At the end of 2022, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Section 752. This required an update of Section 508 Assessment Criteria across government. During 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the General Services administration (GSA), the U.S. Access Board (USAB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) at the White House worked closely together developing new Section 508 Assessment Criteria. The Criteria were used to create a survey containing 105 questions, targeting specific areas of agency Section 508 programs. The survey was disseminated across government. Forty questions addressed accessibility program maturity, 43 addressed conformance questions, eliciting specific performance metrics for web, hardware, software, documents, and selected enterprise applications, among other features. Finally, there were 22 general information questions about Section 508 programs themselves, asking about staffing levels, task organization, and complaint processes, to name a few.

Once agencies submitted their responses, GSA, OSTP, OMB and USAB analyzed and compiled the results into a report which was submitted to Congress in December 2023. The report contained summaries of the conclusions derived from analysis of the data received, as well as recommendations to Congress for further action to improve 508 Implementation across government. The next webinar in the U.S. Access Board’s Section 508 Best Practices Webinar Series will take place Tuesday, January 30 from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. (ET). This webinar will review the processes used to create maturity metrics, discuss some of the analysis used in evaluating the survey results, and touch on the recommendations in the report.

For more details or to register, visit Great Lakes ADA Center’s Highlights from the new Government-wide Section 508 Assessment webinar webpage. Questions can be submitted in advance of the session or can be posed during the live webinar. Webinar attendees can receive a participation certificate for attending the 90-minute session.  

Registration closes 24 hours before the start of the session. Instructions for accessing the webinar on the day of the session will be sent via email to registered individuals in advance of the session. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) and Video Sign Language Interpreters are available for the session and will be broadcast via the webinar platform. A telephone option (not toll-free) for receiving audio is also available. 

The Section 508 Best Practices Webinar Series provides helpful information and best practices for federal agencies in meeting their obligations under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act which ensures access to information and communication technology in the federal sector. This webinar series is made available by the Accessibility Community of Practice of the CIO Council in partnership with the U.S. Access Board. All webinars are archived and available on the Section 508 Best Practices Webinar Archives webpage.