Accessibility & Digital Experience

Accessibility and digital experience

Our commitment, where this site stands against the standard, how to tell us when something does not work, and what we hold ourselves to beyond accessibility.

Accessibility statement

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires federal agencies to make their electronic information and technology accessible to people with disabilities. This is not a future requirement and there is no transition period pending: it has been in force since 1998 and its current technical standard has applied since 2018.

This site is built to conform to Section 508 and to WCAG 2.1 Level AA, the standard Section 508 incorporates. Accessibility is a property of how the pages are constructed rather than a layer added afterward, which is why every chart on this site has a table, every interaction works from a keyboard, and no piece of information is carried by color alone.

Section 508 conformance summary

This site conforms fully to WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Conformance is verified by automated testing on every route at build time, by manual keyboard testing of every interactive component, and by review with a screen reader. A full Accessibility Conformance Report is available on request.

What conformance means on this site

Every chart has an equivalent data table, reachable with one control and always present for screen readers
Every interactive element is reachable and operable with a keyboard alone, in a visible focus order
Status is never carried by color alone: every state has a distinct shape, a written word, and a position
Text meets 4.5 to 1 contrast, and interface components and graphics meet 3 to 1
The page works at 400 percent zoom and at 320 pixels wide without horizontal scrolling
Motion respects the operating system's reduced-motion setting
Every data download carries the same information as the chart it came from

Known issues

We know of no outstanding conformance failures on this site. That is a claim with a date on it rather than a permanent state: a page published next week could introduce one, which is why the reporting route below exists and why we publish what we find.

Digital experience standards

The 21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act and the Office of Management and Budget's digital-first guidance set expectations beyond accessibility: agency websites should be mobile-friendly, consistent in look and navigation, written in plain language, secure, and built so that the data behind them can be used elsewhere. Those are separate obligations from Section 508 and this site is built against all of them.

Mobile first: every page is designed for a phone and tested at 320 pixels wide before it is tested on a desktop
Consistent navigation: the same header, the same search, and the same footer on every page, in the same order
Plain language: sentences kept short, acronyms spelled out on first use, and every technical term defined where it appears
Shareable state: filters live in the address bar, so a link opens on the view the sender was looking at
Machine-readable by default: every page's underlying dataset is published in the open data catalog with a data dictionary
No third-party viewers: nothing on this site depends on an embedded dashboard or map product that we cannot make accessible

Tell us when something does not work

If any part of this site keeps you from getting information you need, tell us. Describe the page and what happened; you do not need to know the name of the barrier or cite a standard. We respond within ten business days, and if the fix will take longer than that we will tell you what we are doing and give you the information you were after by another route in the meantime.

Section 508 also gives you the right to file a formal complaint with this agency. Using the form below does not waive that right and does not start or stop any clock on it.

What requires this

Four separate obligations, all currently in force. None of them is a future deadline.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
Requires federal agencies to make their electronic information and technology accessible to people with disabilities. In force since 1998; the current technical standard, which incorporates WCAG 2.0 Level AA, has applied since January 2018.
section508.gov (opens in a new window)
21st Century Integrated Digital Experience Act
Requires agency websites to be accessible, mobile-friendly, consistent, searchable, secure, and built on modernized, digitized services.
digital.gov (opens in a new window)
OMB M-23-22, Delivering a Digital-First Public Experience
Sets government-wide expectations for how agencies design, build, and maintain public-facing websites and digital services, including plain language and usability testing with real users.
Office of Management and Budget (opens in a new window)
OPEN Government Data Act
Requires public data assets to be published as open, machine-readable data by default, with metadata, in a public catalog.
Title II, Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act (opens in a new window)

Tested with

Screen readers on desktop and mobile, keyboard-only navigation, browser zoom to 400 percent, operating-system high-contrast modes, and reduced-motion settings. The accessibility tools button in the corner of every page also offers larger text, higher contrast, link highlighting, and reduced motion without changing any system setting.

Every dataset on this site is also available as a file you can open in whatever tool works best for you: the open data catalog.