IAAF 2023: A Fireside Chat with Accessibility Leaders

Narrator

Annual Interagency Accessibility Forum. Day 3, A Fireside Chat with Accessibility Leaders.

Alison Levy

So, thank you all for being here. Welcome to the fireside chat with accessibility leaders. My name is Alison Levy. As you heard a little earlier, I'm the Director of the Office of Technical and Information Services at the US Access Board. I work with Sachin, and I also want to give a shout-out to my team. I work with a team of ten people who are dedicated staff members working with accessibility in both the built and digital environments. So, thank you to all the staff who have really contributed to accessibility in both environments and for those of you who are here representing the Information and Communication Technology team.

Today, I'm thrilled and absolutely honored to facilitate a fireside chat with four distinct leaders who I think, for the first time, are sharing a stage together. These folks represent the four cornerstones of digital accessibility in both the federal and public spaces. Please join me in giving them a round of applause before I give their introductions.

The goal of this conversation is simple. The planning committee wanted to bring together the four senior-most leaders in federal service and at the White House who are supporting this effort. We wanted to bring to you some updates on things that are happening, maybe a little bit of history on the roles and responsibilities of each of these agencies, and maybe take a few minutes to talk about future activities as well.

First, I'd like to introduce Judy Brewer. She is the Assistant Director for Accessibility at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, otherwise known as OSTP. She works there on science and technology policies that impact people with disabilities. These include strengthening digital accessibility policies that are essential to disability rights, including through improvements to the ADA and Section 508 implementation, promoting equitable access to accessible technologies, helping build pathways for responsible artificial intelligence, opening the STEM pipeline for people with disabilities, and improving health science equity.

Prior to working at the White House, Judy served for several months as a Digital Accessibility Expert at the Partnership for Public Service, a non-partisan nonprofit focused on building better government. For the previous 25 years, she led the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative, otherwise known as WAI, which develops the internationally recognized Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, and served as a Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

Next, we have Katy Kale. She's the Deputy Administrator of the General Services Administration under the Biden-Harris Administration. In this capacity, she leads a staff of nearly 12,000 GSA employees nationwide, 370 million square feet of property, approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, $5 million in government credit and purchase cards, and 225,000 leased vehicles. Wow. I lead a team of ten. She also serves as GSA Senior Climate Adaptation Official. In addition, she's a federal member of the U.S. Access Board, a role we truly cherish in her partnership with the Access Board when she promotes accessible design, guidelines, and standards.

Prior to serving as Deputy Administrator and Acting Administrator in early 2021, Katy was President and Chief Operating Officer of Elevate. There, she led growth strategy, operational processes, financial planning, and performance management, ensuring all were aligned with the broader purpose of serving the nonprofit sector. As a public servant at heart, Katy was a senior leader in the Obama-Biden Administration, serving as Assistant to the President for Management and Administration, Director of White House Operations, and Chief of Staff at GSA. She has also worked previously in the U.S. Senate.

Next, we have Jennifer Mathis. She's a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. She reviews the work of the Disability Rights Section and the Special Litigation Section's disability work. Whoa. Prior to arriving at the Department of Justice, Jennifer served as Director of Policy and Legal Advocacy at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, a national nonprofit legal advocacy organization that advances the rights of people with mental disabilities.

At the Bazelon Center, Jennifer used litigation as well as legislative and administrative policy advocacy to promote equal opportunity for people with disabilities in all areas of life, including community living, health care, housing, employment, education, parental and family rights, voting, and other areas. She played a key role in coordinating strategy and briefing when the Olmstead case was heard by the Supreme Court and has litigated numerous community integration cases before and after. Her credentials just go on and on. Her accomplishments are just absolutely amazing.

And last, we have Doctor Sachin Pavithran, my boss. You've heard a little bit about him, but he's the Executive Director of the U.S. Access Board. In this role, he oversees the Access Board's strategic planning, research, and leadership. He also oversees the development of rules and voluntary guidelines in the areas of transportation, information and communication technology, the built environment, and outdoor recreation.

With over 20 years of direct involvement in development, testing, and training for assistive technology, Sachin has given lectures and training on accessible information technology for individuals and groups, as well as assisted in the evaluation of products related to web accessibility and design. He also has extensive experience in higher education and providing access to instructional materials to facilitate transitioning from K-12 to post-secondary education and the workforce. As you heard earlier, he's a lifelong advocate for the rights of people with disabilities and has presented worldwide, including in the United Arab Emirates, India, Egypt, Syria, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and Mexico.

Again, please join me in welcoming the panelists.

So, let's kick things off. I'm going to ask a series of questions one by one and invite each panel member to respond. The first question is: We've seen a broad cross-section of federal staff in the audience today and throughout this week. Can you please provide some background by briefly describing your agency or office's roles and responsibilities in relation to accessible ICT? So, just laying the foundation for people, please. Sachin, would you like to start?

Dr. Sachin Pavithran

Sure. Thank you. Allison, is this coming for you? Okay, so with the US Access Board, just to give a quick background, we are a small but mighty agency. Our goal is accessible design, setting guidelines and regulations in a setting sense and guidelines for accessible design. So, we focus on the built environment as well as the digital environment.

