Press

Press information

Facts, honest limits, links and images for writing about ValleyFill. Press questions: hello@valleyfill.com.

About ValleyFill

ValleyFill is a small independent project that builds plain-spoken web tools: automated accessibility checks for public bodies preparing for the ADA Title II web rule; NearEcho, a set of free tools that help local businesses see whether AI search can read their websites; and HTTPFirst Check, a free check for Chrome's warning before insecure HTTP connections.

Short description: ValleyFill makes small web tools that say plainly what they check, with a free tier and a clear note on what each one cannot know.

Products: facts and honest limits

ValleyFill accessibility

• Automated audit, $495 flat: up to 50 pages and 10 PDFs, all tested automatically. See pricing.
• Monitoring: $49, $129 or $299 a month (50, 250 or 1,000 pages), with weekly automated scans and no human testing.
• Human-tested tier: coming soon. No price or date yet.
• Limits: automated checks only. Automated tools catch roughly a third of accessibility issues. There is no screen-reader or human review today. Nothing ValleyFill offers is a compliance guarantee, an ACR/VPAT or legal advice.

NearEcho

• Free tools for local businesses at nearecho.valleyfill.com/tools/, no sign-up (listed below).
• Limits: no one outside the AI companies can guarantee that a business is mentioned or recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or any assistant. AI answers vary from run to run.

Free tools

• Title II Snapshot

  For cities, counties, special districts, school districts and public colleges. Shows which ADA Title II web deadline applies and a dated list of basic signals from up to 10 pages and 5 PDFs. Free, no sign-up, 3 a day per visitor, results not saved. An automated, partial indication, not an audit or legal advice.

• AI Crawler Checker (NearEcho)

  Reads a site's public robots.txt and shows which AI search and training crawlers it allows or blocks, with plain-English fixes. Free tier: 5 checks a day.

• AI-Readiness Check (NearEcho)

  A basic check of a homepage: title, meta description, structured data, LocalBusiness markup, name/address/phone consistency and AI crawler access. No ranking promises.

• Schema Generator (NearEcho)

  Builds schema.org LocalBusiness JSON-LD for a business. Runs in the browser; nothing is sent to ValleyFill.

• HTTPFirst Check

  Checks http and https on the bare domain and www, certificates, redirects, HSTS and mixed content, explained in terms of Chrome's ask-before-HTTP warning. 5 free checks a day.

• AI search readiness checklist (PDF)

  A one-page checklist for local businesses. Free download, no sign-up. More guides are on the resources page.

Key dates we reference

• April 26, 2027: state and local governments with 50,000 or more people.
• April 26, 2028: governments under 50,000 people and all special district governments.

Source: ADA.gov, State and local governments: first steps toward complying with the web rule.

Published articles

• robots.txt vs AI crawlers: training bots, search bots, and the ones that just fetch
• Title II web accessibility: a 90-day plan for the small-city IT person
• Why ChatGPT recommends your competitor (and what you can actually control)
• ADA Title II web deadlines explained
• Procurement checklist for accessible web work
• WCAG 2.1 AA in plain language
• Which ADA Title II deadline applies to your school district, library, or special district?

Research note: Small pilot: what do local-government robots.txt files say about AI crawlers? (method and aggregate results, 26 October 2026).

All articles are on the articles page (RSS feed). Guides and downloads are on the resources page.

Logo and screenshots

Logos and screenshots may be used in editorial coverage of ValleyFill or NearEcho. Please don't alter them or imply endorsement. Screenshots were taken on 26 October 2026 and show each tool before a check is run.

Usage guidelines

• Please write "ValleyFill" (one word, capital V and F) and "NearEcho" (one word, capital N and E).
• Please don't describe the tools as making a site "compliant", "ADA-certified" or "guaranteed" to appear in AI answers.

Questions and answers

What can an automated accessibility check find?

Machine-detectable issues such as missing alt attributes, missing form labels, low colour contrast in static text, empty links and buttons, missing page language, and some heading and structure problems.

What can't it find?

Whether alt text is actually meaningful, whether a keyboard user can complete a task in a sensible order, how a screen reader announces dynamic content, whether captions are accurate, and whether instructions make sense. These need a human tester, ideally including people with disabilities.

Does a clean Snapshot or audit mean a site meets Title II?

No. It means the automated checks found no issues on the pages checked. That's useful, but it isn't conformance.

Is this legal advice?

No. Please confirm obligations with your own counsel.

Does ValleyFill sell overlays or widgets?

No.

Will NearEcho get a business recommended by ChatGPT?

No one can promise that. The tools check things a business controls (crawler access, structured data, basic page signals) that make it possible for AI systems to read its site.

Contact

Email hello@valleyfill.com; press questions are answered by email. ValleyFill is on X (@ValleyFillHQ) and Bluesky (@valleyfill.bsky.social).