Terms of Service

Effective 9 September 2026 · Version 1.0

Plumbline is an independent accessibility auditor. We assess websites against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and report what we find. We do not issue certifications, and no one can — read section 2 first.

Provider: Agustín Rodríguez, doing business as "Plumbline" ("Plumbline", "we", "us"), Av. Curapaligüe 815, C1406CUI, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Contact: agustin@plumblineaccess.com.

These Terms govern every audit, review, monitoring service and report Plumbline provides. By ordering a service, paying an invoice, or using a report, you ("Client", "you") agree to them. If you are ordering on behalf of an agency or company, you confirm you are authorized to bind it.

1. Definitions

WCAG

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Unless an Order says otherwise, we assess against WCAG 2.1 Level AA, following the evaluation methodology described in W3C's WCAG-EM.

Page

A distinct template, layout or view that we assess — not a URL. A store with two thousand product URLs built from one product template counts as one Page. Conversely, distinct views reached at the same URL — a checkout step, a modal, a cart drawer, a validation-error state — each count as a Page. This is how accessibility audits are scoped across the industry, and every Order lists the specific Pages covered.

Order

The written description of what we will assess (the site, the Pages, the user flows), the price and the delivery date, agreed by email before work starts.

Deliverables

The reports, findings tables, checklists and monitoring alerts we deliver under an Order.

Automated Scan

An assessment performed by software (axe-core in a headless browser) with no human judgment.

Manual Review

An assessment performed by a person using a keyboard, a screen reader and other assistive technology on the flows listed in the Order.

Monitoring

The recurring Automated Scan of an agreed set of Pages, with alerts when results change, plus the periodic human check described in the Order.

Laws

Any local, state, federal or international law or regulation concerning accessibility, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508, state civil-rights statutes and the European Accessibility Act.

2. What we do — and what we don't

2.1 We assess against WCAG. We do not certify compliance with any Law.

Plumbline is not a law firm, does not employ attorneys and does not practice law. Whether a website satisfies the ADA or any other Law is a legal determination that only a court or regulator can make. Nothing we deliver is legal advice, and no Deliverable may be represented — by you or by anyone else — as a certification, guarantee or warranty that a website is "ADA compliant", "WCAG compliant", "fully accessible" or immune from complaints, demand letters or lawsuits.

2.2 An audit is a snapshot.

A Deliverable describes what we found, on the Pages and flows listed in the Order, on the date of the assessment, with the tools and assistive technologies named in the report. Websites change; themes, apps, plugins and content added after delivery are not covered.

2.3 No assessment finds everything.

Automated Scans detect only a fraction of WCAG success criteria — a minority of them, by the measurement of every published study on the subject and by our own control testing. Manual Review covers the flows in the Order, not every Page and not every combination of browser, operating system and assistive technology. The absence of a finding is not confirmation that no barrier exists.

2.4 We are independent.

We sell assessment, not remediation products. We do not sell, license, resell or receive commission on any accessibility overlay, widget, plugin or remediation tool, and no vendor pays us for placement in a report. Our findings are our own. Remediation — changing your or your client's website — is a separate service, quoted and agreed separately, and we will tell you plainly when we are not the right party to do it.

2.5 Overlays and widgets.

If a site runs an accessibility overlay or widget, we assess with it disabled unless the Order says otherwise, because assistive technology reads the underlying code. We make no statement, favourable or otherwise, about any third-party product.

3. Ordering, scope and delivery

3.1 Work starts when an Order is agreed in writing (email is fine) and the deposit in section 6 is received.

3.2 The Order lists the site, the Pages and flows covered, the standard, the price and the delivery date. Anything not listed is out of scope. Larger sites, custom checkouts, logged-in areas, native mobile apps, PDFs and non-English content are quoted separately.

3.3 Standard delivery is five (5) business days from the later of the agreed start date and receipt of the deposit and of any access we need (test accounts, staging URLs). Delays caused by missing access extend the date accordingly.

3.4 Re-test. One re-test of the findings in the report is included if requested within thirty (30) days of delivery, once you tell us the fixes are live. The re-test covers the original findings, not new Pages or new features.

3.5 Authorization. You confirm that you own the website in the Order or are authorized by its owner to have it assessed, and that our assessment — including automated requests to the site — is permitted.

4. White-label use of reports

4.1 Reports can be delivered under your name and logo. When they are, you may present the Deliverable to your own client as your work.

4.2 You may not (a) alter findings, severities, dates, scope statements or methodology notes; (b) remove the "what was tested / what was not tested" section or the methodology note; (c) present a Deliverable as a certification or guarantee of compliance; or (d) resell a Deliverable to anyone other than the client named in the Order without our written consent.

4.3 You are responsible for what you tell your client about the Deliverable. If your client is misled by a statement you made that the Deliverable does not support, that is between you and your client.

5. Pre-sales scans

5.1 Before any Order exists, we sometimes run an Automated Scan of publicly reachable pages of a website and publish the result at a private, unlisted address, in order to show an agency what we found. These scans request pages the same way an ordinary web browser does. We do not log in, do not submit forms, do not attempt to access non-public areas, and do not load-test.

5.2 A pre-sales scan is not an audit, creates no contract, and carries every limitation in section 2 — in particular 2.2 and 2.3.

5.3 Removal on request. If you own a site we scanned, or you are the agency that received the report, and you want the report taken down, email us and we will remove it. We do not require a reason.

6. Prices and payment

6.1 Prices are in US dollars, exclusive of any taxes, bank fees or currency-conversion charges, which you bear.

6.2 Audits: fifty percent (50%) on Order, fifty percent (50%) on delivery, unless the Order says otherwise. A summary of findings is provided on delivery so you can verify the work; the full report is released when the balance is received.

