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Thread: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
Number of posts in this thread: 15 (In chronological order)
From: Shrirang Sahasrabudhe
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 4:20AM
Subject: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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Hi all,
Is in any country accessibility audits are made mandatory for all websites in order to enforce the respective accessibility laws?
As I understand web accessibility legislatures like section 508 will come into picture only when somebody will sue the. site. Am i right?
Thanks
Shri
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Shrirang Sahasrabudhe,
Pune, India.
Phone: 0091-020-4227558.
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From: John E. Brandt
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 7:00AM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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In the United States, Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act only
currently applies to US federal government websites and IT services. Despite
the fact it has been "the law" for several years, there are still a number
of government websites that do not completely conform to Section 508. I know
of none being "sued."
There is a difference of opinion as to whether other governmental or
pseudo-governmental organizations need to also comply with Section 508. The
law does not require non-governmental organizations such as businesses or
individuals to comply.
In a number of states, the state governments have adopted Section 508 or
some form of web accessibility standards. Here in Maine, the web
accessibility standards are a combination of Section 508, WCAG and some of
our own unique requirements.
The issue of pseudo-governmental compliance is also at issue. For example,
should the state university system comply? Should all of the public schools
comply? Should non-governmental organizations that get most of their money
through grants from the state comply?
Also in the U.S. we have the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) which is
a more general law relating to accessibility. I believe that the recent
lawsuit brought against Target department stores' for having a
non-accessible website was based upon ADA compliance as well as some state
disability discrimination laws.
John E. Brandt
Augusta, Maine USA
www.jebswebs.com
From: Cheryl D Wise
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 9:10AM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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Aren't universities under section 504?
Cheryl D Wise
MS MVP FrontPage
http://by-expression.com
Online instructor led training http://starttoweb.com
From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 10:50AM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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Universities under 508? Nope. Only Federal agencies, not even the Judiciary
or Congress. Some argue that receipt of federal dollars requires 508
compliance - it doesn't.
There is one exception to that las statement - sort of. States that receive
funds through the Assistive Technology Act (see
http://www.ataporg.org/aboutus.asp) are required to provide an assurance of
508 compliance. From the ATAP site:
<blockquote>
States which receive Federal funds under the Assistive Technology Act of
1998 are required by that Act to provide an assurance of compliance with
Section 508. Currently all states and territories receive Assistive
Technology Act dollars and all have some form of Section 508 assurance.
These state Section 508 assurances most frequently take the form of a simple
assurance statement with limited or no specifics regarding implementation.
</blockquote>
Read extensive material on Accessibility and the law in chapters by Cynthia
Waddell in the new and exciting, "Web Accessibility - Web Standards and
Regulatory Compliance" by Thatcher, Burks, Heilmann, Henry, Kirkpatric,
Lauke, Lawson, Regan, Rutter, Urban and Waddell,
http://jimthatcher.com/book2.htm.
Jim
Accessibility Consulting: http://jimthatcher.com/
512-306-0931
From: Jon Gunderson
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 1:10PM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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Right,
Section 504 states that instructional and administrative materials must be available to students in a timely manner, ideally as the same as other students and that they need to be in a format that is accessible to the student.
There is not specific reference to the web, since the law was passed in 1972, but it can be used by students in OCR cases as the basis of a complaint about in accessible web resources.
Jon
---- Original message ----
>Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 10:03:13 -0500
>From: "Cheryl D Wise" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>Subject: RE: [WebAIM] are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
>To: "'WebAIM Discussion List'" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
>
>Aren't universities under section 504?
>
>Cheryl D Wise
>MS MVP FrontPage
>http://by-expression.com
>Online instructor led training http://starttoweb.com
>
>
>
From: Jim Thatcher
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 1:40PM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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Arghhh - and I misread the question as referring to 508. It was about 504!!
Sorry about that.
Jim
Accessibility Consulting: http://jimthatcher.com/
512-306-0931
From: Deborah Buck
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 3:00PM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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Just a point of clarification- the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 was
amended in 2004 and with those amendments the applicability of Section 508
to states was finally clarified. The AT Act solely requires state AT
Programs to comply with Section 508 - not the state in its entirety- which
was unclear in the past.
