Municipal Web Design — Maryland
Websites for Maryland Towns & Counties
Accessible town and county websites built to the federal standard, easy enough for Town Hall to run day to day, and owned outright by the town. Built in about a week, launched on your schedule, and you work directly with one of the lead developers building your site.
The Federal ADA Website Rule, in Plain English
In 2024 the Justice Department set a clear standard for state and local government websites under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Every town, county and public agency website, along with its mobile apps, PDFs and online forms, has to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.1, Level AA (WCAG 2.1 AA). That standard is how the rule measures whether someone who is blind, has low vision, can’t use a mouse or can’t hear audio can still use the site.
In practice it means things like every image having a text description, every form field having a label a screen reader can announce, enough contrast to read text easily, pages that work with a keyboard alone, video with captions, and documents a screen reader can actually read. A scanned PDF of a typed agenda, a very common sight on town websites, fails on its own.
Which Deadline Applies to You
An interim rule issued in April 2026 moved the original dates back one year. The standard itself did not change.
Counties & Cities of 50,000 or More
April 26, 2027
Larger local governments, including most Maryland counties, have the earlier date. Cecil County, with about 104,000 residents, falls here.
Towns Under 50,000
April 26, 2028
Most Maryland towns, including every incorporated town in Cecil County, have one more year. That is time to do it right instead of in a rush.
Special Districts
April 26, 2028
Water, sewer, fire, transit and similar districts share the later date, whatever the size of the area they serve.
The extra year is an opportunity, not a reason to wait. Residents can still raise accessibility complaints under the ADA today, and a town that plans its site now spreads the work and the cost over its own budget cycle instead of scrambling against the deadline.
What a Town Website Needs to Do
Residents don’t visit a municipal website to browse. They come to pay a water bill, find out when trash pickup moves for the holiday, read the agenda before Tuesday’s meeting or reserve a pavilion. A good municipal site puts those tasks one tap away on a phone, and every one of them is built to the ADA accessibility standard from the start.
Meetings, Agendas & Minutes
One place for every meeting: the agenda posted ahead of time, minutes once approved, and recordings if you keep them, organized by board and year.
Notices & Emergency Alerts
Water main breaks, snow emergencies, road closures and public hearings posted in minutes, with a banner across the top of the site when it matters.
Pay, Apply & Request Online
Your existing bill payment, permit applications and public information requests linked in clearly, so residents find them in one tap instead of five.
Forms That Work on a Phone
Your most-used paper forms rebuilt as accessible online forms that land in the right inbox, instead of PDFs residents have to print, fill and drop off.
Events & Community Calendar
Town events, park rentals and community happenings on one calendar residents can actually read on a phone.
Departments & Staff Directory
Who to call for trash pickup, zoning, water billing or a pavilion rental, with hours, phone numbers and the services each office handles.
Visitor & Tourism Pages
Parks, landmarks, local businesses and seasonal events, so the people visiting your town spend time and money on Main Street.
Translation
Pages residents can read in their own language, with every page still meeting the accessibility standard.
Easy Enough for Town Hall to Run
In a small town, the person posting the agenda is often also answering the phone, processing permits and taking minutes. The site has to work for that person. Updating it should feel like filling out a simple form, not learning new software.
Post It Yourself
Add a meeting, upload an agenda or post a notice from any computer, in a few minutes, without calling a developer.
The Right Access for Each Person
The clerk can publish; a department head can draft and send for approval. Everyone signs in with their own login.
Schedule Ahead
Write a notice today and set it to go live Monday at 8 a.m., or take it down automatically when the event is over.
A History of Every Change
See who changed what and when, and put back an earlier version of any page with one click.
The Smart Way to Handle Old PDFs
Most town websites hold years of agendas, minutes, ordinances and forms as PDF files, and making every one of them accessible would be slow and expensive. It usually isn’t necessary. The rule includes an exception for archived content kept only for reference, stored in a clearly marked archive area and left unchanged. We set up that archive properly, so the older material stays available on request while only current and future documents need to meet the standard. Forms residents still use are rebuilt as accessible online forms, which are easier to fill out anyway.
Your Town Owns Its Website
Many government website vendors rent the site to you: stop paying the subscription and the site goes with it, and moving to anyone else means starting over. We set everything up in the town’s name instead: the site itself, the content, the domain and the accounts it runs on. If you ever decide to work with someone else, you keep all of it. We can also help you move to a free .gov address, which tells residents at a glance that they’re on the official town site.
Start With a Free Accessibility Check
Before anyone talks about a new website, it helps to know where your current one stands. We test your homepage and your most-used pages and documents against the federal standard, using automated testing tools and a manual review with a keyboard and screen reader, then send you a short report written for a town administrator, not a programmer.
The report covers what already passes, what doesn’t, which problems matter most to residents, and a rough sense of what fixing them would involve. There is no cost and no obligation, and the report is yours to share with your board, whoever you choose to do the work.
How a Municipal Website Project Works
- 1
Free Accessibility Check
We test your current site against the federal standard and send a plain-English report: what passes, what doesn’t and what matters most. It’s yours to keep and share with your board, whoever you choose to do the work.
- 2
Fixed-Price Proposal
A written proposal with one fixed price, sized to your town, that works with your purchasing rules, whether that is a small purchase approved at a meeting or a response to a formal bid.
- 3
Build
Once approved, the site is built in about a week. Every current page and service carries over, rebuilt to the standard.
