As you may have seen, the House passed the 2023 omnibus government funding bill, and President Biden signed it as soon as it hit his desk. The Disability community had some major wins: the bill has very positive language in the legislative text regarding federal accessibility issues, mandating that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) update guidance on information and communication technology accessibility under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation act of 1973 as amended within 100 days and that each agency evaluate and report on compliance with Section 508 within 225 days. It also mandates an annual report on Section 508 compliance with a comprehensive reporting on each agency's accessibility efforts. This is a pretty big victory, and aligns quite directly with the recommendations we at Access Ready made through the Consortium for Constituents with Disabilities (CCD) Technology Task Force this year to both Congress and the Administration.
As you may know, some accessibility reporting is already mandated but has not been complied with, and Access Ready along with others has successfully made a lot of noise around re-instituting this regular reporting over the past year. This new language expands those requirements and actually makes the reports more frequent, which is believed to be both helpful on its own and indicative of a reinvigorated congressional interest in accessibility issues. This really bodes well for advancements in the coming year. There are several notable provisions in the report language accompanying the appropriations bill regarding ICT accessibility under Section 508 as well as accessible technology for students with disabilities. As a reminder, report language demonstrates Congress' intent as to how federal agencies should spend the amounts appropriated in the bill. Second, in the last few weeks, the Senate Aging Committee has been busy on Section 508 compliance as well. As you may also know, there was a hearing in the Committee on inaccessible federal technology earlier this fall at which Access Ready's legal counsel Eve Hill testified, and the Committee Chairman Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) has been especially dogged in his oversight of federal agencies, particularly the Veterans Administration. Most recently, he released a 70-page report entitled Unlocking the Virtual Front Door, detailing his nearly year-long investigation into federal agencies' failure to provide true accessibility for people with disabilities.
A press release on the Senator's efforts can be found here: https://www.casey.senate.gov/news/releases/casey-investigation-details-widespread-failure-by-federal-government-to-ensure-web-accessibility-for-people-with-disabilities-older-adults-and-veterans
The set of recommendations from the report can be found here: https://www.aging.senate.gov/download/two-pager-unlocking-the-virtual-front-door
And the full report text can be found here: https://aging.senate.gov/download/unlocking-the-virtual-front-door-full-report
Access Ready believes this demonstrates a broader trend this year towards focusing on advancing Section 508.
Finally, In response to the Senate efforts earlier this summer (and after direct advocacy on this same issue), by Access Ready and others the Department of Justice recently committed to Senate leaders that they will soon be issuing a new report on Section 508 compliance across the federal government that is required biannually, but has not been issued since 2012. This is similar to the report newly mandated again in the omnibus bill that was noted previously, but DOJ's commitment was publicized just a few weeks ago. Their letter also indicates that the DOJ expects to continue prioritizing enforcement efforts to ensure that the websites of both state and local governments AND public accommodations are accessible to people with disabilities, as well as the forthcoming proposed rule on state and local government web accessibility, which is expected next Spring. All of this is to say that it continued to be quite a busy year for accessibility work, even under the wire before the holidays, and we expect that to continue throughout 2023!
Thank you, to all, These are big victories worth celebrating.
By Douglas George Towne (Doug)
Chair and Chief Executive Officer
Access Ready Inc.
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