Regional Partnerships
Dirigo Interactive partners with Councils of Governments and municipal leagues to deliver practitioner-led web accessibility services across your membership. One partnership. Real coverage. Low administrative lift for your staff.
The deadline is set. Most towns aren’t ready.
ADA Title II now requires that municipal websites, digital documents, and online services meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards. The Department of Justice extended the compliance deadlines in April 2026, but the requirement itself did not change.
Only the dates moved. The requirement to be accessible did not.
For most of your member towns, the deadline falls in April 2028. That is two budget cycles away. Towns that begin scoping now can plan, budget, and do the work without scrambling. Towns that wait will not have that option.
Small and under-resourced municipalities face the steepest climb. They often lack the staff, the internal expertise, and the budget to engage vendors on their own. A regional partnership changes that.
One partnership. Coverage across your membership.
When your COG or league partners with Dirigo Interactive, your member towns gain access to practitioner-led accessibility services without having to source and vet a vendor independently. We handle scheduling, delivery, and follow-through. Your staff coordinates the introduction. We do the rest.
What we deliver to member towns
- WCAG 2.1 AA needs assessments to scope the work and identify compliance gaps
- Website and digital content remediation
- PDF and document accessibility remediation
- Staff training, available as shared sessions across multiple member towns
- Procurement and governance guidance to help towns build lasting accessibility practices
Why the shared-session model matters for small towns: When multiple towns participate in a training together, the per-seat cost drops. Smaller communities that could not afford individual engagements can take part. The work gets done, and the cost stays manageable.
A remediation project is a valid starting point. We treat every project as the beginning of an ongoing practice, not a one-time fix. Accessibility isn’t a project you finish. It’s a practice you maintain.
Already working with GPCOG
We partner with the Greater Portland Council of Governments to deliver accessibility services to their member municipalities.
150+
Municipal staff trained through the GPCOG partnership this year
40%+
Of GPCOG’s member towns engaged through this partnership
Multiple
Projects and engagements completed for GPCOG member towns
Beyond the GPCOG partnership, we present on municipal accessibility at regional gatherings, including the Maine Municipal Association’s Annual Convention in 2025.
Designed to be low lift for your staff
We know your team is already stretched. A partnership with Dirigo does not add to your coordination burden.
You make the introduction. We handle everything else: intake conversations with member towns, scoping, scheduling, delivery, and follow-up. We work directly with town staff throughout the engagement, with no handoffs to junior staff or automated tools.
You work directly with Daniel Filson and Jason Day, the principals of Dirigo Interactive. That is not a line we added to the website. It is how we operate.
Ready to talk about what this looks like for your members?
A 30-minute call is enough to scope whether a partnership makes sense and what it would look like for your specific membership.
Common questions from COG and league staff
How much work is this for our staff?
Very little. Your role is to make the introduction and, if you choose, to co-promote the opportunity to your members. Dirigo handles intake, scheduling, delivery, and all direct coordination with member towns. We are experienced working within regional partnership structures and will not route administrative burden back to you.
Our members vary a lot in size and budget. Can this work for all of them?
Yes. Our services are modular. A small town with limited resources can start with a needs assessment, a low-commitment first step that clarifies what work is needed and gives the town something concrete to bring to their budget process. Larger members with more capacity can move directly into remediation or training. Shared training sessions across multiple towns lower the per-seat cost, which makes participation realistic for under-resourced communities.
How does this get paid for?
There is no single answer, and that is by design. Some engagements are funded directly by member towns. Others are structured as COG-sponsored programs or supported through state or federal accessibility grants. We are flexible in how engagements are scoped and structured, and we are glad to talk through what makes sense for your membership during a partnership conversation.
Are our member towns even ready to start?
Readiness is not a prerequisite. A needs assessment is designed for towns that do not yet know where they stand. It identifies compliance gaps, scopes the remediation work, and gives town leadership a clear picture of what they are facing and what it will take to address it. Starting with an assessment is not a commitment to a large project. It is a way to get the information you need to make a good decision.
Why Dirigo and not a national vendor or an automated scanning tool?
Automated scans are useful for identifying some issues, but they cannot remediate what they find, and they miss a significant portion of real accessibility barriers. Practitioner-led work catches what scans miss, and the remediation is done by people who understand accessibility deeply, not generated by a tool. We are a disability-owned firm, we bring lived experience to this work, you work directly with the principals on every engagement, and we have a demonstrated track record in your region, including an active partnership with GPCOG and engagements across their member towns.
Are you a member town?
If you found this page because your COG or league is exploring this program, welcome. You can learn more about what Dirigo offers directly to municipalities on our municipalities page.
Let’s talk about your members
One conversation is enough to find out whether a partnership is the right fit. We will come prepared with relevant examples and a clear sense of what delivery looks like across a regional membership.