In the digital environment, we've set the standards for Section 508 and have been involved in several other conversations when it comes to digital spaces. But I also want to touch on the built environment and transportation areas that we are focusing on, just to give an idea.

One of the big rules that we finalized over the summer is called the Public Right of Way Accessibility Guidelines. That is a regulation that ensures accessibility of your environment around you—your sidewalks, crosswalks, bus stops, everything you would experience when you are outside in your environment. So, that regulation, which has been long due, was finalized over the summer.

We're working on other regulations as well, such as accessibility of rail cars, medical diagnostic equipment, and accessibility of electric vehicle charging stations. So, those are just, in a nutshell, different areas that we are focusing on in the digital space.

One of the rules that we are working on right now is on self-service transaction machines—accessibility of all the self-service transaction machines or kiosks that you would experience when you are out and about in different environments. You know, kiosks have taken different forms since COVID, and accessibility has equally become a bigger challenge because of how systems are being deployed right now.

At the agency, our role is to produce the standards and guidelines. We do not enforce the standards and guidelines that we produce. We are the technical experts, and then other agencies, who have the authority to enforce those standards and guidelines, adopt our standards and guidelines and then become the enforcers. We do provide technical assistance and training for the standards and guidelines that we produce.

We also partner with the GSA to provide webinars, training, and technical assistance for the various standards and guidelines, especially Section 508, where we have a very close working relationship with the GSA. We appreciate the collaboration we have. So, that's accessibility in a nutshell—a lot to do when it comes to the accessibility space, but we appreciate the collaboration we continue to have with various federal governments and other partners we have.

Alison Levy

Thank you. Katy, would you like to continue with your answer, please?

Katy Kale

Sure. So, hello, everyone. My name is Katy Kale. As mentioned, I'm the Deputy Administrator of GSA. I use she/her pronouns.

As a visual description, I am a white woman with long, light brownish hair. I'm wearing a black shirt and skirt today, and I have my dark-rim glasses, which I will put on to make sure that I am capturing all of the notes that I want to impart as we're speaking today.

For those of you who might not know GSA, which I don't hold against you—a lot of people don't know what we do—but we're basically the backbone or the back office of the federal government. Our job is to deliver the best in buildings, in acquisition, and technology. All three of those parts have a major role when it comes to accessibility.

I know we're talking about technology today, and we do that. In my role as Deputy Administrator, if you think about it, I'm the equivalent to a Deputy Secretary, or if I was running a 13,000-person corporation, I would be the COO, the Chief Operating Officer. So, my job is to make sure that we're driving technology and accessibility within our agency. We do that through our GSA IT team, but we also need—I also, and we as an agency also need—to make sure that we're driving that throughout the federal government.

We can do that through our Office of Government-wide Policy, as well as our Technology Transformation Services. So, kind of the rule-making and driving our acquisition policies through OGP, and then the actual shared services and the products that we're making related to technology and building in 508 compliance through our TTS team.

In addition, GSA plays a major role when it comes to an all-of-government effort around DEIA—Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. We had some panelists yesterday, and we have another panel later today. You'll be able to learn more about all of that, and I'll be speaking about it as well.

As has been mentioned, GSA has had a longstanding relationship with the U.S. Access Board. Right now, I'm not only a member, I'm also the Vice Chair. In that capacity, I'm kind of the senior-most federal agency representative, and it is really because of that connectivity between GSA and that partnership with the U.S. Access Board for decades at this point.

So, happy to be here. Thank you for having me, and I hope you'll all learn more about GSA and our efforts.

Alison Levy

Thank you Katy.

Jennifer, would you like to share a little more about DOJ and ICT?

Jennifer Mathis

Sure. So, I would say DOJ has a number of roles here. I think we are typically in the news these days for other reasons unrelated to accessibility. But my role really focuses on enforcement of disability rights.

DOJ, for the most part, does not have some of the leading roles in 508 that, say, the Access Board and GSA have. We don't have an enforcement role. A lot of times, people think that DOJ has an enforcement role with respect to 508. But what we do have is a responsibility to report every two years to Congress and the President, informing them of the current state of affairs of 508 compliance across the federal government. And that is, I think, a significant indicator of where we are across the federal government.

That had not been done actually for ten years, for reasons I am not even entirely aware of before I was there. And we finally issued a 508 report this year, in conjunction with our partners at GSA, to whom I am eternally grateful. We are almost at the finish line on an MOU that will enable us to work together on those 508 reports to Congress and the President in the future, to ensure that they can get done.

What we do, or what I do in the Civil Rights Division, really focuses primarily on enforcement of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehab Act. We enforce with respect to the obligations of state and local governments as well as public accommodations. Much of that has to do with the same issues as Section 508, for example, web accessibility.

We do enforcement work. We also have rule-making authority. So, Sachin mentioned the Access Board adopting standards but not being the enforcer of those standards; then DOJ will adopt regulations, promulgate regulations that adopt the standards the Access Board issues, and sometimes we'll just adopt them as a rule and enforce or adopt them with some other scoping requirements or other things around them.

