How uswaterbillguide.org/ Works for People With Disabilities
This page sets out our commitment to accessibility on this site, the standards we work to (WCAG 2.1 Level AA), the assistive technologies we test against, the US legal framework (ADA Title II/III, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act), the specific features we have built, the limitations we know about, and how to tell us about a barrier you have encountered.
What is on this page
1. Our Commitment
uswaterbillguide.org/ is built so that anyone — using any device, any browser, any assistive technology — can find a US water utility, follow a step-by-step procedure to pay a bill or report a leak, see the regulator routing for a complaint, and reach the right desk without barriers. Accessibility is not an afterthought. We test against assistive technologies on every major page template before publication and on a quarterly cycle thereafter.
2. Standard: WCAG 2.1 Level AA
We work to the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. This is the standard taken as the international benchmark and the standard adopted by the US Department of Justice in its 2024 ADA Title II web accessibility rule for state and local government. The international community has since moved to WCAG 2.2, and we target 2.1 AA with awareness of 2.2 success criteria.
3. US Legal Framework
| Law | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. | Federal civil rights statute. Title II applies to state and local government entities (including municipal water utilities). Title III applies to “public accommodations” of private entities. Many federal courts have found ADA Title III applies to public-accommodation websites. |
| ADA Title II web rule (2024) | The Department of Justice’s April 2024 rule requires state and local government entities to make their web content and mobile applications accessible under WCAG 2.1 Level AA, with compliance deadlines of April 2026 (large entities) and April 2027 (smaller entities). |
| Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794 | Prohibits disability discrimination by recipients of federal financial assistance. Many water utilities receive federal SRF (State Revolving Fund) funding and are subject to Section 504. |
| Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794d | Requires federal agencies to make electronic and information technology accessible. Section 508 standards are technical reference for federal procurement and many state procurement programs. |
| Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), 49 U.S.C. § 41705 | Not directly applicable to water utilities; cited for completeness of the US disability-rights framework. |
| State accessibility laws | California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act and AB 434 (web accessibility for California state agencies); New York’s Human Rights Law; Massachusetts’ Mass.gov web accessibility requirements; Texas’s Texas Government Code § 2054.451 et seq.; and dozens of other state-level frameworks. |
| Department of Justice Civil Rights Division | The primary federal enforcement authority for ADA Title II and Title III — ada.gov |
| US Access Board | Federal agency that develops accessibility guidelines, including the Section 508 standards — access-board.gov |
4. Specific Accessibility Features We Have Built
Semantic HTML
Proper heading hierarchy (Yoast manages H1; H2/H3 in our templates), nav, main, article, section, footer landmarks.
17px+ body text
Body copy is at least 17px on all pages — comfortable reading for most users without zoom.
4.5:1+ text contrast
All body text meets WCAG AA contrast (4.5:1) against its background; large text and UI components meet 3:1 minimum.
Keyboard-only navigation
Every link, button, form control, and interactive element is reachable and operable using Tab, Shift+Tab, Enter, and Space.
Visible focus indicators
Focus outlines are not removed; the default browser focus ring is preserved on every interactive element.
Descriptive link text
Links describe their destination — e.g., “EPA SDWA enforcement page” rather than “click here.” Each external link has rel=noopener and target=_blank.
Logical reading order
Source-order matches visual order; CSS layout never reverses, scrambles, or hides content from screen readers.
Responsive without zoom traps
Pages reflow at 320px width; pinch-zoom is not disabled; user-scalable=yes.
Form labels
Every form control has a programmatic label or aria-label; error messages are announced.
Reduced motion
The site respects prefers-reduced-motion and avoids gratuitous animation.
Plain English
Directory entries, walkthroughs, and framework summaries are written in plain English. We avoid utility jargon where plain language serves equally well.
HTML walkthroughs as alternative
Where a third-party billing portal has accessibility barriers, our HTML walkthrough provides an alternative path to the same information.
5. Assistive Technology Compatibility
We test against the following combinations on every major page template before publication:
- NVDA + Firefox / Chrome on Windows
- JAWS + Chrome on Windows
- VoiceOver + Safari on macOS
- VoiceOver + Safari on iOS
- TalkBack + Chrome on Android
- Narrator + Edge on Windows (smoke test)
- Dragon NaturallySpeaking — voice-only navigation smoke test
- Browser zoom at 200% and 400%
- High-contrast mode in Windows and macOS
6. Known Limitations
- Some third-party advertising units may not always meet our internal standards. We work with our advertising partners and reject ad units that fail material accessibility checks.
- Embedded videos from third-party platforms (where used) inherit those platforms’ accessibility features — captions, transcripts, audio description where the source provides them.
- Some legacy utility entries built before our current accessibility framework may have minor remaining issues — we are working through them on a rolling quarterly review and welcome reports.
7. Third-Party Billing Portals Are Not Always Accessible
Many water utility billing portals (Tyler MUNIS, Cayenta, InvoiceCloud, Paymentus, Harris ERP, CIS Infinity, MUNIS, and similar) have residual accessibility gaps on certain assistive-technology combinations — modal dialogs that trap focus, dynamic account-status tables that do not announce updates to screen readers, GIS service-area maps with poor keyboard accessibility, form fields with color-only error indication, and legacy portals that pre-date current accessibility standards. This is not within our control — those are third-party systems operated by your utility’s vendor. We provide HTML walkthroughs of common procedures as an alternative path to the same information, so that you can plan and prepare from our fully accessible HTML before you encounter the third-party portal itself.
If you cannot use your utility’s billing portal because of an accessibility barrier, you have rights under ADA Title II (if your utility is a municipal entity) or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (if your utility receives federal SRF financial assistance, as many do). The US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division is the relevant federal enforcement body. State attorneys general also enforce state-level accessibility frameworks.
8. Reporting a Barrier
If you encounter a barrier — a page or feature that does not work with your assistive technology, contrast that is hard to read, a control that cannot be reached by keyboard, or anything else that gets in your way — please tell us. Reports drive our priority queue.
Email info@uswaterbillguide.org with subject line Accessibility issue.
If you can, include:
- The page URL where you hit the barrier
- Your operating system and browser
- The assistive technology you were using (e.g., NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver, TalkBack, Dragon)
- What you were trying to do
- What happened (or did not happen)
Acknowledge in 1-3 business days. Substantive response or fix within 14 business days for most issues. For severe barriers (e.g., unable to access important content or complete a critical task), within 5 business days.
9. Escalation
If you are not satisfied with our response, you have additional options:
- US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division — the primary federal enforcement authority for the ADA — ada.gov
- Your state Attorney General’s civil rights division — many state AGs enforce state accessibility laws in addition to the ADA
- US Access Board — access-board.gov — federal accessibility standards body
- For federal-recipient discrimination (Section 504) — the federal agency that provides the funding (HHS, EPA, USDA Rural Development, etc.)
- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — the standard we work to — w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag
10. Review Cycle
This statement is reviewed quarterly. Page templates are re-tested against the AT combinations above on each review cycle. The “Last reviewed” date at the top reflects the most recent review.
Hit a Barrier? Tell Us.
Email us with subject line “Accessibility issue.” Acknowledge in 1-3 business days; fix within 14 business days for most issues, 5 for severe.
📧 info@uswaterbillguide.org