Why Manual Testing Matters for ADA Title II Compliance

The updated ADA Title II requirements make web accessibility an ongoing legal obligation for state and local governments. Agencies must ensure that digital services remain accessible over time, which requires reliable ways to evaluate how their websites perform. Testing plays a critical role in that evaluation. While automated testing helps surface certain technical issues, manual testing is required to assess real user journeys, confirm access to services, and identify barriers that automated tools cannot detect, making it a necessary component of ADA Title II compliance.

Join Government Technology and Siteimprove for a live webinar that explains what ADA Title II requires, why manual testing is necessary to evaluate accessibility, and how agencies can manage compliance across large, complex web environments. The session will feature Alameda County, California, an early leader in public-sector digital accessibility that began this work nearly nine years ago and has since established a centralized, programmatic approach across more than 70 public-facing websites. Alameda County will share how long-term planning, governance, and consistent testing practices have enabled the county to operationalize accessibility at scale.

Attendees will learn:

• How ADA Title II requirements apply in practice: What is required initially, what must be sustained over time, and how agencies plan for both.
• Ways to assess and prioritize large web environments: How agencies inventory sites, identify high-impact pages, and sequence automated and manual testing.
• Why manual testing is a necessity: Why real user journeys reveal barriers automated tools miss and how those findings inform decisions and mitigate risk.
• What supports long-term compliance: How training, procurement practices, and shared ownership contribute to a program that holds up over time.