Do you need a web accessibility consultant?

Sometimes you need ongoing expertise embedded in your team. More often you need a specific artifact — a fixed set of findings, a remediation plan, or a signed VPAT. Those are different purchases.

What consultants actually do

Design reviews before code is written, developer training, accessibility program buildout, and expert-witness work. Rates run $100–250/hr. For a product team shipping accessible UI every sprint, that embedded expertise pays for itself.

When you don't need one

If the trigger is a procurement request, an RFP deadline, or a one-time compliance check, you don't need a retainer — you need a deliverable: audit findings, fixes, and a VPAT. Buying that as a fixed-price engagement caps the cost and gets you the artifact procurement actually asked for.

What to look for either way

Real manual-testing methodology (ask how they test with a screen reader), findings tied to specific WCAG criteria, fix guidance your developers can act on, and — for government sales — familiarity with Section 508 and the VPAT/ACR format. Credentials like CPACC/WAS are a good signal.

The pragmatic path

Scan first (free, instant), fix what automation finds, then buy the smallest engagement that produces the document you need. That's the VPATForge model: fixed-price, quoted in one business day, built by a cleared DoD systems engineer.