People with disabilities communicate, navigate, and access information in different ways than the “default user” most digital content is designed for. A blind employee relies on a screen reader to hear a webpage aloud. A deaf constituent needs captions to follow a public briefing. Someone with a motor impairment may navigate an entire government form using only a keyboard. When digital content isn’t built with these realities in mind, it doesn’t just create inconvenience; It creates exclusion from public services that citizens are legally entitled to use.
That’s the principle behind two of the most important accessibility laws in the country. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law in 1990, established that people with disabilities cannot be denied access to public life, now including, in the decades since, digital public life. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act goes further for the federal government specifically: first added in 1986 and significantly strengthened in 1998, it requires federal agencies to make their technology accessible to employees and the public alike. In 2017, the U.S. Access Board refreshed these standards to catch up with modern web and mobile technology, aligning Section 508 with the internationally recognized WCAG guidelines.
Having the law on the books hasn’t guaranteed compliance. A 2021 study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation found that nearly half (48%) of the most popular federal websites failed a standard accessibility test on at least one of their three most-visited pages. That gap has real consequences for real people and increasingly, real legal exposure for agencies that don’t close it.
Jahinnslerth Orozco, a blind FBI intelligence analyst, experienced this firsthand. In 2019, he filed suit against the Department of Justice after the software required for his job proved unusable with his screen reader. The case worked its way through the courts, and in 2023 the D.C. Circuit ruled in his favor: affirming that federal employees have the right to sue over inaccessible technology under Section 508. That ruling, along with similar cases, has pushed agencies to take Section 508 compliance far more seriously, and enforcement has only intensified since.
The lesson for any agency or organization building digital content: accessibility isn’t a feature to bolt on at the end. It has to be part of the process from day one: retrofitting compliance after a complaint (or a lawsuit) is far more costly than designing for it up front.
Ask yourself: if a blind employee, a deaf constituent, or someone using only a keyboard tried to use your agency’s documents, websites, or videos today, would they succeed? Here’s what full accessibility actually requires across your most common content types:
PDF documents must include:
Microsoft documents must include:
Video must include:
Each of these requirements exists for the same reason: to make sure the information itself reaches everyone.
Bringing every document, page, and video into compliance can feel overwhelming, especially alongside everything else your agency is already managing. That’s where we come in.
At Lotus Graphic Design LLC (LGD), accessibility isn’t an afterthought; it’s our specialty. Our team provides top-tier remediation services to bring your digital products, content, and services into full compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, so you can meet your legal obligations while genuinely serving every member of the public you’re accountable to.
Certified by Great Lakes ADA Center
Certified by General Services Administration