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Re: PDF forms

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From: Bourne, Sarah (ITD)
Date: Aug 16, 2011 2:51PM

Jeni,

Although the intent is to "print and mail", is another, accessible process available? If not, then the form should probably be tagged. Even if a person needs assistance with the printing and mailing part, they should be to at least know what the form is asking for so they can request assistance from someone with an adequate trust level.

And even that may not be considered to be enough by itself. In Massachusetts, the Disability Policy Consortium filed a suit against the MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services and its MassHealth program in the US District Court over exactly this issue. If I'm reading the documents correctly, it was for violation of ADA, Title II, and Section 504, rather than 508, because those are the ones applicable to state (and local) government. (See article "Disabled sue state agency for forms" from the July 27, 2011, Boston Globe: http://articles.boston.com/2011-07-27/news/29821350_1_disabled-residents-americans-with-disabilities-act-plaintiffs ) I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know enough to advise you on how this would translate to federal agencies.

sb

Sarah E. Bourne
Director of Assistive Technology &
Mass.Gov Chief Technology Strategist
Information Technology Division
Commonwealth of Massachusetts
1 Ashburton Pl. rm 1601 Boston MA 02108
617-626-4502  fax 617-626-4516
http://twitter.com/sarahebourne
<EMAIL REMOVED>
http://www.mass.gov/itd


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of McDonald, Jennifer
Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 4:28 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] PDF forms

I'm trying to prioritize my PDF accessibility updates and I'm wondering if anyone know of any requirement (Section 508) to add form fields to PDF files that serve a purpose to print and mail. We are currently tagging and making other updates to forms that previously contained no form fields. We would like to add those later to aid people in filling out the form before printing, but adding those fields is just not in scope at the moment.

Thanks for any info!

Jeni

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