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Re: Why was software (user agents and authoring tools)left out of the recent SANPRM for the ADA by the DOJ?

for

From: Jonathan Avila
Date: May 16, 2016 1:43PM

> . Much like the ADA Title II SANPRM, the CVAA provides no safe harbor for ACS Web site owners who have exercised due diligence in developing and testing accessible content before launch. ACS site owners are required to know when something in the accessible software chain (OS/UA/AT) breaks, and are under the obligation to make their site work natively, without the help of assistive technology software.

CVAA allows for compliance with the ACS requirements by providing support for third party nominal cost assistive technology. So as long as a nominal-cost AT was available to support use by each of the functional performance criteria then the service provider is under no obligation to make it work with other/all assistive technologies. If the technology they were relying on for access is no longer available then yes they would need to find another way for the service to be functionally accessible. The FCC hinted in their report and order that following the WCAG 2 A and AA guidelines would likely allow a provider to meet the obligations -- but as you point out it's not required and it's not a given -- but likely a good case for the provider to argue.

Jonathan

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group
<EMAIL REMOVED>
703.637.8957 (Office)
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