So, we have a role there as a rule maker. We have a role also, frankly, in representing federal agencies if they get sued for violating federal laws, including disability rights laws, including 504, 501, and 508. And so, I think it is very important to the Justice Department, for many reasons, that we have good accessibility for people with disabilities, including that it's the right thing to do and including that we are enforcing these rights ourselves.

It's important that we have our own house in order, and it's important because we don't want to be going in to represent folks in a defensive posture when we shouldn't be doing that. It's not necessary. So, for all of those reasons, this is critical to DOJ. Great.

Alison levy

Thank you so much.

Judy, let's hear from you and your perspective at the White House.

Judy Brewer

Thank you.

And it's a pleasure to be here in person today and honored to be here with my colleagues.

And I have a logistical question. Am I blocking the captions behind me?

Alison Levy

You're not blocking the captions.

I'm hard of hearing, and I can't understand what people are saying without captions, so I asked them to project it on the front monitor so I can understand.

So, thank you.

You can.

Judy Brewer

But, is anyone in the audience having an issue? Is the audience ok?

Alison Levy

You've got another? Okay.

Judy Brewer

Okay. Great.

Okay. Good.

Thanks.

Alison Levy

Just checking because we are all about accessibility, right? Yeah.

Judy Brewer

So, President Biden reminded us at a celebration of both the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act anniversaries how important it is to make web and mobile apps accessible to Americans with disabilities.

So, I would like to give some context on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, OSTP. Our role within the administration involves advising the President and White House senior staff on key issues relating to science and technology and coordinating federal government technology policy and priorities.

OSTP works across many science and technology areas. That includes climate and environment, industrial innovation, health outcomes, national security, science and society, and technology. I'm on the tech team.

Some of OSTP's work involves leading federal and national initiatives, such as increasing reliance on equitable data to align federal programs and policies, and leading the Cancer Moonshot. Also, years ago, OSTP recognized the need to ensure that the World Wide Web could be accessible to people with disabilities and helped gather international and industry support to launch what became the Web Accessibility Initiative, which developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

And I believe this audience knows well that WCAG is the basis for the Section 508 standard. OSTP also provides advice and policy council coordination on science and technology policies that come from federal agencies to ensure consistency with the administration's priorities. And these have implications many times for accessibility and for disability inclusion. For instance, policies on medical equipment, transportation, or infrastructure.

It's interesting to work in this setting with the disability, this administration is strongly committed to diversity. Not only are there great allies throughout the staff, but President Biden is committed to ensuring that this administration looks like America, and that means appointing people with disabilities to positions all across government. It means hiring more people with deep knowledge of disability policy and practical experience regarding the impact of accessibility barriers on work and personal life.

This includes people who understand the key role that digital accessibility plays in fulfilling disability rights in the modern world. Millions of us with disabilities rely on a whole lot of technology. I forgot to give my description. I'm a white woman with brown-gray short hair, sitting in a scooter.

And so millions of us with disabilities rely on a lot of tech to get through our day. Sometimes being able to explain the relevance and the importance of a policy in practical terms can make a big difference in a policy setting.

So, Alison, back to you, please.

Alison Levy

So much.

You all are doing amazing things in each of your agenciesand your, in your ICT space.

But, I think we all know there has beenan awful lot going on in this last year with the SenateCommittee on Aging issuing a report, a number of hearings.

We've had, an executive order, and we've had all kindsof things happening that are really amping upthe accessibility of information and communication technology.

So I wanted to give you each an opportunity to,perhaps highlight any accomplishmentsthat each of your agencies or entity, as in the White HouseOSTP, would like to share with the groupto kind of bring people up to speed.

Katy, would you like to kick things off?

Katy Kale

Sure.

So, at GSA, our mission, especially around technology, is to meet people where they are. We need to be able to deliver for them when they need, what they need. And we do that in a lot of different ways.

At GSA, we run a lot of websites. Some of them you may have heard of: we have vote.gov, we have USA.gov, and USA in Espanol. And we need to make sure that these are, in addition to being 508 compliant, we want to make sure that they are available for assistive technologies as well.

At its foundation, we need to make sure that government is proactive in really meeting the diverse needs and experiences of the people that we serve.

One of the things that we have been rolling out, even more recently, is login.gov. And this is kind of a one-stop shop, or one entry into all of the government services. So we're proud to say that all of our cabinet agencies are using login on at least one platform, some of them more, and it's growing. And this is a way that people are able to get the services that they need, whether they need to connect with the VA or get their social service or social security contacts and information, or if we're working with larger groups like farmers, small businesses, or students on loans. And so we're excited to expand that. And we're really making sure that we're baking in that DEIA, that accessibility 508 compliance as we're going.

Another thing that we're doing, and have been doing for a while, but I always love to lift it up, is the US Web Design System. And this was originally something that we used on ourselves at GSA. We rolled it out and shared it. It's kind of a toolkit. We shared it with our sister agencies, but it's now something that anybody can use. Anybody who has a website can use it. And it makes sure that you're building human-centered, inclusive, mobile-friendly websites that have great CX, customer experience, and comply with accessibility standards.

