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Audit

Audit  Audit of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission

Our office conducted a performance audit of certain activities of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission for the period July 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024.

Organization: Office of the State Auditor
Date published: November 3, 2025

Executive Summary

In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of certain activities of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) for the period July 1, 2023 through September 30, 2024.

The purpose of our audit was to determine whether HPC’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. Adherence to WCAG helps ensure that all users, regardless of ability, can access the content and functions of HPC’s website.

Below is a summary of our finding, the effect of that finding, and our recommendations, with hyperlinks to each page listed.

  
Finding 1
 		HPC’s website was not fully accessible to all website users.
Effect

Noncompliance with WCAG 2.1 reduces accessibility for individuals with disabilities and limits equitable access to HPC information and services. Specific risks include the following:

  • If HPC’s website cannot zoom in to 200% or reflow at 400%, some users will not be able to read content if they zoom in to alleviate a visual impairment.

  • Broken or faulty hyperlinks limit users from having access to critical information and key online services offered by HPC. Broken or faulty hyperlinks also increase the likelihood that users may either access outdated or incorrect information or be directed to webpages that no longer exist.

    •   Videos without captions may prevent users with auditory impairments from receiving intended content.

Recommendations
 
  1. HPC should ensure that content on its masshpc.gov webpages displays clearly, even when zoomed in to 200% and 400%.
  2. HPC should review its masshpc.gov webpages to ensure that all hyperlinks lead to related and updated information.
  3. HPC should adopt procedures to ensure that videos posted to its masshpc.gov website are properly captioned.

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