owe nothing for undelivered phases.
Follow-Up Reviews Included (2 to 5, by Tier)
Initial audit plus follow-up reviews at no additional cost: up to 2 on Focused, 3 on Standard and Professional, 5 on Enterprise. Each review re-evaluates the pages where fixes were applied, and we re-issue an updated ACR afterward. Review timelines are confirmed at engagement start.
Visual Fix Guides
Annotated screenshots that make remediation straightforward. Your team makes the fix, and your code stays yours.
Publication-Ready VPAT/ACR
Your Accessibility Conformance Report in VPAT format, reflecting findings as of the audit completion date.
Post-Engagement Support
Up to 90 days of email support after delivery, for questions about findings or remediation.
Assistive Technology Testing
Every audit includes hands-on testing with screen readers and keyboard navigation.
Start With a Quick Check
Everything above describes a full engagement. If you are still working out how big the problem is, there is a smaller first step. The Quick Check is a fixed a fixed fee, covers up to five pages you choose, and comes back as a plain-language findings report written so an engineer and a decision-maker can both read it. You can buy it over email, and a call is welcome rather than required.
What it gives you is an accurate picture of where you stand: the barriers sitting on those pages, what each one costs the people hitting it, and which ones a developer should reach for first. That is usually enough to size a budget, settle an internal argument, or sanity-check what a vendor has told you.
The signed VPAT/ACR comes from the engagement, not from a Quick Check. A Quick Check is a findings report, so it will not answer procurement, an RFP, or an enterprise buyer asking for your VPAT. The conformance document is issued at the end of the four phases above, where testing covers whole templates against all 55 criteria and the report carries a named evaluator’s signature.
If a Quick Check leads to a full engagement, that is a separate purchase, decided later with the findings already in front of you. Engagement fees are scoped on a short call rather than published: the template count sets one flat figure, agreed in writing before any work starts. What an engagement covers sets out the tiers.
Who Checks the Work
Who reviews a solo evaluator’s findings before they reach you? Fair question. The answer is the method itself. Harbor audits follow the DHS Trusted Tester process, the federal government’s own Section 508 test procedure, written so the result does not depend on who runs it. Each criterion has defined test conditions and a defined pass or fail. A different certified tester, following the same steps on the same pages, reaches the same conclusions.
Nothing enters your report on judgment alone. Every finding is reproduced by hand with a keyboard and a screen reader, then re-verified against the objective, documented conditions for its criterion before the report is assembled. A finding that cannot be reproduced, or that does not fail a specific written requirement, is cut. It is a second pass, not a second opinion: the check runs against the published standard, not against an impression of the page.
What remains is a report you can challenge. Every finding cites the WCAG criterion, the test method, and the user impact, so your own team can re-run any check and confirm it. The signed ACR carries a named evaluator and a published federal credential (TT-2606-09221). One name, accountable in writing.
Ready to Start Your Engagement?
Start with the page that matches your situation: VPAT & ACR, Section 508, SaaS & web apps, ADA compliance, or European Accessibility Act.
*21 days on a Focused engagement, 45 on Standard, 60 on Professional, committed at signing. The ~75-day full-cycle figure is an estimate, not a commitment: remediation is your team’s engineering time, and how fast it goes is up to them.