So this is, everything we're doing, we're trying to make it easier not only for people who need accessibility but for people who are designing systems that they want and sometimes need to be accessible. So, I'm really proud of the work that we're doing in this space.

Alison Levy

Terrific. Thank you so much.

I'd like to push things back over to Judy.

If you'd like to share some updates from your role.

Judy Brewer

Thanks, Allison.

One of the areas is there's been a lot of renewed interest in ensuring that the federal government is fully compliant with Section 508. And I think that makes sense.

During the pandemic, everyone in the country became much more reliant on digital technologies. And, well, when Federal ICT isn't, when Federal Information Communications Technologies is not fully accessible, it shuts people out of the federal workforce. It makes it harder for the public to have equitable access to government services. That's why we're working to make it better.

When Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, they included Section 752, which requires three federal agencies—the Office of Management and Budget, the General Services Administration, and the U.S. Access Board—to work together to develop criteria for and conduct a government-wide assessment of Section 508 conformance.

And I've had the pleasure of working with this great team since early this year. OSTP wanted to get as much actionable data as possible to help us figure out what's needed to get these compliance scores up substantially by next year. The assessment criteria are publicly available. The survey was completed in August. The final report will be publicly available, and I expect the assessment criteria as well as survey results may be of interest outside government as well.

There's also some great implementation guidance on the 21st Century Ideas Act that came out of the White House Office of Management and Budget recently. And that includes guidance on a whole host of design and development considerations for federal information technology. So, customer experience, privacy, security, etc. But guess what it leads with? Accessibility. It's encouraging to see accessibility front and center among these other considerations.

Alison Levy

I know we're seeing this level of involvement from a White House point of contact in this topic.

So, I really appreciate all the hard work and time and effort you've put into this.

Sachin,would you like to share any, updates aboutAccess Board's work during this last year?

Dr. Sachin Pavithran

As Judy mentioned, with the work that we've been partnering with OMB, GSA, and OSTP, the important information that's coming out on where we stand as far as the status of accessibility across the federal government when it comes to digital access work.

That's something the Access Board, we take it seriously, and we've been glad to be collaborating with these key players.

But we also have been working on different regulations. Like I mentioned earlier, when I first talked about the Access Board. I just wanted to touch on a couple of other areas that we've been looking into as well.

We haven't done any rulemaking or any act of pursuing of any guidelines. But an area we are focusing on is what does the future of transportation look like. Accessibility of transportation. There's a lot of conversation around autonomous vehicles. That is a strong focus for us to get into that space before it's too late, where accessibility often tends to be an afterthought. Autonomous vehicles is going to be a reality, whether we like it or not. I know EV has a bad rap right now in the media with some things going on, but that's where the industry is moving. We want to make sure accessibility is part of that conversation.

So we are at the table when industry is going to make this a reality. There's a lot of conversation around artificial intelligence. That's a topic at the expo. We’re not sure exactly what role we can play, but it is an important topic for everyone, and it is a conversation we're starting to have. What can we do to have an impact when it comes to artificial intelligence? And there's recently been an executive order that came out as well, where the U.S. Access Board has been tasked to play a role in that executive order.

The other areas are what the future, you know, it's hard when it comes to accessibility. This ICT space is evolving so fast and we just don't know what's next. You know, who would have thought artificial intelligence would be this hot topic 2 or 3 years ago? It's not that AI is a new topic, but in the last year it's become, it's been in the forefront of everyone's conversation.

So, we are constantly trying to be part of conversations where there's a, the changes are happening so that accessibility is not coming in, in the latter part of the conversation. We want to be at the table when that conversation is happening, both in the public sector, but also in the private sector where industry is trying to be innovative. We don't want to stop innovation, but we want to be part of the innovation.

So, that's what the Access Board has been trying to do, to be part of the conversations that's happening.

Alison Levy

Thank you Sachin.

So Jennifer, we're going to switch gears and talk a little bit more now about your accomplishments in this last year or more in the ADA space, right?

Jennifer Mathis

Indeed, yes.

So, I will, I guess I would bucket them into three areas: rules, guidance, and enforcement.

So, with rules, very excited that we issued a proposed rule under Title 2 of the ADA state and local governments concerning obligations with respect to web and mobile app accessibility. It's a long time coming. This was a rulemaking that started in 2010. And there was an advance notice of proposed rulemaking back then. And, eventually, that rulemaking was withdrawn in 2017, without ever having a proposed rule issued.

So, this past March, we sent a proposed rule to OMB, to the Federal Register, rather, and to OMB actually in March. And then, and then it came out in the summer. And the comment period ended in the beginning of October, October 3rd. And so we are currently drafting a final rule. My hope is that rule will be issued in final by the end of April of this year, of this coming year of 2024.

And in a nutshell, I mean, it's a long rule, but in a nutshell, it sets a standard, a specific technical standard for accessibility for web and mobile apps of WCAG 2.1 AA, with some exceptions, and some kind of structure that the ADA generally includes, undue burden and fundamental alteration defenses, which are sort of run throughout the ADA. And, you know, I think it is enormously important. It is a long time coming, as I said, and particularly after the pandemic, really, put everything online. I think this was urgent in 2010, when, you know, we first embarked on this rulemaking. Now it's just critical and, you know, needs to happen. So, I'm excited about that.

