RE: WAI and govt contracts

This information may be useful:

Center for Technology in Government
University at Albany
1535 Western Avenue
Albany NY 12203
(518) 442-3892
http://www.ctg.albany.edu

They are hosting a workshop:  Designing the Digital Government of the 21st
Century:  A Multidispliplinary Workshop
The workshop is this October near Washington, DC

You might also try working with somebody from Congress -- if they can
mandate clauses in government contracts about not using foreign-flagged
surface ships and boycotting Toshiba products, they can certainly have a
clause requiring contracted services to conform to the ADA.

A final note:  I.M.H.O., your comment about contracting officers was not
quite complete.  When a contracting officer writes a statement of work,
technical details are often supplied by someone more closely involved in the
area in question.  So efforts to educate government technology officers
would not be in vain.  You might consider targeting the chief information
officer for each cabinet department for a letter from the WAI.

Chris Hasser
Immersion Corp.
    -----Original Message-----
    From: w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-ig-request@w3.org]On
Behalf Of Robert Neff
    Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 1998 5:45 PM
    To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
    Cc: susan.brummel@gsa.gov; karl.hebenstreit@gsa.gov;
dnickerson@vdacs.state.va.us
    Subject: WAI and govt contracts


    WAI:  I am interested to know if there are any solicitations for WEB
services from the US (DoD or Federal Agency), State or Local governments
that require compliance with the American Disabilties Act, discuss universal
accessibility, or WAI?  Seems to me that if we are asking for compliance
(without standards) then we should be educating and pushing the Government
Procurement personnel, such as the Contracting Office and Project Managers.

    In reality, we know its a requirement, but until we educate the people
that write the government solicitations, progress will be slowed. The
Contracting Officers are the ones that we need to target for education and
the best way to accomplish this goal is to provide guidance. Basically, help
them write it (so to speak).

    Has the WAI addressed this?

    Please note that Susan and Karl are with GSA's Center for IT
Accommodation (CITA).  Susan is the Director.

    Susan (or Karl): Do you know if this has been addressed?


    /rob