We need to change the way we talk about digital accessibility

There’s been a growing trend in the world of digital accessibility, shifting attention toward legal compliance and away from what actually makes services usable. As a result, some governments get accessibility wrong, not because they don’t care, but because they approach it the wrong way.

Digital accessibility is the not-so-radical idea that everyone, including those living with disabilities, should be able to find and use online government services. Yet anyone who has tried to apply for a public benefit, report a problem, or access information online knows how confusing and frustrating it can be, and for some, nearly impossible.

In this context, digital accessibility can be the difference between accessing essential services and going without them.

In Marin County, this challenge is not abstract; it affects a significant share of residents. Nearly one in ten residents, about 24,900 people, live with a disability, and many more face barriers related to aging, language, income, or technology. Marin is also among California’s oldest counties. Nearly one in four residents is 65 or older, compared with about one in six statewide, putting Marin among the top ranks of California counties by share of older adults. For local governments, that reality shapes our responsibility.

Laws and standards matter. They create accountability and drive progress. But they shouldn’t be the only reason we act.

Too often, accessibility has been reduced to a ticking-the-box exercise. We ask, “Does this system meet the standard?” far more often than, “Can someone actually use it?” The result is a paradox: systems that are technically “accessible,” but still unusable in practice.

A compliance-first approach can also slow everything down. When systems sit in review, residents wait. They wait to report issues, apply for assistance, or access critical information. And despite shifting regulatory deadlines, the urgency hasn’t changed.

The solution isn’t bigger budgets or entirely new systems. It’s a smarter approach.

In Marin County, we’ve learned that trying to fix everything at once doesn’t work. We shifted from a one-size-fits-all remediation mindset to a prioritized framework, focusing on improving the digital accessibility of the local government services that reach the most residents and carry the greatest impact.

For more than two years, our county worked to make social services like CalFresh, Medi-Cal, and dozens of others digitally accessible. The sheer number of documents, webpages, systems, and services was daunting, compounded by an “everything-everywhere-all-at-once” approach.

So, we changed course. Instead, we focused on what matters most to people: service. By prioritizing the webpages that have the most direct impact on people’s lives, our focus on “service pages” enabled us to achieve 90% of our goals in just 90 days through our second “Digital Accelerator.”

We’re applying that same service-first mindset to emerging technologies. In partnership with the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Marin County is exploring how AI tools like ChatGPT can better surface accurate, accessible government information, so innovation translates into real improvements in how residents navigate services.

The goal is not to remediate every corner of government at the same speed. The goal is to make the highest-impact services easier to find, understand, and use.

Progress also requires moving faster and being willing to iterate.

When we launched FixItMarin, a digital service that allows residents to report community issues, we didn’t try to create the perfect system upfront. We launched a working version and improved it over time. That shift allowed us to deliver a service used by thousands of residents in months, as opposed to years, all while making accessibility improvements along the way and with residents.

Perfection is not the goal. Progress is.

Lastly, the best way to improve services is to simply talk to residents. Watch how they use your systems. See where they get stuck. Build with the people who need the service, not just for them.

To improve accessibility, governments must rethink incentives, prioritize outcomes over process, and give teams permission to move forward and improve over time.

Governments should center service in their mission and ensure that every resident can access what they need to live and thrive. Accessibility is an extension of our mission. We shouldn’t be asking how to meet the minimum requirement. We should be asking how to deliver services that actually work.

Because in the end, accessibility isn’t about compliance. It’s about the service in “public service.”

Crosby Burns is Deputy County Executive and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer for Marin County. His mission: “Make government more human.” Prior to the county, Burns served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company as a Firm leader in digital, customer experience, and state and local government. In Massachusetts, he served as Gov. Charlie Baker's Director of Strategy and Policy for the Department of Revenue and as Chief Strategy Officer of Technology Services and Security. Just prior to joining the County, he served as a technology advisor to government agencies across the US. Crosby lives in Mill Valley, California.