Thread Subject: Re: If 508 applies to a part, then it applies to the whole?

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From: William Loughborough
Date: Wed, Mar 07 2007 7:00 AM

Sailesh Panchang wrote:
> These gadgets use electronics but are not primarily meant for data handling.
>
"meant for", like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In fact it is
quite possible that the intended use of technology "gadgets" changes
over time with the advent of digitalization. The intent of the rule is
clearly to enable workers using data acquisition/storage/dissemination
systems to access them whether the workers are TABs (Temporarily
Able-Bodied) or PWD (Persons With Disabilities).

The armamentarium of the technologist in this Information Age includes
lots of stuff that once, regrettably stood alone but is now thankfully
included in a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

So if we look at the elements of a laboratory as members of an
information "gestalt" we must demand that all parts of the laboratory be
accessible (and the entire built environment for that matter) to PWD.

Any other view makes a category that need not be accessible, and that's
been the problem for which these regulations must be the solution.

Love.

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