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Re: WCAG Extensions

for

From: Jon Metz
Date: Aug 24, 2015 7:00AM

On 8/21/15, 3:08 PM, "WebAIM-Forum on behalf of Chagnon | PubCom" wrote:

>FYI, most federal agencies here in Washington DC don't have a clue what
>"508" is.

I feel a need to clarify this statement. A more accurate statement would
be that really small agencies do not know what 508 is (or, for that matter
any of the referenced standards). Accessibility in the government works by
trickling down knowledge to smaller agencies, and it rarely works out very
well. However, nearly 70% of agencies have a Section 508 Office or Program
(1), and 50% of agencies have a written policy for it.

On 8/21/15, 2:33 PM, "WebAIM-Forum on behalf of Kroon, Kurtis@FTB" wrote:


>
>I find it interesting that, to my knowledge, no federal agency has
>decided "Section 508 is getting long in the tooth -- let's use the
>Equivalent Facilitation clause[3] and choose WCAG 2.0 as our new
>accessibility standard."

To the best of my knowledge, the agencies that have decided to implement
1194.5 (Equivalent Facilitation) do not keep a written record of doing so.
Most of it is done ad hoc, so I can only speak to personal experiences
here (so something about anecdotes not being data an obvious disclosure).
Like AAA, the low hanging fruit of making things accessible for a specific
situation are the biggest consideration. These often include making PDF/UA
when easily available, or using Sign Language for prerecorded audio for
e-Learning.

Jon

(1) 2012 Section 508 Report to the President, II. General Processes for
Section 508 Implementation