Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["saundrakaerubel.com" <saundrakae AT saundrakaerubel.com>]

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