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Re: It's Official - New Sec. 508 is out

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From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Feb 20, 2015 12:07PM

Hi Katie,
Do you know if the Access Board's policies on this are public? I didn't find
anything on their website.

I'm curious how "regular basis" is defined. Since WCAG 2.0 was released in
December of 2008, it'll be 6.5 years later when Sec. 508 will formally adopt
it. Is this what the community wants in the future when WCAG 3.0 is
released?

It might require that the Access Board look at and revise its policies and
operating procedures. It's definitely not keeping up with the changes in
technology. I don't say this to criticize the Board, but whatever they're
doing now isn't working well enough for the people that are affected. 6.5
years is too long.

The technologies for ICT are evolving a lot quicker than the technologies
for architectural buildings.

Maybe they're following policies that were set 20-30 years ago, when they
dealt only with architectural barriers.
Maybe they need more full-time staff dedicated to ICT.
Maybe they need their budget increased by Congress.
Maybe they need to change from meeting every two months to every month.

There are many more suggestions how they can improve the review and
acceptance of changing standards, but they should come from the Access Board
itself.

All we, the accessibility community, can do is let the Access Board know
we're not happy with the 6.5 year wait, and that we want them to improve the
delivery of their services to the US community.

--Bevi Chagnon