Overall Performance Category Findings and Recommendations: High Maturity Categories

High Maturity - Very Low Conformance

Number of Entities in Category: 10
Average Maturity Score: 3.43
Average Conformance Score: 0.79
Two Lowest Average Dimensions: Testing and Validation (2.96), Policies, Procedures, and Practices (3.21)
Two Highest Average Maturity Scores: Content Creation (4.00), IT Accessibility Program Office (3.83)

Highlighted Outcomes:

8 entities (80%) reported that Section 508 is almost always included in the ICT governance processes such as milestone reviews, publication or deployment decisions, and change control reviews.
8 entities (80%) reported the entity’s Section 508 or ICT accessibility policy is only in draft. Only two entities (20%) had a published Section 508 or ICT accessibility policy.
9 entities (90%) said they did not have resources to test their top 10 publicly available internet pages.
9 entities (90%) said they did not have resources to test their top 10 internal intranet pages as well as their top 10 viewed publicly available documents.
Entities in this category performed slightly below trend in the Acquisition and Procurement Dimension and above trend in the Content Creation and Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership Dimensions.

Summary

Given relatively high maturity outcomes and a preponderance of responses stating they do not have resources to test for conformance, those in the High-Very Low overall performance category should consider dedicating significant resources to developing testing processes and capabilities and focusing on testing and remediation to improve conformance outcomes.

High Maturity - Low Conformance

Number of entities in Category: 24
Average Maturity Score: 3.50
Average Conformance Score: 1.55
Two Lowest Average Dimensions: Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership (3.10), Communications (3.20)
Two Highest Average Maturity Scores: IT Accessibility Program Office (4.01), IT Acquisition and Procurement (3.82)

Highlighted Outcomes:

20 entities (87%) reported that Section 508 is almost always included in the ICT governance processes such as milestone reviews, publication or deployment decisions, and change control reviews.
13 entities (54%) reported they only sometimes perform comprehensive manual Section 508 conformance validation testing on reporting entity web content – internet and intranet – prior to deployment but generally on an ad hoc basis.
16 entities (67%) reported they never (2 entities) or only sometimes but generally on an ad hoc basis (14 entities) conduct web content user testing with people with disabilities prior to deployment to address all applicable Section 508 standards.
22 entities (92%) reported they either did not have resources to test their top 10 publicly available internet pages (16 entities, 67%) or that they did test and no pages were fully conformant (6 entities, 25%). The last two entities (8%) each reported only 10% conformance for the pages they tested.
22 entities (92%) reported they either did not have resources to test their top 10 publicly available internet pages (17 entities, 71%) or that they did test and no pages were fully conformant (5 entities, 21%). The last two entities (8%) each reported 100% conformance for the pages tested.
Entities in this category performed slightly below trend in the Communications Dimension and above trend in the IT Accessibility Program Office, Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership, Technology Lifecycle Activities, and Training Dimensions.

Summary

Similar to the High-Very Low Category and given relatively high maturity outcomes and a preponderance of responses stating that the entity does not have resources to test for ICT conformance, those in the High-Low overall performance category should consider dedicating significant resources to developing testing processes and capabilities and focusing on testing and remediation to improve conformance outcomes.

High Maturity - Moderate Conformance

Number of entities in Category: 14
Average Maturity Score: 3.42
Average Conformance Score: 2.54
Two Lowest Average Dimensions: Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership (2.59), Training (2.66)
Two Highest Average Maturity Scores: Content Creation (4.06), Acquisition and Procurement (3.71)

Highlighted Outcomes:

