Disabled veterans say they often can’t make appointments, message their doctors or apply for benefits online
veterans are blind or have low vision — only 8 percent of VA’s public-facing websites and 6 percent of its internal sitesAdvertisementis a sign of a larger problem with accessibility at the federal level that has persisted for years, according to Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr. , who serves as the committee’s chairman.
The VA Website Accessibility Act, passed in 2020, created congressional oversight of technology accessibility at VA, but the new report calls for increased congressional oversight over all government agencies to hold them accountable for accessibility compliance.Biglin is one of many blind or low-vision veterans who say they have been prevented from being able to message their doctors, make appointments or file for benefits online because of accessibility gaps.
The federal government is required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to ensure any technology that it buys or uses has to be accessible and usable by people with disabilities, she said, but in practice, that often doesn’t happen. Instead, enforcement of this law falls to agencies, which may take years to respond and often do not fix the problems.“We’ve had the fox guarding the hen house, agencies are supposed to be policing themselves, but it isn’t working out,” Hill said.
He said he and other Blind Veterans Association members have experienced usability issues with everything from checking in at kiosks when they arrive at in-person appointments to getting their prescriptions refilled.It is unclear exactly how other federal websites are performing because the Justice Department, which is supposed to report on the government’s compliance with federal accessibility laws every two years, has not issued a report since 2012.
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