Improving Accessibility of Federal Government Websites - KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Board consists of 13 members appointed by the president, the majority of whom must be people with disabilities, as well as the heads of each of the executive departments, the United States Postal Service, and GSA.8 The current Section 508 standards, which the Access Board last updated in 2018, use WCAG 2.0 Level A and Level AA success criteria and conformance requirements as the federal govern. [...] The goal of this program is to provide repeatable and reliable INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION | JUNE 2021 PAGE 11 conformance testing performed by individuals who have completed formal accessibility testing certification.18 Notably, the White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earned a perfect score in our accessibility test of all three of their pages, and al. [...] Figure 1: Easily discoverable accessibility pages with contact information for the most popular federal government websites RECOMMENDATIONS This report shows that of the federal government websites we tested, the homepage and second and third most popular pages of just over half passed an accessibility test for all three pages. [...] To expand on its commitment and ensure all federal agencies make accessibility a priority, the White House should direct agencies to launch a series of “sprints” to address the known problems with the most popular government websites. [...] Section 508 requires DOJ to submit biennial reports to the president and Congress evaluating federal agencies’ compliance and making recommendations, but it does not require DOJ to make these reports available to the public, and DOJ has not done so since 2012.22 To increase accountability and allow disability advocates to track the federal government’s compliance and progress, Congress should amen.