All entities reported that Section 508 reviews are almost always (9 entities, 64%) or frequently (5 entities, 36%) integrated into the reporting entity’s electronic content prior to publication.
12 entities (86%) reported they almost always implement and produce reliable test results using standard processes for validating web content conformance to Section 508 standards.
10 entities (71%) said some of the development or testing professionals responsible for reporting entity web content are trained in Section 508 conformance validation testing, but the training is ad hoc.
6 entities (43%) reported they either did not have resources to test their top 10 publicly available internet pages (5 entities, 36%) or they did test and no pages were fully conformant (1 entity, 7%). The other entities in this category tested and reported at least one fully conformant page in their top 10 web pages (8 entities, 57%) with 6 entities (43%) having 50% of pages or more being fully conformant.
All entities either do not use a video player (3 entities, 21%) or reported the conformance of the enterprise-wide video player to standards was 50% or greater (11 entities, 79%), with 6 (43%) reporting that it conforms to 100% of requirements.
Entities in this category performed below trend in the Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership and Training Dimensions and slightly above trend in the Communications Dimension.

Summary

Those in the High-Moderate overall performance category should consider a balanced approach to improving maturity and conformance-related activities, including the expansion of testing capability and resourcing and improving training maturity.

High Maturity - High Conformance

Number of entities in Category: 11
Average Maturity Score: 3.34
Average Conformance Score: 3.41
Two Lowest Average Dimensions: Technology Lifecycle Activities (2.76) Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership (2.93)
Two Highest Average Maturity Scores: IT Accessibility Program Office (3.75), Communications, Testing and Validation (3.58)

Highlighted Outcomes:

10 entities (91%) reported their Section 508 program or equivalent either frequently (1 entity, 9%) or almost always (9 entities, 81%) provides support in response to ICT accessibility-related questions and support requests. The final entity said they sometimes provide support but generally on an ad hoc basis.
6 entities (55%) said any risk assessment is ad hoc and only sometimes used when identifying and prioritizing risk of Section 508 nonconformant ICT using a risk framework throughout the technology development lifecycle.
7 entities (64%) reported they never (3 entities, 27%) or only sometimes but generally on an ad hoc basis (4 entities, 36%) conduct web content user testing with people with disabilities prior to deployment to address all applicable Section 508 standards.
9 entities (82%) reported 60% or more of their top 10 publicly available internet pages fully conformed to Section 508 standards.
8 entities (73%) reported 60% or more of their top 10 documents fully conformed to Section 508 standards.
Entities in this category performed below trend in the Content Creation, Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership, and Technology Lifecycle Activities Dimensions and slightly above trend in the Policies Procedures, and Practices Dimension

Summary

Those in the High-High overall performance category should consider a balanced approach to improving maturity, particularly around prioritizing risk in the technology development lifecycle.

High Maturity - Very High Conformance

Number of Entities in Category: 6
Average Maturity Score: 3.39
Average Conformance Score: 4.36
Two Lowest Average Dimensions: Training (2.19), Human Capital, Culture, and Leadership (2.86)
Two Highest Average Maturity Scores: Content Creation (4.38) Testing and Validation (3.89)

Highlighted Outcomes:

5 entities (83%) reported that their Section 508 program or equivalent almost always provides support in response to ICT accessibility-related questions and support requests. The final entity said they sometimes provide support but generally on an ad hoc basis.
3 entities (50%) reported their Section 508 program either never (2 entities, 33%) or only sometimes but generally in an ad hoc manner provides Section 508 conformant information and associated resources to employees in response to an emergency, such as continuity of operations, active shooter, pandemic related, etc.
All entities reported 70% or more conformance (5 entities, 87%) of their top 10 internal intranet web pages were fully conformant, or do not have any intranet web pages (1 entity, 17%).³⁶
3 entities (50%) reported their Learning Management System conformed to 90% to 99% of Section 508 requirements. Two (33%) said their LMS conformed to 50% to 90% of requirements. The final entity reported they did not have an LMS.
Entities in this category performed below trend in the IT Accessibility Program Office, Communications and Training Dimensions and close to trend for all other Dimensions.

Summary

Those in the High-Very High overall performance category should consider a continuing process improvement that includes incremental improvements in the testing efforts and resourcing, while investing more in accessibility communication and Section 508 program efforts.

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Footnotes

One at 70% conformance, one at 90% conformance, three at 100% conformance. ↩

Reviewed/Updated: December 2024