The Department of Justice issued a rule in April 2024 requiring content on government websites and mobile applications to be accessible and usable for people with disabilities. Smaller cities with populations under 50,000 have until April 2027 to comply, but more populous cities and all states have a deadline of April 24. The rule requires all text, images, sounds, videos, controls, animations and electronic documents to meet specific technical requirements: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1 Level AA. This is intended to help ensure governments are effectively serving the more than 1 in 4 U.S. adults that have a disability.
The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) created an IT Accessibility Working Group to support digital accessibility coordinators in complying with the deadline. A recent paper provides a comprehensive outline of its findings. Among them, as of the CIO survey distributed last July, only one state indicated it had fully implemented a plan for compliance.
Although states are working towards compliance, the timeline is proving difficult for some to meet, according to NASCIO Policy Analyst Kalea Young-Gibson, “but states are definitely well on their way.” Some states, she said, are likely to still be working towards compliance when the deadline hits.
There are several primary challenges impacting progress. First, funding is a “dominant barrier,” as 54 percent of surveyed CIOs reported they did not have any dedicated funding for accessibility services — and the remediation that follows assessment can be costly. Second, workforce capacity also poses a challenge, as 34 percent of states lack dedicated IT accessibility coordinators. The third challenge relates to contracted services; Young-Gibson said states are strengthening vendor relationships by updating procurement document language to include accessibility guidelines and ensuring they can deliver. And fourth, fragmented governance impacts how states assess and remediate accessibility.
For states that are not on track to meet the deadline, NASCIO offers various resources, including a compliance checklist. But Young-Gibson emphasized several actions states should prioritize. First, start with governance; clarifying roles and securing stakeholder buy-in will support the adoption of policy and programming to advance the work. A partnership between a CIO and accessibility coordinator is “the most vital part” of ensuring accessibility across an entire enterprise; if a state does not have an accessibility coordinator, Young-Gibson said its next step should be to hire one. A proactive approach to accessibility — in procurement, design, development and training — will reduce remediation costs. Finally, she said, states should prioritize high-impact systems first.
STATES MAKE PROGRESS
Every state has its own approach to achieving digital accessibility.
Colorado is ahead of the curve, as a state-specific law required all government entities in the state to meet its accessibility standards by July 2024. The state’s rules align closely with the federal rules, according to Karen Pellegrin, senior program manager for its Technology Accessibility Program.
“So, the federal rules are just for public-facing websites, web content, mobile sites, and mobile content,” she said. “For Colorado, it goes way beyond that; it’s both internal and external products.”
Colorado's accessibility work has involved finding a balance between these two mandates.
The state has shifted accessibility work to start earlier in the government technology cycle through actions like including accessibility language in contracts — “creating the foundation,” as Pellegrin described it, to mitigate new issues arising. The state has a unique accessibility ecosystem, empowered by the Empathy Lab, which Pellegrin likened to a think tank enabling government to work with people with lived experiences from the disability community and elsewhere. This helps create that foundation in the state — because, she underlined, accessibility is not only about mitigating the risk of litigation. It is about ensuring everyone can access essential government services.
Pennsylvania is ahead of schedule and expectations, according to the state’s Chief Accessibility Officer Kris Adams. The state has prioritized baseline testing for high-impact applications and is on track to finish that testing by March, ahead of both the state’s June deadline and the Department of Justice’s April deadline.
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience was created to support the accessibility and user experience of digital services and products through a lens of human-centered design. Prioritizing these things “raises the bar for everyone across the board,” Adams said. A shared ownership model for this work enables accessible design practices to exist across state government, he said.
“It’s just as important as security,” Adams said. “It needs to be embedded in the software development life cycle.”
The state of Texas has a federated governing model in place, so while the Department of Information Resources (DIR) issues rules, each state agency is responsible for its own compliance timeline, DIR’s Statewide Digital Accessibility Officer Marie Cohan said.
“No one is going to be 100 percent compliant,” Cohan said, noting that her customers — state agencies and universities — are in a good position. Many, she said, are working on PDF remediation and website redesigns.
Texas is working to implement a new statute that would improve web accessibility; it’s currently in the rulemaking process. Officials are also deploying website best practices for accessibility, efficiency and modernization to support agencies.
And Cohan is working on the issue not only with state agencies but with national leaders via a multistate collaborative and the advisory committee to NASCIO’s working group, which provide a shared space through which to discuss best practices and solutions to common challenges.
WHAT COMES AFTER THE DEADLINE
“Accessibility never goes away,” Pellegrin said, likening it to cybersecurity in that it is an ongoing and evolving area of technology in which IT leaders must continually invest. Her team will continue supporting executive branch agencies and working to map out and measure future improvements.
For states not yet compliant with the federal mandate, Pellegrin said they should document everything they’re doing to get there.
“The deadline is going to come and go,” Cohan said, noting that having a plan in place and roles assigned for the work that follows it is essential. It is going to be an iterative cycle, she said, to ensure that investments in this effort deliver long-term value. After the deadline passes, attention may shift, but she said she hopes accessibility remains a “foundational pillar for technology,” alongside security and privacy.
Cohan emphasized that state retention cycles should be followed closely so that documentation that is not required to be on a website can be purged to reduce the number of PDFs — millions, in some cases — that need to be addressed.
When the deadline comes, the door will open to lawsuits, and states will be managing litigation risks.
IT leaders are talking about risk assessment in this context to support agencies that are at the risk of non-compliance, Cohan said, and ensure they have an action plan for next steps for April 25 and beyond: “That’s the unknown, and I think that’s where a lot of action is going to happen.”
In Pennsylvania, the deadline serves as a milestone rather than the finish line, Adams said, explaining that inclusion work is ongoing. The prioritization of digital accessibility is not likely to go away, he explained, offering advice for states that are further behind on the journey: “There’s no better time than to start now.”
Looking ahead, Young-Gibson predicted accessibility is likely to be considered as it intersects with other "hot-button" technology issues, like AI and cybersecurity.
