Senate Democrats push an accessibility refresh

As the federal government continues to largely fail to meet online accessibility requirements established decades ago, a group of Democrats have introduced a new proposal meant to update the underlying statute. 

Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., John Fetterman, D-Pa., and Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., introduced the Section 508 Refresh Act last week, a proposal they say is meant to ensure that the federal government’s online presence is accessible for people with disabilities. 

Section 508 is the part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that requires federal agencies’ to ensure that their technology is accessible. Passed by Congress in 1998, the government is still struggling to comply, decades later.

“The government as a whole is not meeting the minimum standard or legal obligation to provide equal access,” reads a report from the General Services Administration earlier this year. It found that less than 30% of the most viewed web pages, electronic documents and videos were fully compliant. 

“So many Americans rely on programs and services provided by the federal government — and yet, too many federal websites and apps remain nearly impossible to use by Americans with disabilities, preventing them from accessing vital information and resources,” Duckworth said in a statement. 

The new proposal would require agencies to include people with disabilities in the testing and acquisition of new tech, mandate regular testing and have each agency or department appoint a new Section 508 compliance officer.

The bill would also reform the Section 508 complaint process, and it would require GSA to set up a “uniform process” for accessibility testing and reporting for tech acquired by the government. That includes standard contract language on accessibility, accountability measures for vendors whose tech isn’t in compliance and more.

The bill follows the first update to federal Section 508 guidance since 2013, issued late last year. The memo directed agencies to incorporate accessibility throughout the design and development process, tap a Section 508 program manager and more.

"This is a good step in the right direction,” said Mike Gifford, open standards and practices lead at the government-focused processional services firm CivicActions. But he cautioned that “there’s so much work that needs to be done.”

Among the challenges are the lack of transparency about government online accessibility, a lack of resources at some agencies and the evergreen question of who is actually responsible for accessibility when there are often many vendors involved in any given website or product, said Gifford.

At the same time, accessibility efforts often remain siloed in the government, he said, noting that more could be done, for example, to tie ongoing customer experience initiatives in this administration to accessibility.

Congress codifying that the government should follow the most updated international web content accessibility standards as they change over time is also on Gifford’s legislative wishlist, as are lawmakers tieing existing executive branch efforts into their bills.

Until early 2023, the Justice Department hadn’t released its legally-required biennial reports on compliance since 2012. It issued its first one in over a decade last year after congressional pressure to do so. 

Much like GSA’s report, DOJ also found dismal statistics on online accessibility, as well as struggles across some agencies to secure the necessary staffing and resources to address the problem. 

Many of the lawmakers behind this newest proposal have been zeroing on the issue for a few years now.

Casey, who chairs the Special Committee on Aging, backed a proposal last fall to set up compliance officers for Section 508, after a 2022 committee report found accessibility problems at the Department of Veterans Affairs and across government. Casey has also pushed legislation focused on the VA in particular.

“We would not ask someone using a wheelchair to walk up the courthouse steps,” Casey said in a statement. “But we are doing something similar when we ask people with disabilities to use federal websites, apps, kiosks, and other technologies that are not accessible.”

Duckworth reintroduced the bipartisan, bicameral Websites and Software Applications Accessibility Act last fall, meant to build on the Americans with Disabilities Act.