Executive Summary
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Digital Accessibility Program has transformed accessibility from a decentralized compliance activity into an enterprise digital experience strategy guided by visible executive level leadership.
In 2024, the Chief Accessibility Officer (CAO) was formally integrated into the Commonwealth Office of Digital Experience (CODE PA), aligning accessibility leadership with digital delivery and creating a formal avenue to sustain cabinet-level support. The CAO was also given a seat on the Governor’s newly created Hire, Improve, Recruit, Empower (HIRE) Committee.
Under this strengthened leadership model, CODE PA partnered with the six IT Delivery Centers supporting over 30 agencies under the Governor’s jurisdiction to transform accessibility from a decentralized compliance activity into an enterprise digital experience strategy. CODE PA established a scalable operating model built on governance, Lean manual and automated testing, risk-based scoring, executive reporting, and shared implementation support. This model enabled baseline testing of the 26 highest-impact service provider applications plus 425 additional applications, while also improving PA.gov through Adobe Experience Manager standardization, content optimization, and support for accessible content practices.
Together, these changes made accessibility a durable enterprise capability that improved consistency, reduced risk, strengthened accountability, and embedded accessibility into how digital services are designed, built, and improved across the Commonwealth.