We have several guidance documents that we've issued as well, that touch on accessible technology issues. For example, we recently issued a dear colleague letter or jointly with the Department of Education highlighting some of the responsibilities that institutions of higher education colleges and universities have, not just with respect to their course content for their enrolled students, but also with respect to their publicly available content. So, MOOCs and all kinds of platforms and YouTube channels and all sorts of things that are operated by universities, both the Department of Ed. and the Department of Justice have done a number of enforcement matters in this area.

We highlighted a settlement agreement, a consent decree, actually, that we have with the University of California at Berkeley, where they've had hundreds of YouTube channels and podcasts and other platforms that had inaccessible material for people with vision impairments, people who are deaf and hard of hearing, people with manual dexterity issues. And with Berkeley, it was primarily deaf and hard of hearing folks who brought to our attention. And so, I think that sentiment was pretty significant. That is highlighted in the guidance as well as a number of matters that the Department of Ed. has worked on. They have been very active in this area. That guidance was sent out very broadly to the Department of Education's network and the higher ed world. And so, you know, hope that it reminds folks, including folks who have these digital platforms that are increasingly common in higher ed as well, that, you know, they have accessibility obligations.

We issued joint guidance...

Alison Levy

Can I just interrupt for a second?That's huge.

Yeah.

I mean, really I mean, that's a round of applause.

Huge.

I mean,we do rulemaking, and we have these regulations.

But to me, that's a direct message to people who can make a difference.

So, thank you.

I just want to make sure that gets recognized because it's huge.

Jennifer Mathis

I mean, we try to, when we do enforcement matters, I think try to make sure that they don't get lost, right? And that they get amplified.

And the people in the relevant communities are aware of those.

So, we try to follow up sometimes with that kind of guidance.

We did this with HHS.

We did a joint guidance on nondiscrimination in Telehealth services, particularly after the pandemic.

Again, this seemed timely.

And that guidance touched on both accessibility for people with disabilities, effective communication, as well as meaningful access for people with limited English proficiency.

But there's lots and lots and lots of examples throughout that guidance, which you can find online about all sorts of accessibility, accessible technology issues that have come up with Telehealth.

And, you know, just example after example of what you need to do to make sure, you know, if you're doing, let's say remote mental health counseling or, you know, remote access to a dietitian, or whatever, that documents that platforms, all of the technology that you're using needs to be accessible for people who use screen readers, accessible for people who can't use a mouse, accessible for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

And so, I think it's really great that came out.

It came out around the anniversary of the ADA, last year or so.

It was around July of 2022.

We also did a guidance on AI in the ADA's application to the use of AI and algorithms in hiring.

And we did this sort of collaboratively with the EEOC.

We each did a guidance on this.

Theirs was a little more in the weeds.

Ours was a little more high level.

But again, accessible technology was an important piece of that guidance.

That guidance is broader, gets at lots of different issues about how algorithms are used to screen out people with disabilities, whether people are aware or not, that it may have that impact.

Sometimes people use it thinking it has the opposite impact and don't realize that it creates other screen-out problems.

But, certainly the use of technologies that, you know, require people to see or, you know, are inaccessible to people who, say, use a screen reader, are an important part of that.

And so, that's another one of the guidances that we issued.

And then we did a lot of enforcement in this area.

This is a priority for us.

And so, I'll just highlight a few things.

I mentioned the consent decree with UC Berkeley.

We had settlement agreements with five of the major national grocery and pharmacy chains who had inaccessible vaccine appointment portals.

So, when you went online to make your vaccine appointments, you couldn't do it if you used a screen reader or if you couldn't use a mouse in many of these cases.

So, I think those, I thought were incredibly significant.

They were with CVS, Rite Aid, Kroger, Meijer, and Hy-Vee.

Very proud of those.

I think that created a lot of access for people to important health services.

And then we just, earlier this week, issued letters of finding to four counties in Texas around the inaccessibility of their election websites.

There's important information that is on those websites concerning voter registration information, absentee ballot information, and precinct information, lots of things that, again, is inaccessible to people with a variety of disabilities.

So, we will see what they have to say and hopefully resolve or otherwise will enforce.

And we had a settlement agreement with Champaign-Urbana, Illinois around the accessibility of their public transit website and mobile app.

That now guarantees people with disabilities access to ensure that they can get fair information, find out trip planning, etc.

And so, those are some of the significant enforcement matters that we've handled in this area.

And, we will keep going.

Alison Levy

That's amazing.

Thank you so much.

Awesome.

Before we transition to the next question, I guess, I want to take a second and help people in our audience, both virtual and in-person, to think about some of these highlights that have been shared with you this morning.

Regardless of your role, if you're a 508 program manager, if you work in procurement, if you're a program lead in a different area, wherever you work in the accessibility space, you can take some of the strategies that have been employed at the highest levels and think about how to translate them into action items for yourself, within your own agencies.

And, when I'm thinking about more specifically is, you know, we've got these rules and regulations, we've got 508, and it's kind of overwhelming for the average federal employee to really understand the breadth and depth of it.

