Federal agencies have spent years improving the accessibility of websites, digital services and citizen-facing applications, but many continue to struggle with another challenge hiding in plain sight: the enormous backlog of digital documents sitting behind those websites.

Reports, forms, policy documents, procurement records, meeting materials, archived files, and scanned PDFs often represent decades of accumulated information. Much of it remains difficult, or impossible, for people using assistive technologies to access.

Recent findings from the federal government’s FY 2025 Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment illustrate the scope of the challenge. Agencies rated their overall accessibility conformance at just 1.96 out of 5, fewer than half reported that their most frequently used digital assets fully conform to Section 508 requirements, and approximately half said they do not routinely test information and communication technology for accessibility as part of standard business practices. Those numbers might suggest a compliance problem. In reality, they point to something larger.

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