Building accessible, gov-friendly sites on USWDS

The US Web Design System (USWDS) has become a cornerstone of federal digital standards, helping agencies deliver accessible, consistent, and user-friendly experiences. However, implementing USWDS in practice looks very different across government—from fully resourced flagship programs to highly constrained environments with limited budgets, timelines, or technical flexibility.

This roundtable, part of Government Service Delivery 2026 and supported by knowledge partner WordPress VIP, will bring together practitioners working across federal, agency, and partner ecosystems to discuss how USWDS is being applied in real-world scenarios.

In this session, leaders will explore how teams are balancing compliance, accessibility, and delivery speed—while navigating platform constraints, evolving tooling, and growing expectations around modernization.

Together we will discuss:

• How agencies and partners are implementing USWDS across a range of environments—from fully integrated design systems to constrained builds with limited tooling or plugin access
• Practical approaches to achieving accessibility standards (such as WCAG AA) within WordPress and other common government platforms
• How teams can accelerate delivery timelines while still meeting federal design and compliance expectations, especially for short-term or resource-constrained projects
• Where shared tooling, reusable components, and open-source approaches could reduce friction and improve consistency across government web development
• The emerging role of AI and modern development workflows in helping teams build faster while maintaining trust, compliance, and usability

Speakers:

Jake Spurlock, Sr. Director of Customer Success, WordPress VIP

Andrew Cameron Zahn, Vast Design and Development, LLC

Doug Axelrod, WDG