But what if you can take one particular topic, think about the strategy that was employed at the Department of Justice and just simply writing a Dear Colleague letter to key leaders in post-secondary education.

What if you did a Dear Colleague letter to people in contract specialist positions and just gave them a few basic pointers on, hey, don't forget, these are some things that you can do when you're reviewing and developing new contracts.

And here are the resources for you to follow up.

And by the way, you know, identify who the leads are in your own agency.

Just take bite-sized portions where you have the ability to write an email or letter and connect with your senior leaders and share that information out.

It might help you make a little more incremental changes, instead of thinking holistically about the big picture and getting overwhelmed easily.

Katy has her hand up.

Would you like to add to that, please? I would.

Katy Kale

I have another example of something that we did at GSA.

First of all, during this administration,we have, I say we, I just supported it.

It was grassroots efforts to create a,persons with disabilities special emphasis program.

And last month they, they put together a panel discussion, or actually, we like to say demo, not memo.

So, a demonstration, for everybody in the agency was invited.

I actually gave kickoff remarks because I think also, you know,it makes a difference when it comes from leadership,an email or something.

And we had, one of our employees who works on508 compliance, who lso happens, to be blind.

And he walked everybody who is part of this, demonstration through, the difference between what he, what he was, was hearing and the difference between a 508 compliant website and a non 508 compliant website.

And a 508 compliance spreadsheet and a non 508 compliance spreadsheet.

And it was, it was fantastic.

And I heard more feedback from that one,event,than almost any other event that we put on, including our giant town halls.

But, and it was open to all of the agency, and just it's little things that can again, move.

And all of a sudden people are realizing, oh, okay,now I see why that is important, which shouldn't be.

It should,you know, doing the right thing and doing the smart thing can be the same thing sometimes.

But, so this is just another example for leaders to be thinking about.

Alison Levy

I think that's a fantastic example because I think sometimes we get caught up in the technical aspects.

If you're an IT specialist and you have all that technical knowledge, sometimes it's hard for you to translate that to the actual people who need to be implementing it.

And so, Katy, thank you for sharing your example because that puts the human side.

People need to understand the end result of their actions so that they understand what happens if they create an accessible email or a document or a website versus what happens if they don't.

The impact on the individual with the disability is huge.

I won't get on my own soapbox because this isn't my panel but, I mean, DEIA.

Think about it.

If you're a person with a disability and you receive a piece of information even about like a social event within your office or your agency, and that flier that's attached to the email is inaccessible, and you open it up and your screen reader can't convey to you what that message is.

What are we doing?

How does that make the person feel who's opening that up?

Do they feel included?

Do they feel welcomed?

Quite the opposite.

So, we need to think about the human side too.

But we need to tell these stories as we talk about 508 so keep it real and how people understand, regardless of their background, if they're a technical person or if they're someone who is more of a people person.

We need to find different strategies to impart this information.

So, thank you for sharing those examples.

So, next I was going to ask folks, and I understand we might have some constraints, but as we look to the future of this space, both with the work with the ADA and what's coming in the pike with hopefully a final rule on Title 2 with web access and Section 508 as we look at new technologies, and all the newer requirements that came to be this year, with the reporting and all of that.

Can each of you speak for a moment about what you see as a future of this space?

And certainly any heads up you can give to people in the audience on what you think they should be focusing on.

Who would like to go first?

Okay, Judy?

Judy Brewer

Happy to. Let me mention 4 or 5 things you might want to watch.

OSTP has been working to make STEM education more inclusive. And that's such a crucial area for people with disabilities. And I'm seeing nods.

Students with disabilities have often been taken out of STEM classes, advised away from STEM careers, not provided appropriate tech-based reasonable accommodations in education and the workforce. Not welcomed into STEM careers where insights and innovative thinking could be contributing to STEM progress. And these barriers are exacerbated when combined with other marginalization, such as around racial, cultural, gender, and other factors.

So OSTP is leading the effort to develop a new federal strategic plan for educating, training, employing, and fostering our nation's STEM talent. And we're committed to increasing STEM accessibility and disability inclusion as part of that new plan that's under development, actually this month and next.

OSTP has also made significant strides in data equity actions over the past year, and we're now turning our attention to disability data equity actions, where there's a lot of work to do. I'm glad to be recently joined at OSTP by Adam Politis, Senior Advisor on Disability and Equity, who will be leading the disability data equity work for OSTP.

Also, for AI, you might have noticed that last week, the White House announced the executive order on artificial intelligence last week. As such, it has already commented. There's a lot there and multiple sections that have bearing in some way on accessibility.

The U.S. Access Board is encouraged to engage. We can't actually task you, you know, to engage with the public. They're an independent agency on risks and benefits of AI to the disability community. There's attention to AI risk and algorithmic bias, worker surveillance and automated decision making, and various other things.

There's a call to surge the AI workforce in the executive order, which I hope people with digital accessibility expertise and disability rights awareness will take heed of.

Please note that OMB has released a draft policy on advancing governance, innovation, and risk management for agency use of Artificial Intelligence, which is open for public comment through December 5th.

