U.S. Digital Response

Election officials: Need a little help with accessibility testing for your website? In just 30 minutes we can get you started.

NEW RESOURCE >> States United Democracy Center and U.S. Digital Response have partnered on five simple, high-impact ways election officials can improve their websites heading into the 2026 midterms. For most voters, a state or local election website is the first place they go to figure out how to register, where to vote, or when their ballot is due. When they find a clear answer quickly, they leave confident. When they can't, some turn to unofficial sources that may be wrong. That confidence matters. Our research found that as many as 5.7 million more Americans might have voted in 2024 if their confidence in elections had been higher. Our recommendations are practical changes an office can make on their own, from putting common voter tasks at the top of the homepage to keeping key dates current and easy to find. Small, sustainable improvements that add up to a site voters can use are one of the most direct ways to strengthen confidence in the voting process. https://lnkd.in/gMwxdpM7

Very helpful opportunity from U.S. Digital Response!

Accessible election websites are how a lot of voters find their polling place, check their registration, or request a ballot. When those pages don't work with a screen reader or can't be navigated by keyboard, some voters get left out before they ever reach the ballot. The ADA Title II web accessibility rule sets a clear standard for state and local government sites: WCAG 2.1 Level AA. For election offices, meeting it is also a practical way to make sure every eligible voter can find what they need and take part. U.S. Digital Response is offering free 30-minute sessions to help election teams get started. We'll test your site with you using free browser-based tools and share checklists you can keep using on your own. Book time with us (link in the comments).

The CFA conference this year felt like such a gift - reconnecting with past colleagues, and remembering how much fun being a lawyer can be! Thank you to those at U.S. Digital Response who invited me to participate, and Code for America for bringing all together!

One of the most useful things you can do for a government attorney: find where someone else has already done what you're trying to do. Precedent is what makes a novel approach defensible. But your attorney often doesn't have the time or the network to go track it down. So do it for them. Find the other city, the other state, the federal agency that already cleared the legal path, and bring it to the table. "Here's who else has done this, and here's how" turns an abstract risk into a known quantity. It's also a real act of partnership: you're arming your attorney with what they need to say yes, instead of asking them to shoulder the analysis alone. It's one of several lessons from a panel our CEO Tina Walha moderated at the Code for America Summit, with attorneys from New Jersey, Boston, and the former U.S. Digital Service. More in the post: https://lnkd.in/gTpSCft5  

Did you know our Talent Toolkit rounds up job boards built specifically for government and public interest tech hiring? It also features a set of inclusive-focused boards to help teams reach a wider, more diverse pool of candidates. One simple tip from the guide: hiring managers, consider posting the role on your own LinkedIn feed. A personal note on what makes the team and the work special often lands better than the job listing alone. 📋 Explore the full, filterable spreadsheet of boards (with pricing and post length included) in the Talent Toolkit: https://lnkd.in/gUSs3wnQ #GovTech #DigitalGovernment #PublicInterestTech #InclusiveHiring

Google just released an important new report looking at 15 million AI conversations. The big takeaway is that most AI use happens at home, not at work. As you might personally experience, most of AI use is people trying to navigate legacy government, legal, health and financial systems that are a daily pain to all of us! - 86% of conversational AI use happens outside of work. - One of the most overrepresented uses of AI for non-work activities is interacting with government paperwork or systems. - Almost half of the medical, legal, financial, and government questions come in after hours or on weekends, when the offices are closed. If that saves a person or a family 30 minutes a week, it is worth about $100 billion a year in the US, and we currently don't count any of that value in how we talk about AI (in things like GDP and work productivity). But it frees us all up to be with our families or friends, to prioritize other important areas of life like health or education, or community. That demand is why we have funded this work for three years. Things like: - Benefits and public systems: mRelief, Student Basic Needs Coalition, U.S. Digital Response, and many others - Legal help: Mobile Pathways, Justicia Lab ¡Reclamo!, National Domestic Workers Alliance, and many others - Financial help: Upsolve, SaverLife and many others Most of the AI conversation is about jobs, but I love that this report shows people mostly want help with the rest of their lives. We should listen to them! Thanks Alex Imas for your work on this, and we're excited to see and support the next iterations of this important data! https://lnkd.in/g_78827n

🗽 New York City is assembling a new kind of PIT crew, and I’m excited to see what they can build! At U.S. Digital Response, we’re seeing more local governments recognize the value of having technical talent in-house instead of relying entirely on outside consultants. We're helping those agencies identify that in-house structure, and we know there are more out there who could use the assistance. What does that look like? Buying new technology does not automatically improve government services. Governments need people on staff who understand the problems they are trying to solve and can make sure the technology is useful for the residents and staff who rely on it. NYC is putting real resources behind that idea. I expect many other cities will be watching their approach closely: https://lnkd.in/gimgkwzH

A little late to sharing this, but I’m excited to share a project I had the opportunity to contribute to as a research volunteer with U.S. Digital Response! Behind every SNAP payment error rate is a family counting on timely, accurate benefits and caseworkers working under immense pressure. The USDR team’s findings highlight practical, actionable strategies states can implement right now. It was a privilege to volunteer and to partner with some really wonderful, talented and thoughtful people. 💙 Read the blog post, access the playbook, and watch the webinar here: https://lnkd.in/e_jYdh7s