State AT Programs are required to develop a state plan and provide an
assurance to the US Department of Education that they will comply with
Section 508. However the AT Act limits states compliance with 508 only to
those activities which are required under the Act and that are supported
with grant dollars received under the AT Act. I've excerpted the pertinent
section of the AT Act below
Assistive Technology Act of 2004, as amended Public Law 108-364 29 USC
3001
SEC. 4. STATE GRANTS FOR ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY.
(d) APPLICATION.-
(1) IN GENERAL.-
(6) ASSURANCES.-The application shall include assurances that-
(G) activities carried out in the State that are authorized under this Act,
and supported by Federal funds received under this Act, will comply with the
standards established by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers
Compliance Board under section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (20
U.S.C. 794d); and
As pointed out, many states have adopted Section 508 either through state
statute, executive order or thru a policy and the majority of states have
"something" relative to web accessibility although the commitment and
clarity of the requirements run the full spectrum. The range of state 508
laws is as broad as the range of web accessibility policies that exist. For
example, some state 508 laws only address access for people who are blind or
have other visual disabilities. Some state laws include public universities
while some state 508 laws specifically exempt their public universities. At
the state level - an across the board adoption of Section 508 is still very
fluid.
Deborah V. Buck, Executive Director
Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs (ATAP)
PO Box 32
Delmar, NY 12054
518.439.1263 voice/TTY
518.439.3451 fax
518.441.7204 cell
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
http://www.ataporg.org
From: Webb, KerryA
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 4:50PM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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> Hi all,
> Is in any country accessibility audits are made mandatory for all
> websites in order to enforce the respective accessibility laws?
>
There's no requirement for audits in Australia.
Kerry
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From: Raena
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 5:30PM
Subject: Re: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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On 9/5/06, Webb, KerryA < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> > Is in any country accessibility audits are made mandatory for all
> > websites in order to enforce the respective accessibility laws?
> >
>
> There's no requirement for audits in Australia.
Well, depends on who's requiring it and in what context. The Federal
Government's minimum standard says that sites must be tested, and this has
been so since 2000.
http://www.agimo.gov.au/practice/mws/accessibility
Generally speaking, when considering the DDA's statements about the
requirement to make 'reasonable adjustments,' I think it'd be hard to argue
that testing your adjustments wouldn't be a necessary part of the process.
From: Jon Gunderson
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 5:50PM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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The Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) has recently started requiring all public universities and community collges to report on their current state of web accessibility and their plans to improve accessibility.
Reporting Requirements
http://www.ibhe.state.il.us/urg/reports/2006/webaccessibility/guidelines.pdf
First Year Results
http://www.ibhe.state.il.us/urg/reportlist.asp
Jon
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D.
Director of IT Accessibility Services
Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services (CITES)
and
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Disability Resources and Education Services (DRES)
Voice: (217) 244-5870
Fax: (217) 333-0248
Cell: (217) 714-6313
E-mail: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
WWW: http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/
WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/
From: Stephanie Warenski
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 6:00PM
Subject: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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Now I know that any organization receiving federal funds has to comply with
Title V, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Many universities
receive federal funds have to comply with this section. Why is Section 508
different. Maybe I need to research the law some more.
Stephanie
> Universities under 508? Nope. Only Federal agencies, not even the
> Judiciary
> or Congress. Some argue that receipt of federal dollars requires
> 508
> compliance - it doesn't.
>
> There is one exception to that las statement - sort of. States that
> receive
> funds through the Assistive Technology Act (see
> http://www.ataporg.org/aboutus.asp) are required to provide an
> assurance of
> 508 compliance. From the ATAP site:
>
> <blockquote>
> States which receive Federal funds under the Assistive Technology
> Act of
> 1998 are required by that Act to provide an assurance of compliance
> with
> Section 508. Currently all states and territories receive
> Assistive
> Technology Act dollars and all have some form of Section 508
> assurance.
