Federal Agency ServiceNow Portal Accessibility Overhaul
A federal agency's ServiceNow portal was failing audits left and right. We rebuilt 24 core widgets from scratch, trained their internal team, and achieved 100% WCAG 2.1 AA compliance in 12 weeks.
- Client
- Federal Agency
- Industry
- Government
- Timeline
- 12 weeks
- Services
- Accessibility Audit · Widget Remediation · Team Training · Compliance Documentation
- Tags
- Results
- 100% Compliance-67% Tickets12wk Timeline
The Challenge
The agency's ServiceNow employee portal served 12,000+ users daily, but its out-of-the-box widgets were failing basic accessibility checks. An internal audit flagged 147 WCAG 2.1 AA violations across 24 core widgets. Screen reader users could not complete fundamental tasks like submitting IT tickets or checking request status.
With a federal mandate requiring Section 508 compliance, the agency needed a full remediation — not patches, but a ground-up rebuild of every interactive widget.
Our Approach
Phase 1: Comprehensive Audit (Weeks 1-2)
We conducted a thorough accessibility audit of all 24 widgets using a combination of automated tools (axe-core, WAVE) and manual testing with NVDA, JAWS, and VoiceOver. Each violation was documented with severity, impact, and remediation path.
Phase 2: Widget Rebuilding (Weeks 3-9)
Rather than patching the existing widgets, we rebuilt each one from semantic HTML foundations. Every widget received:
- Proper heading hierarchy and landmark regions
- Full keyboard navigation with visible focus indicators
- ARIA attributes for dynamic content updates
- Screen reader announcements for state changes
- High contrast mode support
Phase 3: Training & Handoff (Weeks 10-12)
We trained the agency's internal development team on accessibility best practices specific to ServiceNow, including custom widget patterns, testing methodologies, and ongoing compliance monitoring.
Results
The remediation delivered measurable improvements across every metric the agency tracked:
- 100% WCAG 2.1 AA compliance across all 24 widgets
- 67% reduction in support tickets related to portal usability
- Internal team certified to maintain compliance independently
- Zero findings on subsequent federal accessibility audit
Key Takeaway
ServiceNow portals can be fully accessible, but it requires rebuilding widgets from semantic foundations rather than layering ARIA onto inaccessible markup. The investment pays for itself through reduced support costs and genuine usability improvements for all users.