Also, OSTP has been very interested in the work of the Department of Justice on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Web and Mobile Accessibility under Title 2 of the ADA, and this rulemaking addresses essential aspects of digital accessibility and state and local public services. And also, per the White House's July guidance memorandum on broadening public participation and community engagement in the regulatory process.

There's more attention to that public comment. Now, I know that DOJ does that anyway, but it was very good to see the robust public engagement during DOJ's public comment period for this NPRM.

And then a quick last mention for current work. I'm also looking at working on a range of digital accessibility issues, including avenues to improve access to tech-based reasonable accommodations and exploring approaches to improve access to accessible tech for people in underserved communities.

Alison Levy

Excellent.

Well, I'm blown away.

Excellent work.

Anyone else?

Katy Kale

I can go next.

So, one of the things with GSA is, well, first of all, I'm learning so much up here and I am blown away by everything that is being said.

And at GSA, we're the agency that it's where the rubber meets the road for the federal government.

So, all of these things that have been discussed that are either, have already been done or are coming down the road, and where we want the federal government to lead by example.

GSA is taking a major role in a lot of that.

And when we're talking about technology, it is our mission to make sure that we are looking at it from a people-centered, a universal design focus.

And we're doing that in our Office of Governmentwide Policy and helping other agencies meet federal compliance standards.

We're working on combating systematic design, or systematic bias in design and really making sure that we're improving accessibility by integrating assistive technologies in many different ways.

I will say this, as we're thinking about all of these things.

If any of these things that have been set up on this stage excite you, and you want, you have a public servant heart like I do, come join GSA, because this is the work that we're doing.

I'll always be recruiting. I'm always recruiting.

But this is really, you know, like I said, it's where the rubber meets the road.

And so check out GSA.gov. Check out USAjobs.gov.

Because we are, we need you to help us accomplish all of these things.

Alison Levy

Thank you. Sachin or Jennifer, did you want to jump in?

Dr. Sachin Pavithran

I'll just jump in real quick.

One of the questions I get asked quite often when it comes to Section 508 is: Is the Access Board going to undertake another rulemaking on Section 508?

And I just want to address that there's a lot of different rumors going on out there.

Currently, we're not undergoing any Section 508 rulemaking.

That doesn't mean we will not, but that is something we have discussed internally.

Now, when that's going to happen, I don't know yet.

And I'm not being secretive about it.

We just have a lot of priorities.

But with that said, we still, with the existing standards of Section 508, you know, just issuing new standards does not automatically fix the federal Section 508 problem.

So, you know, we still have a lot of work to do to make sure agencies comply with what existing standards are there.

But you know, with due time, we will be undertaking rulemaking because technology moves fast and we don’t want to be way behind because the last refresh took a long time to come out, and we don’t want a repeat of that.

I just want to kind of put that out there because of the rumblings going on about the Access Board and 508.

Next steps: We are seriously looking into it.

I just can’t put a time on it yet.

Alison Levy

So stay tuned. Jennifer, did you want to add anything?

Jennifer Mathis

So, you mentioned people being constrained.

I'm, I think, somewhat constrained in talking about what we have going on right now that’s not publicly announced.

I'm constrained in talking about what rulemaking we might do in the future that’s not publicly announced.

I'm constrained in talking about what guidance we might put out in the future.

But I would say that, you know, accessible technology is one of the top priority areas for the Civil Rights Division.

There are so many areas of life that are critical for disability rights.

And we do such a broad range of work just touching every aspect of life that it is, you know, it’s hard to come up with priorities.

But technology is one of the about 4 or 5 buckets that we have that is at the top.

And that means that you will continue to see us doing enforcement, doing guidance, doing work in this area, really touching everything because it is just astonishing how broadly that reaches.

Right?

And then I would just say beyond that, I think that, because I am the person within the Justice Department now who convenes regular meetings all the time with a very, very large segment of the disability community, I think I’m raising some sort of awareness of all of the barriers, including in our buildings and our technology and everything that we do.

That is in some way contributing in a small way to a positive focus on disability rights.

You know, just by virtue of being there and bringing in people with disabilities in a way that hasn’t been happening for a while.

Alison Levy

We're really glad you're looking at all disability groups across broad spaces, because clearly that you're carrying that back to DOJ and making a difference.

So thank you. Appreciate that.

So next I was going to see if anybody has, would like to share some final remarks encouraging our audience and thoughts that you want them to leave with.

Judy's raising her eyebrows and made the jump.

So, I do want to note we have a little less than six minutes.

So we're going to run through our panel.

Judy Brewer

I often reflect on the length of time since Section 508 was first added to the Rehabilitation Act.

I don't know if, you know, it was back in 1986 initially.

So, that's almost 40 years ago.

Wouldn't it be great if we could reach full 508 compliance across federal government by the 40th anniversary?

Lots of work to do.

I would love your help on it.

And I know that everybody here who works in the 508 area is doing really important work, and I know that it's hard and I'm really grateful for everything that you're doing.

Keep going.

So it's good.

The other thing I wanted to just say is we're working to build a clearer understanding of the importance of digital accessibility.

This is riffing a bit off of what Jennifer was just talking about with the role of tech these days, across federal government.

