Audit of the Appeals Court (August 6, 2025)

This is a Massachusetts State Auditor performance audit of the Appeals Court, focused on whether its website met accessibility standards during fiscal year 2024.

“The purpose of our audit was to determine whether the Appeals Court’s website adhered to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 for user accessibility, keyboard accessibility, navigation accessibility, language accessibility, error identification, and color accessibility.”

The Auditor reviewed the court’s website to see whether people could use it accessibly, including people who rely on keyboards, screen readers, translation tools, or clear navigation.

“Did the Appeals Court’s website adhere to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 for user accessibility, keyboard accessibility, navigation accessibility, language accessibility, error identification, and color accessibility?”

Court websites are a major way people get public information and services, so accessibility problems can make it harder for some residents to use the courts.

“Government websites are an important way for the general public to access government information and services.”

If you or someone you know has a disability, uses assistive technology, or depends on clear online information, these problems could make it harder to find court information or services.

“They can also limit equitable access to critical information and key online services for some users.”

The audit found problems on 9 of 60 sampled Appeals Court webpages, including keyboard access problems, links that did not go where intended, and inaccurate language attributes.

“We determined that 9 (15%) webpages out of our sample of 60 were not in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).”

The Auditor recommends that the Appeals Court fix keyboard accessibility barriers, review its hyperlinks, and correct language attributes that may affect screen readers and digital access.

“The Appeals Court should work to resolve accessibility barriers that prevent certain features from being used with only keyboard commands.”

The report is significant not only because it found accessibility issues, but also because the Appeals Court refused to participate, which the Auditor says broke with past audit practice.

“The response received to this audit represents a significant deviation from historical practice.”

WCAG 2.1 is a set of web accessibility guidelines used to judge whether websites work for people with disabilities, including people using screen readers, keyboard-only navigation, captions, or other tools.

“In 2018, W3C published WCAG 2.1, which built on WCAG 2.0 to improve web accessibility on mobile devices and to further improve web accessibility for people with visual impairments and cognitive disabilities.”