Curbcut is a US web accessibility company that makes websites usable for people with disabilities through hands-on, manual remediation — real fixes to code, content, and design that bring sites into WCAG 2.1 AA conformance and lower ADA Title III risk. We are deliberately anti-overlay.
Our mission
The web has become the front door to nearly every business. When that door is built only for people who can see a screen, use a mouse, and process information one way, it quietly shuts out roughly one in four US adults who live with a disability. That’s not a niche audience — it’s millions of customers, patients, students, and clients.
Curbcut exists to reopen those doors. We help small and mid-sized businesses meet their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), not with a cosmetic patch, but with the same craft a good developer brings to any serious problem. Accessible websites are better websites: faster, cleaner, easier to maintain, and friendlier to search engines. Doing this right is good for your users and good for your business.
The curb-cut philosophy
Our name comes from a small piece of concrete with an outsized legacy. A curb cut is the gentle ramp where a sidewalk meets the street — originally fought for by disability advocates so wheelchair users could cross safely.
Once curb cuts were everywhere, something unexpected happened. They helped people pushing strollers, travelers dragging suitcases, delivery workers with hand trucks, cyclists, and anyone who simply found a ramp easier than a step. Designers now call this the curb-cut effect: a feature built to remove a barrier for some people ends up improving the experience for everyone.
Digital accessibility works exactly the same way:
- Captions built for Deaf users help anyone watching video in a noisy room or a quiet office.
- Keyboard navigation built for people who can’t use a mouse helps power users move faster.
- Clear heading structure built for screen-reader users helps search engines and skim-readers, too.
- Strong color contrast built for low-vision users helps everyone reading a phone in bright sunlight.
That belief — that accessibility is a foundation, not a feature — shapes every decision we make.
Our methodology: manual remediation, not overlays
Most accessibility barriers cannot be detected by software alone, and almost none can be fixed by an external script injected at page load. Automated scanners reliably catch only a fraction of WCAG issues; the rest require human judgment about context, meaning, and how a real person actually moves through your site. This is why we lean on manual testing — and why we explain the difference in our automated vs manual testing guide.
Our process follows the POUR principles at the heart of WCAG — content must be Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust. A typical engagement looks like this:
| Phase | What we do | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Audit | Automated scan plus hands-on testing against WCAG 2.1 AA success criteria | A prioritized findings report |
| Remediation | We fix the source code, templates, and content by hand | A genuinely conformant site |
| Verification | Re-test with assistive technology and keyboard only | Evidence the fixes hold |
| Statement & monitoring | Publish an accessibility statement and watch for regressions | Ongoing peace of mind |
During testing we use the same tools your visitors rely on. We navigate every flow with the keyboard only, and we listen to your pages through real screen readers — NVDA and JAWS on Windows, VoiceOver on macOS and iOS. We check alt text, form labels, ARIA roles and states, focus order, and color contrast. Where a client needs formal documentation — for procurement, a partner, or Section 508 obligations — we can produce a VPAT / Accessibility Conformance Report.
Why we refuse overlays
Accessibility overlays — the widgets marketed by vendors as an instant, automated fix — promise compliance from a single line of JavaScript. They don’t deliver it. Independent testing and the experiences of actual assistive-technology users have shown overlays often fail to fix core barriers and can even introduce new ones. Crucially, an overlay does not satisfy the ADA or WCAG, and the presence of one has not stopped demand letters or lawsuits. We dig into the evidence in overlay vs manual remediation.
Manual remediation is harder and slower. It is also the only approach that actually makes your website work. That trade-off isn’t close, so we don’t offer the shortcut.
The team behind Curbcut
Curbcut is built and operated by [AGENCY_NAME], a team of accessibility specialists, front-end engineers, and content people who do this work every day. We’re not a reseller bolting a widget onto your site; we’re practitioners who read the code and fix it.
Our practice is led by [EXPERT_NAME], [EXPERT_CREDENTIALS] — credentialed through the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) as a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) and a Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS). Those certifications mean our lead doesn’t just run a scanner; they understand the standards, the assistive technology, and the lived barriers behind each WCAG success criterion. When guidance from the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative or the DOJ evolves, we adjust how we work.
What that expertise looks like in practice:
- We test like your users do. Keyboard-only runs and real screen-reader sessions, not just an automated pass.
- We fix root causes. A broken modal gets re-built to trap focus correctly — we don’t paper over it.
- We teach as we go. Clients leave understanding what changed and how to keep it accessible.
- We stay current. Standards from W3C, guidance from Section508.gov, and research from WebAIM inform our checklists.
Who we work with
We focus on [CLIENT]-type small and mid-sized businesses across the US — ecommerce stores, law firms, healthcare providers, restaurants, real-estate brokerages, and nonprofits — on every major platform, from Shopify and WordPress to custom-built sites. Many come to us after receiving a demand letter; others act early because they’d rather avoid a lawsuit and welcome every customer. Both are exactly the right reason to start.
A note on scope: thousands of ADA web-accessibility lawsuits are filed in the US each year, and the trend has held for some time. We can dramatically reduce the technical risk that drives those claims, but we are accessibility specialists, not attorneys, and nothing here is legal advice. If you’re facing a legal threat, please consult a qualified attorney alongside the remediation work.
Work with Curbcut
If your website needs to work for everyone — and meet its obligations along the way — we’d like to help. The simplest first move is a free accessibility scan of your homepage; from there we can scope a full manual audit and a remediation plan that fits your platform and budget. You can also reach our team directly with questions about your specific site.