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Executive Summary

Building on insights from the FY23 assessment, the FY24 Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment (referred to as the “Assessment”) provides a deeper understanding of digital accessibility across the federal government. It evaluates the current state of Section 508 compliance and digital accessibility efforts, while also examining changes since the last reporting period. By introducing year-over-year (YOY) comparisons, this Assessment offers a more comprehensive view, enhancing transparency and accountability in federal digital accessibility efforts.

Highlighted Findings

On average, governmentwide maturity remained moderate but slightly improved to 2.37 on a 5-point maturity index, up from 2.17 in FY23. However, conformance did not improve, dropping YOY from 1.79 to 1.74 on the conformance index, remaining low. More than 60% of respondents reported no change in conformance across their most-viewed ICT content. Insufficient staffing and resources remain barriers reported by respondents, limiting the ability to test, remediate, and enforce accessibility effectively. Other highlighted findings include:

  • Persistent Conformance Gaps: About one-third or less of the reporting entities' top-viewed ICT is fully conformant:

    • 23% of public internet pages
    • 20% of intranet pages
    • 25% of public documents
    • 34% of videos
  • Frequently Used ICT Remains Inaccessible: Less than half of the reporting entities reported full conformance of ICT products commonly used by federal employees and the public, such as survey authoring tools and surveys, learning management systems, performance portals, video players, and chat or messaging systems. The ICT product with the highest percentage of full conformance to applicable standards was the entity's publicly posted Section 508 policy at 42.4%. The product with the lowest percentage of full conformance to applicable standards was the employee performance portal with only 6.9% of entities reporting full conformance.
  • Limited Testing Capacity: Approximately half of the reporting entities lacked resources to test their top-viewed ICT content. Additionally, 70% of respondents perform Section 508 conformance testing on their public internet web pages while only 41% of respondents perform Section 508 conformance testing on internal intranet websites as part of standard practice year round.
  • Maturity Improvements: 27% of entities reported High maturity in FY24, up from 14% in FY23 - 6% reported Very High maturity in FY24, up from 4% in FY23.
  • Incremental Progress in Section 508 Program Staffing: The percentage of reporting entities with a full-time Section 508 PM increased to 33%, up from 28% last year, and the average weekly hours dedicated to Section 508 activities rose to 17.9 - reflecting a 16.2% YOY increase. While 21% more entities now have a Section 508 PM than in FY23, 11% still have no Section 508 PM. Despite these gains, many programs continue to report lacking sufficient staffing to fully meet digital accessibility requirements.
  • Increased Investments in Training: Training was the lowest dimension last year and remains the second lowest this year. However, entities noted substantial investments in training, resulting in a 31% improvement in average training maturity outcomes across government.
  • Prioritization of Digital Accessibility Needs Improvement: Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership is the lowest dimension in FY24 and was the second lowest in FY23. Entities are making improvements including Section 508 compliance in leadership and management performance plans and integrating skills and competencies into relevant roles and responsibilities, which resulted in an improvement of about 18% in this dimension across the government. While improvements were reported, digital accessibility remains largely deprioritized across government.
  • Progress in Technology Lifecycle Activities and Section 508 Testing: Overall, Section 508 testing and Section 508 integration into the technology lifecycle improved over the past year. The majority of reporting entities reported using a combination of automated and manual tools to test comprehensively. Entities are increasingly conducting testing on web content and integrating Section 508 reviews into electronic content prior to publication. However, inadequate or absent consideration of Section 508 at the early stages of the ICT lifecycle remains a significant challenge with 41% of respondents reporting that they sometimes or never integrate Section 508 conformance into technology lifecycle activities, or are unsure how often it occurs.
  • Procurement Issues Persist: Though slightly improved from FY24, almost half of all respondents (46.6%) still accept contract deliverables without confirming they meet digital accessibility requirements.

The positive correlation between maturity and conformance identified in FY23 remains evident in FY24: more mature programs tend to report higher conformance. However, systemic challenges persist in staffing, testing, and procurement. As agencies continue to develop their programs, training, leadership engagement, and vendor accountability will be essential to achieving sustainable improvements in digital accessibility.

Highlighted Recommendations

The recommendations resulting from the FY24 Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment build on those from the previous year. This year’s recommendations place greater emphasis on improving conformance itself and prioritizing testing, validation, and accountability at every stage of the ICT lifecycle. Furthermore, by strengthening leadership engagement and enhancing procurement practices, agencies can make measurable progress in digital accessibility compliance. Selected recommendations include:

  • Congress should consider updating Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d) and 29 U.S.C. § 794d-1 - Electronic and Information Technology to include:

    • Definition of Agencies Subject to Section 508 to clearly define who should follow Section 508 standards and respond to this Assessment.

    • Updated Language, Terminology, and Scope to harmonize and strengthen the language for applicability to the current and future digital landscape.

  • Strengthen Enforcement of Section 508 Compliance: Congress should explore options to strengthen enforcement of Section 508 compliance across the federal government. As shown throughout this report, overall Section 508 compliance is low. Enforcement through internal audits, accountability mechanisms, among others, would lead to overall improved Section 508 compliance.

  • Require Section 508 as a Major Factor in Acquisition: As many respondents still do not consistently include Section 508 requirements in solicitations, Chief Acquisition Officers, CIOs, and Heads of Agencies should:

    • Develop and implement policies that integrate ICT accessibility into all ICT acquisition activities.

    • Include Section 508 conformance as a major or technical factor during the award or decision-making process, as appropriate.

    • Reject contract deliverables unless they meet Section 508 requirements, as required by the contract.

  • Ensure Sufficient Section 508 Program Resourcing: Better resourced reporting entities tend to have better conformance outcomes and reporting entities noted that a lack of budget or funding was a major challenge. Since additional funding to aid Section 508 implementation is a key factor for helping implement digital accessibility, agency Chief Information Officers (CIO) or equivalents should consider appropriately resourcing their Section 508 programs and ensure Section 508 program resourcing is explicitly included in budget requests. 

  • Incorporate Section 508 Throughout the Technology Lifecycle: Given that 63% of respondents do not assess risk of Section 508 nonconformant ICT throughout the technology development lifecycle, agencies should incorporate digital accessibility considerations into relevant internal control processes to better ensure accessibility throughout the technology lifecycle.

  • Increase Conformance Validation Testing and Remediation: The average conformance continues to be under 2.0 on a 5-point conformance Index scale and 50% or more respondents said they did not have resources to test their ICT. Therefore, agencies should increase automated and manual Section 508 conformance testing, validation, and defect remediation before deployment. Increased validation will likely create substantial positive downstream impacts as more conformant products and services are deployed.

  • Require Annual Section 508 Training by Roles and Responsibilities: Although a significant improvement from last year, only about 34% of entities reported require any Section 508 training for employees. Additionally 37% of respondents have no Section 508 training plan defined. Agencies should require annual Section 508 training for all employees who create, maintain, or otherwise contribute to the agencies’ digital content.

Reviewed/Updated: December 2024

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