Web developer in Washington DC: accessible websites for associations and nonprofits
You get a web developer in Washington DC who starts from the accessibility standard your organisation answers to, for associations, nonprofits and government contractors alike, and builds every page to it from the first draft. Governance, reports and the documents members ask for sit near the top, where a trustee or a donor finds them quickly.
Overview
What goes near the top of an association website
Leadership, governance and the latest annual report sit in the main menu of an association website, one click from the home page.
Programme pages come next. Each one says who the programme serves and what it delivered in the last reporting year. The persuasive material a shop's site would open with moves further down. A trustee reading for governance shouldn't have to scroll past it.
Members get a document library of their own, searchable by title and year. Someone after last year's bylaws types two words and has the file.
Side by side
How each part of the site is built and checked
I'd rather fix accessibility in the template than page by page, because every new page then inherits it.
When my team also handles the design, the colours and type are fixed once, in that same template.
| Part of the site | How I build it | How it's checked |
|---|---|---|
| Headings | One H1, then levels in order, so a screen reader can jump between sections | Read through with a screen reader before each review round |
| Images and charts | A written alternative for each image, and a data table under each chart | Every image listed with its text on staging |
| Forms | A visible label on every field, and errors spelled out in words | Filled in with the keyboard alone |
| Colour | Text and buttons meet the contrast ratio your standard sets | Measured with a contrast checker on every template |
| PDFs | Tagged with a reading order, or published as a web page instead | Opened in a screen reader before upload |
What moves the number
Where the scope grows
An older site's PDFs, programme pages and forms are what the scope is measured in.
| What changes it | Why |
|---|---|
| PDFs on the current site | each one is tagged, rebuilt as a web page or retired |
| Board review rounds | each round is a line in the scope |
| A member document library | searching by title and year needs its own setup |
| Donation or membership forms | payment screens get the same keyboard and screen-reader checks |
| Programme pages | each needs its own figures from the last reporting year |
What changes the size of the job.
What a scope from me looks like
What version one holds for a nonprofit website
Programme pages and the latest annual report come across from your current site first.
Members-only pages wait until the public site is live.
Included
- A written scope: every page and feature as its own line, agreed before work starts
- Design to build, reviewed on a staging URL that stays open the whole project
- Mobile first — checked on a real phone
- Domain, hosting and every account created in your name from day one
- Templates built and tested against your named accessibility standard
- A member document library, searchable by title and year
- Basic on-page SEO: titles, descriptions, headings, sitemap, Search Console connected
- A runbook at handover: how to edit it, what renews and when
Phase two
- Older PDFs rebuilt as accessible web pages
- A members-only area behind a login
- Ongoing SEO once the site has traffic to read
- A maintenance plan once the site is live
- Logo and brand design, quoted separately from the build
Not doing
- Guaranteed rankings
- A legal opinion on whether the site complies
Count the PDFs first
A count of the PDFs on your current site tells me how big the document work is. Which of them become web pages gets decided together in our meeting.
Where this comes from
Evidence a trustee can read
I've delivered 600+ projects for US clients, part of a record that has passed 900+ projects completed since 2017.
For an organisation with a board, the written scope is evidence too. It lists every page and who approves it before work starts. I lead each build remotely from Kolkata, India. The team works on your schedule, in your time zone.
Nearby
Related American pages
Read Boston for sites where every claim has a named approver, or Atlanta for hospitality venues and B2B firms.
FAQ
Settled before the build begins
Each of these is settled in writing before the first template is drawn.
Which accessibility standards can the build follow?
- The build follows whichever standard your organisation names, whether that's a WCAG level or a clause in a grant or contract. I'll test each template against it with a keyboard and a screen reader. A formal audit, if a funder asks for one, is carried out by the auditor you appoint. If your standard isn't written down anywhere yet, WCAG 2.2 at level AA is the one I'd build to.
What happens to the PDFs on an older site?
- PDFs on an older site are sorted one by one. A report people read in full is tagged so a screen reader can follow it. A short notice works better as a web page. Anything out of date is retired once you agree. You'll see the sorted list before a single file is touched.
How does board review fit into a nonprofit website build?
- Board review on a nonprofit website build runs in numbered rounds written into the scope. One person collects the comments for each round and signs it off. Board members leave notes on the staging link, beside the text they're about.
Can the site move to another host later?
- The site can move to another host whenever you choose. Its domain, code and hosting account are all registered to your organisation. A move needs the code repository and a database export, and you'll hold both. You don't need my permission or my help to make the move.
Do donation and membership forms get the same checks?
- Donation and membership forms get the same keyboard and screen-reader checks as every other page. Payments go through the provider your organisation already uses, into its own account, so there's no new payment account to open.
Next step
Is your accessibility standard written down?
Grant letters and funding contracts are where a named standard turns up, if there is one. Have them to hand for our meeting, and we'll read the clauses together.
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