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Re: regulations on accessibility to government web sites around the world, what exists and what criteria is used to measure it

for

From: Bevi Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Mar 31, 2011 9:18AM

Birkir wrote:
" I know of ADA Title II and section 508, but both are, unfortunately, not
as comprehensive and clear as we would wish them to be."

Did you look at the U.S. Access Board's draft of their forthcoming Section
508 guidelines? Much better than the current (and antiquated) standards.
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/refresh/draft-rule.htm
(note the link at the top of page for a handy PDF version).

If you're looking for style, presentation, and writing samples of
guidelines, you also can view Sec. 508 guidelines written by various U.S.
Federal govt. agencies at
http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?fuseAction=Policies_FedAgencyLinks.

Some agencies have done a better job than others. I think that the Social
Security Administration's work is quite good and I often use their materials
in my 508 classes for other government agencies as a sample of "best
practices."

Here's a quick summary to help you navigate our various websites and U.S.
agencies involved in accessibility:

- Congress: passed the Section 508 amendment.
You might want to read our Federal registery entry about the official
justification behind the forthcoming revisions here:
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/refresh/notice.htm . It's a very
well-written document, especially for government bureacratese!

- U.S. Access Board: is the designated regulatory agency for all
accessibility, not just Sec. 508. It writes our regulations (called
standards and guidelines for this topic). www.access-board.gov

- Dept. of Justice handles public lawsuits about accessibility. Main
website: http://www.justice.gov/ , Accessibility website:
http://www.ada.gov/ .

- The General Services Adminstration is tasked with educating the Federal
workfoce about Section 508 and they, therefore, maintain the
www.section508.gov website. Much of the information on this website is now
out of date, so choose wisely from what's there. As I said earlier, some
agencies do a better job than others when it comes to Section 508 guidance
and implementation.

To search all U.S. Federal websites for information, use Google Uncle Sam:
http://www.google.com/unclesam , a spepcial Google index of just U.S.
Federal websites and information.

- Bevi Chagnon