WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Government site accessibility law

for

From: Karl Groves
Date: Sep 21, 2010 6:18PM

Randi -

As point of clarification: all US Government agencies within the Executive
Branch are required to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
There are several exemptions to Section 508, none of which are likely to be
applicable to a public facing website. In short, yes, government websites
are supposed to be accessible.

The technical and functional provisions of Section 508 (those found under
Subpart B and Subpart C) are - purposely - agnostic when it comes to things
like user agents and assistive technologies. In fact, if you read through
the Functional Performance Criteria (1194.31) you see non-specific
references to assistive technologies. For example, 1194.31(a) says "At least
one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user
vision shall be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people
who are blind or visually impaired shall be provided." This provision
doesn't discuss screen readers, Braille output, or screen magnification,
much less a brand. It simply says "assistive technology used by people who
are blind or visually impaired".

The words "browser" or "user-agent" do not appear at all in the standards.
So, to make a long story short, there's nothing in Section 508 mandating
cross-browser compatibility.


Karl