> These state Section 508 assurances most frequently take the form of
> a simple
> assurance statement with limited or no specifics regarding
> implementation.
> </blockquote>
>
> Read extensive material on Accessibility and the law in chapters by
> Cynthia
> Waddell in the new and exciting, "Web Accessibility - Web Standards
> and
> Regulatory Compliance" by Thatcher, Burks, Heilmann, Henry,
> Kirkpatric,
> Lauke, Lawson, Regan, Rutter, Urban and Waddell,
> http://jimthatcher.com/book2.htm.
>
> Jim
>
> Accessibility Consulting: http://jimthatcher.com/
> 512-306-0931
>
>
From: Webb, KerryA
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 6:10PM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
← Previous message | Next message →
Raena wrote:
> On 9/5/06, Webb, KerryA < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> >
> > > Hi all,
> > > Is in any country accessibility audits are made mandatory for
all
> > > websites in order to enforce the respective accessibility laws?
> > >
> >
> > There's no requirement for audits in Australia.
>
>
> Well, depends on who's requiring it and in what context. The Federal
> Government's minimum standard says that sites must be tested, and this
has
> been so since 2000.
> http://www.agimo.gov.au/practice/mws/accessibility
>
> Generally speaking, when considering the DDA's statements about the
> requirement to make 'reasonable adjustments,' I think it'd be hard to
> argue
> that testing your adjustments wouldn't be a necessary part of the
process.
>
The question was about audits being mandatory, and that was what I was
addressing.
There's no argument about the requirement for testing as a part of site
development - either in the Commonwealth or in other jurisdictions.
Kerry
(which I speak particularly of the experience of the ACT Government)
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From: Raena
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 10:10PM
Subject: Re: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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On 9/5/06, Webb, KerryA < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> The question was about audits being mandatory, and that was what I was
> addressing.
>
> There's no argument about the requirement for testing as a part of site
> development - either in the Commonwealth or in other jurisdictions.
Maybe I'm not clear on the difference between testing for accessibility
while implementing, versus testing for accessibility any other time.
I would hope one would want the same criteria for both instances.
From: Al Sparber
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 10:20PM
Subject: Re: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
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From: "Cheryl D Wise"
> Aren't universities under section 504?
Not sure about colleges, but primary schools and high schools most
assuredly are. My wife directs gifted and special education for a
school system and 504 is very serious business. Whether anyone has
challenged the accessibility of a school web site, vis a vis Section
504, is something I don't know, but there would be good precedent for
such an action, in my opinion.
--
Al Sparber
PVII
http://www.projectseven.com
From: Webb, KerryA
Date: Mon, Sep 04 2006 11:40PM
Subject: RE: are accessibility audits mandetory in any nation?
← Previous message | No next message
Raena wrote:
>
> On 9/5/06, Webb, KerryA < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> > The question was about audits being mandatory, and that was what I
was
> > addressing.
> >
> > There's no argument about the requirement for testing as a part of
site
> > development - either in the Commonwealth or in other jurisdictions.
>
>
> Maybe I'm not clear on the difference between testing for
accessibility
> while implementing, versus testing for accessibility any other time.
>
> I would hope one would want the same criteria for both instances.
>
OK - the question was about whether it was mandatory to conduct audits -
or that was my interpretation at least.
In my experience, an audit is what is undertaken some time after a
system is put in place and is usually carried out by a body other than
that responsible for the development. The Australian Government has the
Australian National Audit Office that does all sorts of audits - not
just on IT-based systems. In the ACT Government, we have our own
Auditor-General's Office which does the same sort of thing.
To the best of my knowledge, neither of these organisations has a
mandatory requirement to audit websites for accessibility. But, there
are certainly requirements for developers to ensure that their websites
meet certain standards for Accessibility.
If an Audit organisation conducted an audit of the accessibility of a
website, it would use the same criteria as the developed did when
checking that the site was Accessible.
But maybe Shri's initial question didn't refer to that sort of Audit.
Kerry
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