Re: Government Accessibility Deadlines

Who: The Access Board (Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board)

What: 

"[T]he technical and functional performance criteria necessary" to ensure" that

"(i) individuals with disabilities who are Federal employees to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of the information and data by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities; and 

"(ii) individuals with disabilities who are members of the public seeking information or services from a Federal department or agency to have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access to and use of the information and data by such members of the public who are not individuals with disabilities."

This includes a wide range of technology, including web sites.

Why: Required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended in 1998.

When: February 7, 2000 (18 months from the signing of the amended act), to be implemented by August 7, 2000 (six months later)

Where: Good question. I presume the draft standard will be published in the Federal Register and will be subject to review and comment, but I'm not sure. Ultimately the standards will be incorporated into the Federal Acquisitions Regulation (FAR).

How: What part of it? Enforcement through "administrative complaints" and lawsuits by employees or the public. Implementation is left up to each agency.

OK, a bit more: in late spring, the Access Board's Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee presented its report to the Board on what those standards should be. Basically, they recommended Double-A of the web content guidelines. They recommended user agents and authoring tools meet Priorities 1 and 2 of their respective guidelines. That's why most of us in government who pay attention to such things are expecting Double-A as our target, even though nothing has been finalized.

Adam Guasch-Melendez
EEOC

>>> Kynn Bartlett <kynn-hwg@idyllmtn.com> 11/17 3:59 PM >>>
At 12:43 PM 11/17/1999 , Judy Brewer wrote:
>I'm not clear what you mean by "the 508 dates for web accessibility." 
>- Judy

I think he was referring to the government accessibility dates, which
I've heard quoted as:

"February 2000 the Access Board will announce a standard that must
be met."

"August 2000 is the deadline for compliance with accessibility
standards for government sites."

As there are people who know more about this than I do, on this
list -- including Judy herself -- I'd like it if someone could please
post more specific details about who, what, why, when, where, and how
for these dates.  Thanks in advance!

-- 
Kynn Bartlett                                    mailto:kynn@hwg.org 
President, HTML Writers Guild                    http://www.hwg.org/ 
AWARE Center Director                          http://aware.hwg.org/

Received on Wednesday, 17 November 1999 16:31:04 UTC