PROCURING FOR THE FUTURE.

ACCESSIBLE WEBSITES AND THE PUBLIC SECTOR

When the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed back in 1990, the focus for cities, counties and states was to require them to provide equal access to public spaces in a variety of ways including curb ramps, accessible sidewalks, upgrading restrooms, ensuring that public transit was usable and so on.

The origins of the world wide web were to come a year later, and so there was no initial thought about the way that people with disabilities would be able to have ready access to public sector websites that have become ubiquitous today. That’s changed dramatically and as of April 2024, the Department of Justice ruled that states, counties, cities, towns and special districts make their websites and mobile apps digitally accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities no later than a firm deadline of April 24, 2026 for places with a population over 50,000 and another year is allotted for entities with smaller populations.

The issues involved vary widely and the kinds of disabilities that can make websites inaccessible range from color blindness that makes it difficult to understand colorful charts and graphs; deafness that makes it impossible to hear audio content; limited fine motor control that is an impediment to clicking on small targets or drag and drop only functions, and more. Essentially, “it addresses more modern device needs and more diverse user needs. Some of those main changes include better accessibility on mobile apps,” according to Kalea Young-Gibson, policy analyst of the National Association of State Information Officers (NASCIO).

For example, according to the DOJ, “individuals who are blind may use a screen reader to deliver visual information on a website or mobile app as speech. A state or local government might post an image on its website that provides information to the public. If the website does not include text describing the image (sometimes called ‘alternative text’ or ‘alt text’), individuals who are blind and who use screen readers may have no way of knowing what is in the image because a screen reader cannot ‘read’ an image.”

Making thousands of websites accessible is a herculean task, particularly when it comes to remediating the unfathomable amount of information that’s been collecting on websites over many years. Though the DOJ insists that there are no extensions available, the simple fact is that it will be years before many places come close to being in full compliance and “I would venture to say that no digital properties can be 100 percent accessible to absolutely everyone” says Sharron Rush, executive director of Knowbility, a nonprofit advocacy consulting and training company based in Austin.

As more and more public sector entities are relying on their websites, this is essential work to make the material accessible to the “average 20 percent of their residents with disabilities,” according to Rush. The kind of information people need or want ranges from simple things like the hours when city hall is open to more complex documents like the minutes of the last city council meeting, year-end budgets and other financial statements.

Unfortunately, progress toward making websites fully accessible has been slow for all levels of state and local government. According to 2025 data from the National Association of State CIOS (NASCIO):

When asked if the CIO organization has funding to support IT accessibility services, 54 percent of states answered no.

When asked if state government provides IT accessibility services to local governments 54 percent said they did not.

When asked about their state’s progress in implementing the latest guidelines, 52 percent of states reported that implementation is in progress while 34 percent of states have a plan under development but have not yet implemented it. Only one (unnamed) state reported that it had fully implemented its plan ahead of the deadline, but even that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s 100 percent compliant but just that it has completed its plan.

Perhaps the trickiest part of the remediation of websites is making PDF files accessible. In fact, “PDF remediation is so difficult that many local governments remove important documents from their websites simply to stay compliant,” according to Civic Plus.

Though the DOJ doesn’t clarify exactly how it intends to enforce its guidelines, it “may choose to use one or multiple enforcement mechanisms for failure to comply with the final rule,” says Young-Gibson. “Some of these include launching investigations, fielding individual complaints from single users.

“The DOJ could also choose to initiate full compliance reviews and reviews of third-party vendor agreements; they can use negotiated resolution tools like mandated compliance agreements. And then lastly, which is the big one, obviously the DOJ can take people to court and pursue remediation and things of that nature through litigation.”

In the meantime, while it’s known that websites are places of public accommodation and therefore need to be accessible to people with disabilities, it’s likely that the most impactful means of enforcement is going to come from the people who are unable to use non-ADA compliant sites.

“We are going to see an increase in lawsuits coming out after the deadline” says Mel Reeder, director of agency engagement for Civic Marketplace, an organization that helps procurement leaders cut delay, simplify sourcing and find trusted vendors more quickly.

“People of all abilities depend on access to their government both physically and through digital means. Often the legal course for compliance falls into the realm of civil lawsuits which can be costly for the government agency financially and in the form of public trust. This expense can be avoided by being proactive and fixing your digital documents for all to access.”

Many entities lack the internal capacity to make their websites accessible even after the deadline has passed. As a result “many companies are coming out of the woodwork claiming to be their solution-provider for accessibility,” says Jay Wyant, Chief Information Accessibility Officer for the state of Minnesota, a leader in making its websites accessible.

“There are some well established companies who have been doing this for years, and there are many who have just set up shop in the last year or so and it may be difficult to determine whether they have the skills to do that kind of work.”

It's important to note that the Department of Justice holds vendors liable for websites which they’ve contracted to remediate, so there’s an inherent hazard to entries into the field who are unprepared.

Finding the appropriate supplier that has the knowledge, expertise and experience to serve the needs of public sector entities can be challenging (especially for smaller municipalities, schools and colleges and universities) because many of them may not have the internal resources to conduct thorough search for these types of suppliers.

But, according to Gary Link, the Brand Leader for Edge Public, a Group Purchasing Organization (that serves the public sector) “GPOs have already reviewed, evaluated, and vetted many suppliers that meet the needs and requirements of these public sector entities.

We aim to ensure that good, solid companies with the appropriate expertise and proven track record are serving our member’s needs. Edge Public and our strategic partner Civic Marketplace can offer these services through publicly solicited and awarded Contracts/Master Agreements.”

Can artificial intelligence help in this heavy lifting? There’s certainly hope and experimentation that AI will be able to help bring a website into compliance. Of more immediate benefit, “some of its potential uses . . . include using AI assisted scanning tools to go through audits and assessments and figure out what should be remediated immediately versus things that can be put on the back burner,” says NASCIO’s Young-Gibson. She adds that AI can also be used for continuous monitoring of websites to be sure that they remain accessible.

Though that’s a powerful use of AI, it’s not a panacea. According to The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which develops standards and support materials to help entities understand and implement accessibility, “Tools cannot check all accessibility aspects automatically. Human judgement is required. Sometimes evaluation tools can produce false or misleading results. Web accessibility evaluation tools cannot determine accessibility. They can only assist in doing so.”

This article was supported by and written in partnership with Civic Marketplace.