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  • From: "saundrakaerubel.com" <saundrakae AT saundrakaerubel.com>
  • To: internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Agency websites must comply with sec 508
  • Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2000 19:22:12 -0500


Hi

Though members out there might not be employed at government agencies, I thought the following would be helpful to others as rumor has it, the public sector is next.
Full article is at:
http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1218/web-access-12-22-00.asp

Nearly a year behind schedule, the federal Access Board has published standards designed to force agencies to become leaders in adopting electronic and information technology that can be used by people with a wide range of disabilities.
The Access Board -- officially, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board -- published the new standards Dec. 21 in the Federal Register.
The requirements cover matters ranging from buying telephones with jacks for plug-in devices used by deaf people, to acquiring computer software that accommodates screen readers for blind people, to producing Web pages that can be used by members of the public with disabilities ranging from dexterity problems to photosensitive epilepsy.
And for the first time, government employees and members of the public will be able to take legal action against agencies that fail to comply.
The standards apply to an array of electronic and IT equipment -- including information kiosks, office computers, photocopiers and fax machines. After June 21, agency Web sites (http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1218/web-access3-12-22-00.asp) and the equipment agencies buy (http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2000/1218/web-access2-12-22-00.asp) must meet the accessibility standards.
<REST OF ARTICLE SNIPPED>

You can check your website pages to see if they comply by visiting the following:

Bobby
http//www.cast.org/bobby/
Bobby is helpful for pointing out "hard and fast" violations of 508 - such as specifying each alt value in an image tag. It does very well with these sort of binary checks. What it does not to well with is judging color, and the myriad of other 508 "judgement call" specs.

HTML Tidy
http//www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy/

Doctor HTML
http//www2.imagiware.com/RxHTML/

WAVE
http//www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/

Job Access With Speech (JAWS)
http://www.hj.com/
A screen reader to test the pages so we can hear how the page sounds to a blind person. Often people will hear things that indicate the page is still not accessible to the blind although it passed the Bobby test.

also, a good link on the topic of accessibility is
http//www.webable.com/

and a good introduction is
Website Usability and Accessibility: a Presentation by Terry Brainerd Chadwick to Internet Professionals Northwest June 13, 2000
http://www.tbchad.com/Usability/usability.html

Happy Reading and Happy New Year

Saundra




  • Agency websites must comply with sec 508, saundrakaerubel.com, 12/29/2000

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