RE: 508 vs. W3C

Judy,
Thanks for the clarification regarding comments on Germany.  As for the WAI
effort, you are exactly right in that the accessibility benefits found in
the WCAG 1.0 are much broader than that in the US Section 508.  I am hopeful
that when the Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards
are updated in the future, we will see the US adopting more of the technical
specifications found in W3C Recommendations.

Best regards,
Cynthia Waddell

----------------------------
Cynthia D. Waddell, JD
Executive Director
International Center for Disability Resources
         on the Internet

San Jose Office:
PO BOX 5456
San Jose, California USA  95150-5456
www.icdri.org/cynthia_waddell.htm

See my new book!
Constructing Accessible Web Sites
www.icdri.org/constructing_accessible_web_site.htm

-----Original Message-----
From: Judy Brewer [mailto:jbrewer@w3.org]
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 8:44 PM
To: Cynthia Waddell; Carlos A Velasco; Steve Vosloo
Cc: WAI Interest Group
Subject: RE: 508 vs. W3C


Cynthia,

I believe that Carlos was describing the situation in Germany, not in the
U.S., in response to Steve's question about Web accessibility policy in
Germany; and that his response is accurate for that context.

With regard to states in the U.S., however, while many are adopting US Sec.
508, others are adopting W3C's WCAG 1.0, which addresses a broader
constituency. U.S. Sec. 508 includes fewer provisions, and explicitly
excludes certain constituencies such as those with cognitive disabilities.

With regard to indirect impact across both public and private sectors, the
biggest impact will come when organizations get serious about requiring
ATAG-compliant software (authoring tools that comply with W3C's Authoring
Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0), not just WCAG-conformant Web sites,
since that will help drive demand for authoring tool developers to deliver
software that supports the production of accessible Web sites. So far, one
of the only formal statements on this issue has come from the European
Parliament:
         (long URI coming, and skip past the introductory material to get
to the provisions)

<http://europa.eu.int/information_society/topics/citizens/accessibility/web/
wai_2002/ep_res_web_wai_2002/index_en.htm>

- Judy

At 06:38 PM 8/22/2002 -0700, Cynthia Waddell wrote:

>The response by Carlos was not complete and could be misinterpreted.
>Section 508 has an indirect impact on websites other than Federal agencies
>in the US.  For a complete discussion of this impact on entities doing
>business in the US, including how Section 508 informs US entities covered
>under the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability rights laws
>on how to ensure effective communication through the accessible design of
>web sites, please see my law and policy chapters in the recently released
>book "Constructing Accessible Web Sites."  One interesting response to the
>Section 508 effort is that a number of States have adopted Section 508 in
>policy or legislation because they want their websites to be accessible to
>the widest possible constituency.
>
>Best regards,
>Cynthia Waddell
>
><...>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
>Behalf Of Carlos A Velasco
>Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 6:23 AM
>To: Steve Vosloo
>Cc: 'WAI IG List'
>Subject: Re: 508 vs. W3C
>
>Hi Steve,
>
>Sorry for the delay in the reply. Unfortunately it is only applicable to
>   websites of the Federal Government, not to other websites. It is not
>even applicable to state sites.
>
>regards,
>carlos
>
>Steve Vosloo wrote:
> > Hi Carlos
> >
> > Can you please tell me if Germany's requirement for level-AA compliance
> > is for all govt sites, or also inclusive of public sites.
> >
> > Thanks
<...>


--
Judy Brewer  +1.617.258.9741      http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative
WAI Interest Group: http://www.w3.org/WAI/IG
Questions? http://www.w3.org/WAI/IG/Overview.html#Uselist or wai@w3.org
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Received on Friday, 23 August 2002 03:05:38 UTC