Digital risk, measured and documented over time.
Your record has never been challenged. That can change this afternoon.
For risks such as ADA compliance, you need to know: what has to be fixed, what matters first, who owns it, and proof you are making progress.
Esther finds. Esther ranks. Esther records.
A thirty-minute introduction (opens in a new tab)Will your record stand up?
A demand letter arrives:
usually without warning, and it asks for a response by a stated date.
What a demand letter asks forA federal agency opens a review:
under a rule, or under the terms of your funding.
Counsel asks what you can produce:
before anything is filed, and the answer shapes what happens next.
Each one comes down to the same three things: what you found, what you put first, and what has been resolved since. A record answers all three.
$1,000,000
An order required accessiBe, the maker of an accessibility product, to pay $1,000,000. It bars the company from claiming that its product can make any website comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or keep a website compliant as its content changes, without competent and reliable evidence.
If a product that promises to make your website compliant is what you're relying on, that is the claim a federal regulator challenged.
You will know whether the fix held.
Every barrier has a person on the other side of it: someone who came to pay, apply, or book, and could not finish.
Esther measures what you have online and dates every finding. A new page goes live and it gets measured. A vendor says the fix is in, and the next check shows whether the barrier is gone.
A report gives you January 12. A record gives you the whole table.
That is a record: a dated account of what was found, what came first, and what has been resolved.
| Date | What the check found | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 12 | The application form cannot be completed without a mouse. Anyone who does not use one cannot apply. | Open |
| Feb 12 | Still found. The form cannot be completed without a mouse. | Open |
| Mar 12 | The form can be completed without a mouse. The barrier is off the list. | Resolved |
The obligation is yours every day, whoever built the system.
Your record must be older than the letter.
The day a letter arrives is the day the record matters most. Every day before that, the record is already working.
- Counsel gets a dated answer the day one is needed.
- Your team knows what to fix first: the barriers that stop someone paying, applying, or booking, ranked by what courts and regulators have required of others.
- Every finding carries a date, where it was found, and its evidence: enough to hand straight to whoever owns it.
- Your budget request arrives with evidence attached, so the work gets scoped and funded on your own calendar.
The record is yours to see at any time, and to share with counsel, a vendor, a council, or a board. Esther's assessments have supported ADA cases in federal court.
$100,000, and nine months
A transit district agreed to bring all of its websites, web content, and mobile applications to WCAG 2.1 Level AA within nine months. On top of what the rest of the agreement required, it agreed to invest at least $100,000 over two years "to improve its services for individuals with disabilities."
Both numbers were set by somebody else. A budget request with evidence already attached is how they stop being a surprise.
Three questions worth being able to answer
Much of what people need to apply, sign up, or pay is a document, not a web page.
- Can you list every website, app, and online form your organization runs?
- Can you list the documents people need to apply, sign up, or pay?ADA compliance for PDFs and files
- Can you show when someone outside your team last checked your most important pages and documents?
Where the answer is "not sure," that is where the record starts.
Every organization online answers to the public.
The difference is whether a regulation sets a date.
What people ask first
How is Esther different from an accessibility scanner?
A scanner reports what's wrong on the day it runs. Esther documents what those barriers cost. It ranks them by what courts and regulators have required, covers the documents most scanners never open, and is independent of the vendor who built your site.
We already had an accessibility audit. Why would we need Esther?
Your audit described where you stood on the day it was delivered, and it was right about that day. Esther covers the days after, as your sites change.
Is Esther AI?
Yes. AI does the routine work, and every judgment call is reviewed by an accessibility practitioner before it reaches you.
What does Esther cost?
That depends on what you have online and how often your record is refreshed, so the answer is specific to you. Pricing is part of the thirty minutes.
If any of this strikes a nerve, we should talk.
Thirty minutes. Your situation, and where to begin.