And we could use your help and convey the essential role that digital accessibility plays in ensuring disability rights in the modern world.

Why universal design default accessibility benefits everyone.

Why universal design is often the most economical approach to 508 and ADA compliance.

Why it's a great foundation for customer experience and innovation and an essential, practical precursor to disability inclusion.

You need the tech to work to be able to be at the table so let's get it done and thanks again for the chance to be here today.

Alison Levy

So thank you, Judy.

Katy Kale

I'm happy to go next.

I speak on a lot of panels.

On a lot of different issues related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

And often if it's with somebody outside of government, it's DEI.

It's diversity, equity, and inclusion.

I am so proud of this administration.

When they rolled out the executive order that accessibility was added.

It is vital to the work that we do as a federal government.

And so speaking first to kind of the leaders of the agencies with this interagency convening, is you need to make sure that you're putting the people, number one, that you have somebody who is focused on this work.

And you have a direct line to those folks.

Our senior advisor who works on this, who Andrea O'Neil, is sitting right over there, speaking at a panel later.

You need to go and see it.

She's a rockstar.

But she reports directly to the administrator, myself.

We have given her the direct charge, the, you know, funding, where we can within the federal government.

And access to all other leaders within our organization.

And that is vital to make sure that this work continues.

We also are baking it in and building it up throughout our organization.

We have, this is performance review time.

We have performance criteria that are in our SES performance plans.

And that trickles down throughout the agency.

So that's what I'm kind of charging for my fellow leaders.

And I talk about this with them directly as well.

For everybody else, and especially our technologists who work on this issue.

It is important to put people at the center of the work that we're doing.

It is great to have technologies that work for some, but you need technologies that work for all.

And especially when we're thinking about the federal government, where our job is not to build a tool that helps a portion of the country, it needs to be able to help all of the country and make sure that they have full access to the government that they deserve to have full access to.

So, that is my final message and my charge to everybody who is watching and listening today.

Alison Levy

Thank you so much.

Very important.

Dr. Sachin Pavithran

I want to recognize the hard work of all the 508 program managers because the work that 508 program managers are doing is what keeps this conversation going.

Sometimes I’m sure it feels like no one’s listening to you.

But it’s just, you know, when I came into the federal government, I came from academia, one bureaucracy to another bureaucracy.

And it’s, the work that you’re doing as a 508 program manager is very important.

But I also mentioned earlier, they can’t do it alone.

508 program managers need allies.

So, I really would like to put the charge on people who have authority and leadership to become those allies because when 508 program managers are siloed in one corner of the agency, it just does not work.

So it is important for leadership to step in and re-elevate that role because 508 compliance will never happen if it’s siloed in one corner of the agency.

And the rest of the agency does not even know such a position exists.

So really do prioritize and elevate that role.

So that accessibility comes from the topmost level of the agency.

Alison Levy

Thank you, Sachin.

Did you want to share any final thoughts too?

Judy Brewer

I will just say, kind of building on Sachin's comment before, the federal government is supposed to be a model, right, for society and for the rest of us.

And that is literally true, actually, for Section 501 of the Rehab Act.

The federal government has this obligation to be a model employer.

And, you know, we are supposed to be doing nondiscrimination plus.

You know, and I think that is really true with respect to disability rights more broadly is, you know, we are, and I feel this injustice because of the work that we do, enforcing disability rights for the rest of the world.

And, you know, we are telling people that they need to make their technology accessible, that they need to ensure that people with disabilities have access to all their programs, services, activities, goods, services, and facilities, etc.

And it is critical for us to be doing it ourselves.

Right? And we have to be the model.

We have to be the vanguard.

And it really is, I think, a critical role that everybody who deals with 508 plays because it is, I feel like, a responsibility not just for the federal government, but really, you know, to show everybody else who has obligations to ensure that people with disabilities have access and are included, how it needs to be done.

Alison Levy

So to sum it up, accessibility is everybody's business, right?

Katy Kale

Absolutely.

Alison Levy

And with that, I want to thank everyone for being here this morning, in particular our amazing panel.

Thank you for all the work you do every day for the technical support.

Thank you for pivoting to give me captioning upfront.

I failed to ask earlier.

So, thank you all very much.

And with that, let's have a round of applause.

Andrew Nielson

And this is Andrew Nielson back in front of you as well.

I will also offer my own thanks.

Before we let you go, just a couple more logistical notes.

But I also, I just have such warm feelings for this entire panel.

I think a few of the panelists might feel like they see or hear a little too much from me, but I just thank you so much for being here, for giving us your time.

Thank you for sharing some key accomplishments and for sharing your vision that will help drive this work going forward.

Again, please, another round of applause for the panel. [Applause]

So, just a couple of quick logistical notes.

We're going to come back here to this auditorium for our next panel.

And for those online, same bat channel, same Zoom link.

We will have a break and we will rejoin at 11:30 for our next panel with our guests from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

So we'll go on break now.

On the second floor, there's the coffee shop and also available on the first floor in the cafeteria.

And again, bathrooms to your left at the doors here.

Thank you.

Narrator

This now concludes this conversation for the annual Interagency Accessibility Forum.