From Mandate to Compliant in Weeks
How 118Group helped Elder Services of Cape Cod & the Islands bring its website into compliance — and protect access for the people who need it most.
Project Details.
Services Provided.
Accessibility Strategy & Scoping
Representative Page Template (RPT) Identification
Third-Party WCAG 2.1 AA Audit
Accessibility Remediation (Code, Structure, Visual, Interactive)
Accessibility Statement & Documentation
The Client.
Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands has spent more than 50 years helping older adults and people with disabilities across Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket counties maintain their health, well-being, and independence. From senior nutrition programs and home care coordination to referrals and volunteer services, ESCCI is often the first call for families navigating the complexity of aging in place.
For an organization whose entire mission is about removing barriers, a website that presented barriers of its own was more than an operational problem — it was a values problem.
The Challenge.
ESCCI came to 118Group facing a compliance mandate. The federal Administration for Community Living (ACL) had formally required organizations like ESCCI to meet digital accessibility standards — a directive that had been announced over a year before but never demanded action.
The site had been built with care, but it hadn’t been built with a comprehensive accessibility framework in mind. A preliminary review surfaced issues that spanned the full stack: visual, structural, interactive, and code-level. Among the most pressing:
The site’s audiences — many of them older adults, family caregivers, and people with disabilities — were precisely the people most likely to rely on assistive technologies. The gap between the site’s mission and its accessibility was impossible to ignore.
Our Focus.
118Group structured the project around a clear, defensible, multiphase process designed to produce lasting compliance rather than a quick patch.
Identify the right scope.
Rather than auditing every page individually, 118Group mapped the site into 12 Representative Page Templates (RPTs) — the structural templates that collectively power the entire site. Fixing issues at the template level meant improvements would cascade across all pages that share that structure, making the work efficient and comprehensive.
Get an independent expert evaluation.
118Group coordinated a third-party WCAG 2.1 AA audit conducted by an independent accessibility specialist using real assistive technologies — including NVDA and JAWS screen readers on Windows — not just automated scanning tools. The result was a detailed, prioritized issue log across all 12 templates.
Remediate systematically.
Armed with the audit report, 118Group’s development team worked through every finding — color contrast, ARIA labeling, keyboard navigation, heading hierarchy, form structure, link context, carousel behavior, and more — validating fixes with the auditing partner before sign-off.
Document the work.
The project concluded with a formal public Accessibility Statement added to the site footer, documenting the standards followed, the audit process, remediation efforts, and a contact method for anyone encountering accessibility concerns going forward.
The Highlights.
A Navigation System That Works for Everyone
One of the most critical findings was that the site’s navigation menus were inaccessible to keyboard and screen reader users — submenus couldn’t be expanded at all without assistive technology active. 118Group rebuilt the menu interaction model so focus moves predictably, and keyboard users can reach every page without a mouse. For visitors using screen readers to find a nutrition program or referral service, this was a fundamental fix.
Meaningful Labels Throughout
Generic “Learn More” and “Read More” buttons were among the most common accessibility issues found on nonprofit websites — and ESCCI’s site had them throughout. 118Group implemented programmatic associations (via aria-describedby) between these labels and their corresponding headings, so assistive technology users hear the full context: not just “Learn More,” but what they’d be learning more about.
A Template-Level Approach That Scales
By scoping the work to 12 Representative Page Templates rather than individual pages, every fix 118Group implemented cascaded across the full site. This approach also means that as ESCCI adds new content using existing templates, those pages inherit the accessibility improvements automatically — creating a foundation that holds up over time.
Contrast Failures, Resolved Across the Board
Color contrast issues appeared in multiple places — a footer button, form placeholder text, navigation labels, and orange-colored headings in the resources section. Each failure meant that users with low vision or color deficiency couldn’t reliably read key content or calls to action. 118Group addressed every instance, bringing text and interface elements into compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA minimums.
Form Accessibility, Fixed at the Root
Forms are where accessibility issues tend to have the most immediate impact on real users trying to accomplish something. The contact and referral forms had issues with fieldset/legend structure, placeholder contrast, autocomplete attributes, and error identification. 118Group corrected the underlying markup, so the form experience works correctly with screen readers and keyboard navigation from start to finish.
Key Outcomes.
WCAG 2.1 AA Conformance Achieved
The completed VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) documents conformance across all applicable Level A and Level AA success criteria — a formal, auditable record that ESCCI can present to funders, regulators, and the public.
A Site That Serves Its Actual Audience
ESCCI’s visitors include older adults, people with disabilities, and family caregivers — the very populations most likely to rely on screen readers, keyboard navigation, and high-contrast settings. The remediated site now works for all of them.
Compliance Documentation in Place
A public Accessibility Statement now lives in the site footer, documenting the standards followed, the independent audit process, and how visitors can report issues. This good-faith documentation matters for regulatory defensibility and demonstrates organizational accountability.
A Replicable Process for a Sector-Wide Challenge
ESCCI is not alone in facing this compliance mandate — aging services organizations across the region are navigating the same requirements. The structured, template-level approach 118Group developed for this project is a model that other nonprofits in the sector can follow.
Interested in Results Like These?
If your organization is navigating accessibility requirements, we can help — from initial scoping through third-party audit, remediation, and documentation.