Independent accessibility consulting for Australian government

Commonwealth, state and territory agencies have specific reporting obligations, procurement pathways and compliance deadlines. ExceedAbility delivers WCAG 2.2 audits, DTA reporting documentation, document remediation and compliance uplift programmes, scoped to how government actually buys.

Quick answer

How does ExceedAbility support Australian government accessibility compliance?

ExceedAbility delivers WCAG 2.2 audits, DTA reporting documentation, document estate remediation and compliance uplift programmes for Commonwealth, state and territory agencies. Engagements are scoped against agency procurement pathways and reporting timelines, with deliverables written to a standard suitable for investment oversight, public accessibility statements and Disability Discrimination Act review.

Australian Government compliance status

1 January 2025

New public facing Commonwealth services required to comply with the Digital Inclusion Standard, including the latest version of WCAG to Level AA.

Deadline passed

1 January 2026

Existing public facing Commonwealth services required to comply with the Digital Inclusion Standard.

Deadline passed

Under the Digital Experience Policy, compliance is now required, not upcoming, and is reported through the DTA's oversight processes. Agencies still working through remediation are expected to publish a credible accessibility statement covering known issues and dated remediation plans.

Who this covers

Government is not one buyer. Obligations, procurement pathways and digital estates differ across the tiers, and so does the shape of the work.

  • Australian Government agencies
  • Government departments
  • State and territory government
  • Local government and councils
  • Statutory authorities
  • Public sector digital services
  • Regulators and oversight bodies
  • Government owned corporations
  • Suppliers and delivery partners
  • Panel and procurement teams

We work on both sides of the contract. For agencies, that means independent audits, document estate programmes and the conformance evidence your reporting obligations require. For the suppliers and delivery partners building digital products on an agency's behalf, it means the product level evidence evaluation teams actually ask for, covered in detail on our software and technology pathway and in the WCAG 2.2 supplier checklist.

Three programme shapes, tailored per agency

Scope and effort are confirmed in writing before any work begins. Most engagements run inside an existing panel arrangement, with a fixed price scope returned within 48 hours of the initial scoping call.

Audit

Audit and Reporting

Independent WCAG 2.2 audit with conformance documentation suitable for the Digital Service Standard, public statements and investment oversight submissions.

  • Expert manual review and assistive technology testing
  • Conformance summary and executive brief
  • Public accessibility statement content
  • DTA reporting documentation plus ACR / VPAT
Audit details →
Uplift

Compliance Uplift Programme

Full programme for agencies with significant compliance gaps and defined reporting obligations across multiple services.

  • Remediation roadmap with effort estimates
  • Embedded developer and content author support
  • Validation audit after remediation
  • Team training and governance setup
Uplift details →
Documents

Document Estate Programme

Systematic remediation of PDF and Office document estates, prioritised by publication reach and issue severity.

  • Representative sample audit
  • Batch PDF/UA remediation
  • Accessible Word, PowerPoint and InDesign templates
  • Content author and publisher training
Document details →

What we understand about government

  • The DTA framework and Digital Service Standard

    What is required, what is worth evidencing and how accessibility sits within the broader service design and assurance picture.

  • Investment oversight and reporting

    Accessibility position statements written for the audience that actually reads them. Clear conformance language, known issues stated honestly and remediation plans dated.

  • Procurement and panels

    We work through the panels and procurement pathways your team already uses. We also advise on accessibility language in RFX, supplier scoring rubrics and how to evaluate ACR and VPAT claims with appropriate scrutiny.

  • Publishing across government

    Remediating document estates to PDF/UA in batches, with sign off workflows and accessible Word, PowerPoint and InDesign templates that author teams will actually use.

  • The Disability Discrimination Act and AHRC complaints

    Independent audit evidence written to a standard suitable for compliance review, public reporting and the scrutiny that follows a formal complaint.

  • State and territory context

    We track state specific accessibility policies including the NSW Government Digital Service Toolkit, Victorian digital standards and the Queensland framework, so answers written for the federal context do not get bolted onto state programmes that need a different approach.

Standards we work to

WCAG 2.2 Level AA

The default conformance target for Australian Government digital services under the Digital Service Standard.

Digital Service Standard

Federal expectations covering accessibility, inclusion and assurance for new and existing services.

PDF/UA

Universal Accessibility standard for tagged, accessible PDF publications.

EN 301 549

European ICT procurement standard, relevant where Australian agencies adopt procurement language aligned to Europe.

Government accessibility intelligence

We publish two free datasets that government teams and central agencies use to benchmark themselves and their portfolios:

A practical Word on accessibility overlays

Accessibility overlays and widgets (UserWay, accessiBe, AudioEye and similar) appear on many Australian federal and state government websites. They do not, on their own, make a site conformant with WCAG or satisfy the Digital Service Standard. In 2025 the US Federal Trade Commission fined accessiBe one million dollars for marketing claims that an automated widget could deliver WCAG compliance. If your agency is relying on an overlay, we can show you what the underlying conformance position actually looks like, and what it would take to fix it.