- 4
Review & Training
Your staff reviews every page, and we train each person who will post updates, in person if you like.
- 5
Launch on Your Schedule
The site goes live when your board is ready, with old page addresses pointed to the new ones so nothing residents bookmarked breaks.
- 6
Run It Yourself, or Add Care
Your staff runs the site day to day. Hosting is paid directly by the town, about $20 a month. Care is optional: a $500-a-year Security Plan, a $99-a-month Care Plan, or any developer you choose.
Fixed Prices That Fit a Town Budget
Town websites start at $9,500, one fixed price, for towns of up to about 10,000 residents. Larger towns, counties and agencies get a fixed quote after the free check, sized to the number of pages and departments, the forms moving online and the documents coming along. Either way the price is written down before work starts. There is no hourly meter and no surprise invoice when the project runs long.
There is no yearly subscription. The site is built to run on its own: your staff posts meetings, notices and events, and the town pays its hosting directly to the hosting provider, about $20 a month, with no markup from us. The site, the content, the domain and the accounts all belong to the town.
Ongoing Care Is Optional
No Plan
$0
Your staff runs the site. Hire us or any developer for updates as they come up.
Security Plan
$500 a Year
Quarterly security updates, backups and uptime monitoring, so the software underneath stays current.
Care Plan
$1,188 a Year ($99 a Month)
Everything in the Security Plan, plus help when staff need it, small changes and accessibility checks on new content.
Plans are billed once a year, which fits a town budget cycle better than twelve monthly invoices. Anything outside a plan is $95 an hour, billed in 15-minute increments, and you’re told before the work starts. Because the town owns the site, you can change plans, drop care or hire a different developer at any time.
For comparison, subscription government website platforms commonly charge small towns $4,600 to $4,800 a year for the website alone, and the town never owns it (as of 2026). Over four years that comes to about $18,800. A $9,500 site from us comes to about $10,500 over the same four years with hosting, about 45% less, or about $15,200 with the Care Plan, and the town owns everything.
Local to the Towns We Serve
Our home base is White Marsh, and we have a working location in Rising Sun in Cecil County. We can sit down with your administrator and clerk at Town Hall, attend a work session to answer the board’s questions, and train your staff in person. When you call, you reach one of the lead developers building your site, not a call center in another state.
Proof You Can Check Yourself
Google’s own PageSpeed test scores our site 100 out of 100 for SEO and best practices, 100 for desktop performance, 98 for mobile performance and 96 for accessibility (October 3, 2026). Run it on your town’s site, then on ours, and compare. The sites we’ve built reached #1 on Google for their main searches as of September 2026; see them in our portfolio, and read how we approach web design and website redesigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does the Federal Accessibility Rule Require of Town Websites?
A 2024 Justice Department rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires state and local government websites and mobile apps, including the documents and forms posted on them, to meet the WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standard. In plain English, people who are blind, have low vision, can’t use a mouse or are deaf must be able to use the site and its documents. An interim rule in April 2026 set the deadlines at April 26, 2027 for governments of 50,000 people or more and April 26, 2028 for smaller towns and special districts.
When Does My Town Have to Comply?
If your town has fewer than 50,000 residents, which is true of almost every incorporated town in Maryland, your date is April 26, 2028. Counties and cities of 50,000 or more, and the agencies that are part of them, have April 26, 2027. Special districts such as water, sewer and fire districts have April 26, 2028. Your town attorney can confirm which applies to you.
Do Our Old PDF Agendas and Minutes Have to Be Fixed?
Not always. The rule includes an exception for archived content: material kept only for reference or records, stored in a clearly marked archive area and not changed after it was archived. Moving older agendas and minutes into a proper archive section means only current and future documents need to meet the standard, which can save a great deal of time and money. Documents residents still use, like current permit forms, do need to be accessible.
Isn’t an Accessibility Plugin or Overlay Enough?
No. The toolbars and overlays some vendors sell add buttons on top of a site but don’t fix the underlying problems, like images without descriptions, forms without labels or documents a screen reader can’t read. Accessibility has to be built into the site and its content.
Can Town Staff Update the Site Without a Developer?
Yes. That is the point. Staff sign in with their own logins and post meetings, agendas, notices and events from any computer in a few minutes. We train everyone who will be posting, and the site checks new content as it’s added.
Who Owns the Website?
Your town does: the site, the content, the domain and the accounts it runs on are set up in the town’s name, and the town pays hosting directly, about $20 a month. Ongoing care is optional. If you ever decide to work with someone else, you keep everything and move on without starting over.
Can We Get a .gov Address?
Yes. Federal, state, local and tribal governments can register a .gov domain at no cost through the federal government’s .gov program. A .gov address tells residents they’re on the real town site, and we can handle the setup with you.
How Do Towns Buy a Website From You?
However your rules require. Many towns can approve a purchase of this size at a regular meeting, and larger ones go out for bids. We provide what your finance office needs to set us up as a vendor and can respond to a formal request for proposals. Your town administrator will know which path applies.
How Long Does a Town Website Take?
The build itself takes about a week. Most of the calendar time is your review: reading through the pages with staff, training and board approval. We work to your meeting schedule, not the other way around.
Do You Only Work in Cecil County?
No. We work with towns, counties and public agencies across Maryland. Our home base is White Marsh, and we have a working location in Rising Sun, so towns in Cecil, Harford and Baltimore counties can meet with us in person.