RE: AW: Section 508 Auditing

Ø  Your previous post also asserted that “The Section 508 folks say they "pivoted" to WCAG 2.1 AA”.  I am not aware of any “508 folks” saying anything like.  We here at the Access Board have been trying to disabuse people of that idea.  The Section 508 citation is to WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and we have no plans to update that citation.

They are under OCR within the Department of Homeland Security.

Jonathan

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From: Peter Shikli [mailto:pshikli@bizware.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2018 10:27 AM
To: Bruce Bailey; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org; 508
Subject: Re: AW: Section 508 Auditing

Bruce,

Even after going through OAST's Trusted Tester Program myself, I'm still unsure why we have an OAST running that instead of the US Access Board.  Could you explain why the feds have two organizations that seem to address Section 508 compliance?

Also, the reason I said OAST is under both OCR and the federal CIO is because of the second sentence, "OAST is part of both the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Office of Chief Information Officer" at https://www.dhs.gov/office-accessible-systems-technology.  Am I misreading that?

Cheers,
Peter

Bruce Bailey wrote on 10/17/2018 6:18 AM:
Peter (et al.),

There is no “federal office of civil rights” but OCR exist in a few different agencies, like HHS and ED.  But I am pretty sure you were referring to the one at DOJ:
http://www.justice.gov/crt


DOJ does not enforce Section 508.  Federal agencies enforce 508 on themselves, as they do with other statutory requirements.

Your previous post<http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-ig/2018OctDec/0014.html> correctly provides the best links to OAST, but please note that they are not “under the OCR” or the “federal CIO” but are part of the DHS Office of the (DHS) CIO.  It is a pretty straightforward relationship IMHO.

Your previous post also asserted that “The Section 508 folks say they "pivoted" to WCAG 2.1 AA”.  I am not aware of any “508 folks” saying anything like.  We here at the Access Board have been trying to disabuse people of that idea.  The Section 508 citation is to WCAG 2.0 Level AA, and we have no plans to update that citation.

--
Bruce Bailey
Accessibility IT Specialist
U.S. Access Board
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508@access-board.gov<mailto:508@access-board.gov>

Thank you for your questions concerning section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.  Section 508 authorizes the Access Board to provide technical assistance to individuals and Federal departments and agencies concerning the requirements of this section.  Technical assistance provided in this email is intended solely as informal guidance; it is neither a determination of your legal rights or responsibilities, nor a statement of the official views of the U.S. Access Board or any other federal agency.  Any links to non-federal websites are provided as a courtesy and do not represent an endorsement of the linked information, products, or services.


From: Peter Shikli <pshikli@bizware.com><mailto:pshikli@bizware.com>
Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2018 12:59 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org<mailto:w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Subject: Re: AW: Section 508 Auditing

Mario,

OCR is the federal Office of Civil Rights.  They and the Department of Justice (DoJ) are tasked with enforcing Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.  OCR responds when the complaint is on the basis of a class of people (the disabled), the most common situation, and DoJ when the complaint is by an individual.  Both follow administrative law against government agencies rather than civil law involving the private sector.

The Office of Accessible Systems & Technology that I mentioned in my previous post is under the OCR, and also under the federal Chief Information Officer in some curious relationship.

Cheers,
Peter Shikli
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