The role within the Pennsylvania Office of Administration was brought under the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience in 2024, an agency that was established in 2023 to improve the efficiency and user experience of the state’s online services.
“It just makes sense, because the best thing to do is build it into your processes,” said Strom of bringing accessibility under the team leading the charge for user experience.
Under Strom’s leadership, Pennsylvania was able to implement a robust digital accessibility training program for state employees and make a testing toolkit available to all the agencies under the governor’s purview to enable the assessment of digital products. The state’s approach to improving the experience of its digital products involves incorporating accessibility into the development cycle from the beginning.
“I’m just very proud of the work in helping one Pennsylvanian at a time be able to access the digital information and services they need,” Strom said.
Having a high-level accessibility lead enables buy-in from senior officials to drive the message of the importance of accessibility in an organization, Strom said. She advises other states to start their accessibility journeys by building awareness of the work’s importance. This includes providing data about the number of people impacted as well as information on compliance-related lawsuit risks and the potential impact of audits on funding streams.
Strom touted the state’s digital accessibility policy as one of her proudest achievements, which mirrors requirements outlined in the Department of Justice’s 2024 issuance of a final rule on digital accessibility.
Having left her role in early 2025, Strom hopes to return to digital accessibility work in the future. Pennsylvania’s efforts will continue under her successor, Kristopher Adams, working toward ensuring all digital content meets accessibility requirements by 2026.
This story originally appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of Government Technology magazine. Click here to view the full digital edition online.