Read: Why accessibility overlays will not make your website compliant →

Deadlines that matter

Under the Digital Experience Policy, the Digital Inclusion Standard applied to new public facing Commonwealth services from 1 January 2025 and extended to existing public facing services from 1 January 2026. Both dates have now passed. The realistic timeline question is no longer "when does the standard apply" but "how do we get to a credible, evidenced position and stay there?"

Agencies that finish on time start scoping 9 to 12 months before any internal reporting cycle, whether that is an annual report, an investment oversight review or a ministerial briefing. The same logic applies to any engagement procured through a panel: panel cycles, contract execution and security clearance can add weeks before delivery actually starts.

Build, test, assure: three layers, not one

Accessibility is a development activity. In government it is also an assurance, procurement and reporting function, and the two should not be collapsed into one.

Internal digital teams and delivery partners should build accessibility in and test their own work. What independent assessment adds is a conformance position produced by specialists outside the delivery chain, with reproducible evidence, written to a standard that holds up in investment oversight, a public accessibility statement or a Disability Discrimination Act review.

Layer one

Build

Designers, developers, content authors and suppliers build accessibility into the work as it is created.

  • Accessible design patterns and component libraries
  • Semantic markup, keyboard support and assistive technology behaviour
  • Authoring standards for content and documents
Layer two

Test

Delivery teams test throughout the cycle so problems surface early, while they are cheap to fix.

  • Automated checks in the pipeline and in the browser
  • Manual keyboard and screen reader checks by the team
  • Accessibility in the definition of done and release gates
Layer three

Assure

An independent specialist gives an objective view of conformance, usability and residual risk.

  • Independent WCAG 2.2 assessment with reproducible evidence
  • Testing with real assistive technology, not automation alone
  • Conformance reporting for procurement, risk and executive audiences

Independence is what makes the evidence usable

Agencies are asked to state their conformance position publicly and to stand behind it. A position produced solely by the team or the supplier that built the service is harder to defend, not because anyone acted in bad faith, but because there was no separation between delivery and verification. The same logic applies when evaluating a supplier: a vendor completed conformance claim is a starting point, not proof, and it should be read with the same scrutiny you would apply to a security self assessment.

We can support both sides. For agencies we provide the independent assessment and the reporting. For suppliers we provide product level evidence that survives evaluation. We also advise on accessibility language in RFX documents, supplier scoring rubrics and how to read an ACR or VPAT critically.

What we assess

An agency estate is rarely one website. Public sites, authenticated portals, mobile applications, intranets and a long tail of published documents all sit inside the same reporting obligation, and all of them can be assessed.

Websites

Public sites, campaign sites and content estates assessed against WCAG 2.2, with prioritised findings, code level fixes and a retest once the corrections land.

Web applications

Transactional interfaces, authenticated portals, dashboards and enterprise systems, including the custom components and single page frameworks that automated tools cannot judge.

Mobile applications

Native and hybrid applications tested with the platform screen readers and interaction settings your customers actually use, not emulated approximations.

Documents

PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and InDesign remediated to WCAG 2.2 AA and PDF/UA, at volume, plus Easy Read, large print, audio and braille where an alternative format is the right answer.

Design and development

Accessibility input before the build, so decisions about patterns, components and journeys are made once. Design reviews, delivery advice and accessibility written into your definition of done.

Self service and tools

Free checks and references your own team can run today. Useful for triage and for building internal capability, and a sensible first pass before an independent assessment.

Common questions about government accessibility engagements

Plain answers to the questions agency teams ask us most often.

What are the Australian Government accessibility deadlines?

Under the Digital Service Standard, new digital services were required to meet WCAG 2.2 Level AA from 1 January 2025, and all existing services from 1 January 2026. Both deadlines have now passed. Compliance is required, not upcoming, and is reported through Digital Service Standard processes and investment oversight reviews.

What does a government accessibility audit deliverable include?

A WCAG 2.2 audit deliverable typically includes a conformance summary, executive brief, prioritised findings with remediation guidance, public accessibility statement content, DTA reporting documentation and an Accessibility Conformance Report or VPAT. Reports are written to a standard suitable for investment oversight scrutiny and Disability Discrimination Act review.

How are accessibility engagements procured by government?

We engage through agency procurement pathways familiar to your team, including direct engagement under the threshold, existing panel arrangements and RFX processes. We can also advise on accessibility language for procurement, supplier scoring and how to evaluate ACR or VPAT claims with appropriate scrutiny.

How long does a government compliance programme take?

A focused audit takes 3 to 6 weeks. A full compliance uplift programme covering audit, remediation, validation, training and governance typically runs 3 to 9 months. Agencies that finish on time begin scoping 9 to 12 months before any internal reporting cycle.

Can ExceedAbility produce accessibility statements for our public facing services?

Yes. We produce accessibility statement content aligned with WCAG 2.2 AA, the Digital Service Standard and the agency's reporting obligations, including known issues, dated remediation plans and contact pathways for users to raise accessibility concerns. Our free Accessibility Statement Generator can also produce a starter statement that agency communications teams can refine.

Working towards a reporting deadline?

Tell us the agency, the service and the date. We will come back with a realistic plan.

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