Department of Justice

This past week, the W3C finally published a new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as its official recommendation. This new version, WCAG 2.2, has been a long time coming.

Digital accessibility is addressed in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to be exact. It requires all federal agencies and departments to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities, including both employees and members of the public. This includes websites, PDFs, and digital kiosks. The requirements also apply to federal government digital procurement as well as some bodies that receive federal funding.

PDFs are commonly used for sharing information and documents, but they have limitations and drawbacks that make them less than ideal for use on the web, especially when compared to good old HTML.

Take a look at your town’s website. I was checking out my local township website to get some election related information last week. And it’s kind of awful. For everyone. But especially for users with disabilities.

How are agencies doing on accessibility? The short answer is not great. For digital agency owners, executives, and practitioners, there has been increased attention on digital accessibility (sometimes shortened to a11y) over the past few years. But out in the wild, it’s hard to see the impact.