Re: 508 wording/intent

Sure. The law that requires that the service available (filling out forms) be
accessible in general may or may not come under a provision of 508 on a
different basis.But if you mean "are the regulations only meant to apply to
stuff that is designed for online use?", the answer is that the bit of them
that deals with online use is.

If this webmaster manages to convince the complainant that someone else in
the department is responsible for this proble, then they will have to take it
up with the someone else. I would suggest it is a high-risk strategy, as well
as basically foolish, since it would probably be easier to allow for online
form filling, even if that form subsequently has to be printed and posted.

Just my 2c from the foreign peanut gallery.

Charles

On Sun, 18 Feb 2001, Marti wrote:

  >From another list -
  The following was in a response from a webmaster at a US fed Gov site after
  a complaint -
  Anybody think that is what 508 really meant to do?
  Marti

  > forms accessible and will continue to use the Adobe Portable
  >Document Format until another solution is available.  These forms, however,
  >are excluded from the current section 508 requirements.  Specifically,
  >section 1194.22(n) of the regulations, published on December 22, 2000,
  >states that:
  >
  >"When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall
  >allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field
  >elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the
  >form, including all directions and cues."
  >
  >As our forms cannot and are not intended to be completed online, they are
  >currently not covered by the regulations.



-- 
Charles McCathieNevile    http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  phone: +61 409 134 136
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative     http://www.w3.org/WAI    fax: +1 617 258 5999
Location: I-cubed, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton VIC 3053, Australia
(or W3C INRIA, Route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France)

Received on Sunday, 18 February 2001 22:19:37 UTC