Government tech largely falls short on accessibility requirements, GSA finds

U.S. government agencies continued to have low compliance with a statute designed to ensure that federal websites, software, and other products are accessible for people with disabilities, according to a recent federal review.

In a new report, the General Services Administration found that alignment with the accessibility statute known as Section 508 was a 1.96 on a 5-point scale, continuing a trend of lacking compliance.

GSA reported that roughly half of agencies didn’t review accessibility for their most-used information and communication technology tools, and the majority of agencies don’t conduct usability testing with people who have disabilities before resources are deployed or published.

The poor compliance showing follows similar findings from past GSA reviews and indicates that more work is needed to help agencies comply. As a result, GSA concluded its report with recommendations that Congress both update the statute to clarify requirements and strengthen enforcement and oversight of agency compliance. 

The annual report is required by statute and was prepared in consultation with the White House Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Access Board, an independent agency that establishes Section 508 standards. The report includes responses from 212 agencies, parent agencies, and other components. Its publication follows changes to the review process aimed at reducing the reporting burden on agencies.

“This assessment builds on previous reports and takes a broad look at different factors to understand federal agencies compliance with Section 508 accessibility requirements,” GSA Administrator Edward Forst said in an introductory statement. “With significant changes to the assessment criteria and shifts in the federal environment, FY 2025 establishes a new baseline for [information and communication technology] accessibility throughout the federal government.”

Notably, the report found that the government’s top-viewed information and communication technology products are not generally consistent with the statute. 

Nearly a quarter of agencies didn’t test at least one of their top-viewed information and communication technology products — including websites, documents, and videos — at all. Specifically, 37% of public webpages and public documents conform, as do 41% of intranet pages and 45% of public videos. 

Though GSA found that agencies were taking the statute into account for some of their work, compliance wasn’t consistent. 

For example, agencies prioritized testing website content but not hardware and software tools. Agencies also included the accessibility of information and communication technology tools in the acquisition process, but enforcement of those requirements was low, the report stated.

The weakest area of compliance was testing and remediation, per the report. However, agencies that had clear timelines for remediation and mechanisms to track the process had better outcomes.

As part of its recommendations, GSA suggested that compliance with statute should be incorporated into agencies’ core risk management frameworks. It also urged reinforcement of chief information officers’ leadership on improvements, namely that metrics related to Section 508 should be added to CIO performance plans.

Additionally, GSA recommended that the acquisition process should be “a primary lever” to comply with 508, encouraging officials to buy rather than build technologies, incorporate accessibility performance into contract renewals, and require contracts to include “right-to-repair” provisions that ensure agencies can make alterations as needed.

While early moves by the Trump administration to remove information from federal websites gave some civil rights advocates pause, the report appears to signal a commitment toward implementing the accessibility statute. 

“​​I’m hopeful the issuance of this report means the new administration has not, as I had feared, given up on its oversight of agency implementation of Section 508,” Eve Hill, a partner at Brown Goldstein & Levy who focuses on civil rights and disability rights, told FedScoop in an email.

Hill said the report’s results are “all over the place,” with some agencies designating few resources to compliance and others actually investing in those processes and seeing benefits. Additionally, some agencies are more of a “mixed bag” where policies are in place, but their results are varied, she said.

“As the report for the Social Security Administration shows, agencies that put policies and practices in place and follow them, reap the benefits in terms of accessibility results,” Hill said.

SSA was the only Chief Financial Officers Act agency with a score of “Very High” in all five categories reviewed by GSA, per agency-level data published in conjunction with the report.

The other two entities with perfect scores are the National Mediation Board and the Access Board itself. The Department of Agriculture and the National Archives and Records Administration, meanwhile, had near-perfect scores, with mostly “Very High” and just one “High” mark each.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Labor, and Department of Justice all received “Low” or  “Very Low” in every category. 

Per the statute, the report was addressed to the Senate Committees on Appropriations and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the House Committees on Appropriations and Oversight and Government Reform. 

Spokespeople for those committees didn’t immediately respond to FedScoop’s requests for comment.