6.3 Monitoring: billed monthly in advance per site. It renews automatically each month until either party cancels by email. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid month; there are no partial-month refunds. Each invoice states the price, the billing frequency and how to cancel.

6.4 Payment methods are stated on the invoice. Where a payment processor is used, that processor's terms also apply to the payment itself.

6.5 Invoices unpaid fifteen (15) days after the due date may accrue interest at one percent (1%) per month or the maximum the Law allows, whichever is lower, and we may pause work and Monitoring until paid.

6.6 Refunds. The deposit is non-refundable once Manual Review has started. If we cannot deliver an audit for reasons within our control, we refund what you paid for it. Monitoring fees for the current month are not refunded.

7. Your responsibilities

You will (a) give us the URLs, test accounts and access described in the Order; (b) not ask us to assess sites you are not authorized to have assessed; (c) tell us if a site changes materially during the assessment; (d) keep any credentials we share confidential; and (e) not use the Deliverables to claim compliance, certification or guarantees.

8. Intellectual property

8.1 On full payment, you own the Deliverable for that Order — the report and its findings — and may use it for the site it describes.

8.2 We retain all rights to our methods, checklists, templates, scoring, scripts, software and know-how, and to anything in a Deliverable that is not specific to your site. You receive no license to our tools.

8.3 We may reference the type of work performed (for example, "e-commerce audits for US agencies") without naming you, your client or the site. We will not name any of them publicly without your written consent.

9. Confidentiality

Each party keeps confidential the other's non-public information received under an Order — reports, findings, pricing, site access, business processes — and uses it only to perform or receive the services. This does not cover information that is public, already known, independently developed, or required by law to be disclosed. The obligation lasts three (3) years after the last Order.

10. Data and privacy

10.1 Our assessments touch publicly reachable pages and any test accounts you provide. We do not intentionally collect personal data of end users; if a page we assess displays such data, we do not retain it beyond the screenshots and code excerpts needed to document a finding, and we redact it where we reasonably can.

10.2 We store Orders, reports and correspondence to perform the services and keep records. We do not sell them and we do not share them with third parties except as needed to deliver the services or as required by law.

10.3 Reports are published at unlisted addresses that carry a random token and are marked not to be indexed by search engines. They are private links, not secrets: anyone given the address can open it.

10.4 Where we contact you by email without a prior relationship, we identify ourselves, include a valid postal address and honor any request to stop, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act.

11. Disclaimer of warranties

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY STATED IN THESE TERMS, THE SERVICES AND DELIVERABLES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS". WE DISCLAIM ALL OTHER WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WITHOUT LIMITING SECTION 2, WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT ANY DELIVERABLE WILL ENSURE COMPLIANCE WITH ANY LAW, IDENTIFY EVERY ACCESSIBILITY BARRIER, OR PREVENT ANY COMPLAINT, DEMAND LETTER OR LAWSUIT.

12. Limitation of liability

12.1 TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, OUR TOTAL LIABILITY UNDER OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE TERMS OR ANY ORDER IS LIMITED TO THE AMOUNT YOU PAID US FOR THE ORDER GIVING RISE TO THE CLAIM IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS BEFORE THE CLAIM.

12.2 WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, LOST PROFITS, LOST BUSINESS, OR THE COSTS OF ANY CLAIM, DEMAND LETTER, SETTLEMENT OR LAWSUIT BROUGHT AGAINST YOU OR YOUR CLIENT BY A THIRD PARTY, EVEN IF WE WERE TOLD SUCH DAMAGES WERE POSSIBLE.

12.3 Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud or for anything that cannot be limited by Law.

13. Indemnification

You will defend and indemnify us against claims, losses and reasonable legal costs arising from (a) an assessment you were not authorized to request, (b) statements you or your client made about a Deliverable that the Deliverable does not support, including any claim of compliance or certification, or (c) your breach of sections 4 or 7.

14. Term, suspension and termination

14.1 An audit Order ends on delivery of the Deliverable and of the re-test, if requested. Monitoring continues month to month until cancelled under section 6.3.

14.2 Either party may end an Order by written notice if the other materially breaches these Terms and does not cure within ten (10) days. We may suspend services immediately if payment is overdue or if we have reason to believe an assessment was not authorized.

14.3 Sections 2, 4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16 and 17 survive termination.

15. Independent contractor

Plumbline is an independent contractor. Nothing here creates an employment, partnership, joint-venture or agency relationship, and neither party may bind the other.

16. Governing law and disputes

16.1 These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Argentina, without regard to conflict-of-law rules.

16.2 Before starting any proceeding, the parties will try in good faith to resolve the dispute by email or a call within thirty (30) days of written notice.

16.3 If that fails, disputes go to the ordinary commercial courts of the City of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and each party waives any other venue.

16.4 Each party waives the right to a jury trial and to participate in a class action, where such waivers are permitted.

17. General

17.1 Entire agreement. These Terms plus the Order are the whole agreement for the services and replace prior discussions. If an Order conflicts with these Terms, the Order wins, for that Order only.

17.2 Changes. We may update these Terms by posting a new version with a new effective date. Orders already agreed stay under the version in force when they were agreed.

17.3 Assignment. You may not assign an Order without our consent. We may assign these Terms to a company we form to carry on the business, and will notify you.

17.4 Force majeure. Neither party is liable for delay caused by events beyond its reasonable control, including outages of your site or hosting, internet failures, government action and natural events.

17.5 Notices are by email to the addresses on the Order; ours is agustin@plumblineaccess.com.

17.6 Severability. If a clause is unenforceable, the rest stands and that clause is read as narrowly as needed to make it enforceable.

17.7 Language. These Terms are written in English; any translation is provided for convenience only.