U.S. Senators Call Out Federal Government on Accessibility

In the United States, where the public disability rate is estimated at 26 percent and the aging population is rising sharply, there is an increasingly urgent need to ensure all people have equal access to government information and technology.

For a growing number of Americans, a lack of access to essential services and information due to non-compliance with digital accessibility standards can be truly catastrophic.

Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of US senators led by U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Bob Casey wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding answers regarding the federal government’s compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

A number of important players were behind this demand for answers, including Senate Aging Committee Ranking Member Tim Scott (R-SC), Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA).

The group is essentially concerned that the Federal Government is failing to live up to its obligation to ensure that all information and services are equally accessible to individuals with disabilities.

This recent development comes in response to the inactivity of the federal government in fulfilling a number of specific accessibility obligations. Notable amongst these is the commitment to regularly publish biennial reports on Section 508 compliance.

These reports have not been forthcoming, however, with the most recent being published all the way back in 2012.

In their letter, the Senators stress that ‘‘without regular reports, Congress, taxpayers, and agencies themselves lack a crucial source of feedback for identifying and resolving longstanding accessibility issues.’’

This is significant as it puts a much-needed spotlight on the inactivity and lack of accountability on the federal level when it comes to accessibility. This is no small matter, as Senator Casey himself asserted, ‘‘For people with disabilities, website accessibility and other forms of accessible [technology] are necessities — not luxuries or conveniences — that foster independence, economic self-sufficiency and active, meaningful participation in civic life.’’

In other words, this is not some abstract academic legal dispute over a bunch of unimportant technical details but a real issue that will have a dramatic impact on the quality of people’s lives.

So, what exactly did the senators say in their letter, and why? In short, the letter presents a series of specific and pointed questions related to the DOJ’s lack of progress in implementing Section 508 accessibility standards.

The list of questions is as follows:

1. Why did the DOJ stop issuing biennial reports on Section 508 compliance?
2. Given the absence of biennial reports, does the DOJ believe it is satisfying its data collection and reporting obligations under Section 508?
3. Has the DOJ collected Section 508 compliance data more recently than in 2012? If so, when? If not, why not?
4. Has the DOJ issued recommendations or feedback to other federal agencies on their Section 508 compliance?
5. Does the DOJ have the resources and personnel necessary to comply with the law and issue these reports?
6. How does the DOJ plan to begin meeting its biennial reporting requirement under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act?

The letter also included a demand for a detailed timeline indicating when the DOJ plans to notify federal departments that it plans to conduct a survey, when it plans to send that survey, and when it plans to issue a report to Congress and the President detailing the results of the survey, along with its recommendations.

The senators requested that answers to the above questions be provided by July 29, 2022. As yet, these answers are still to be provided, however.