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Thread: Regarding Section 508 discussion

Number of posts in this thread: 12 (In chronological order)

From: Karen Sorensen
Date: Mon, Feb 09 2015 10:45AM
Subject: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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Thank you Karen and Bevi! I'm not sure why Katie is so protective of the US
Access Board. Like any legislation, those who it will be applicable to
should scrutinize it closely, ask questions and provide feedback. This
listserv is lucky to have such knowledgeable people participate in it. If
we don't question this direction of the US Access Board, who will? Now who
do we write to on the US Access Board? Or should we write our legislators?
Maybe Bevi or Karen would be willing to post a draft that we could all edit
or just add our names to?
My 2 cents.

Karen M. Sorensen
Accessibility Advocate for Online Courses
www.pcc.edu/access
Portland Community College
971-722-4720
*"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone
regardless of disability is an essential aspect."* Tim Berners-Lee

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mon, Feb 09 2015 11:14AM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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I don't think that Katie is being protective of the access board so much as indicating that the _current_ source of the delay is OMB. I agree that the Access Board has not moved as quickly as possible (the TEITAC committee started its work in 2006) and certainly agree that when there is a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that people should feel free to comment on it.

If you're interested in getting the new 508 moving I suspect that it wouldn't hurt to have your legislators inquire with the OMB.

Next update comes at the next board meeting: http://www.access-board.gov/board-meetings/eventdetail/26/-/board-meeting

AWK

From: Katie Haritos-Shea GMAIL
Date: Mon, Feb 09 2015 11:20AM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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Hi Folks,

I too am concerned about the incredibly long timeline. However, I just happen to know that the US Access Board is a very very small agency, with in fact very few people and resources tasked with this particular enormous task that the entire world seems to be waiting for. They must follow very intense US government-wide policies and procedures for creating, reviewing and getting the necessary approvals to make, change and regulate standards for accessibility of all sorts. Some of these people are people that I care about. Thus what you might view as my protective stance........

So I wouldn't stop your protests and complaints - that keeps the target in view.

I am merely asking for some compassion for these few individual who I suspect would love nothing more than to just make the decisions themselves and be able to deliver what we all our waiting for.

* katie *

Katie Haritos-Shea
Senior Accessibility SME (WCAG/Section 508/ADA/AODA)

Cell: 703-371-5545 | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = | Oakton, VA | LinkedIn Profile | Office: 703-371-5545

From: Tim Harshbarger
Date: Mon, Feb 09 2015 11:35AM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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Just an observation...

I suspect that the point Katie was trying to make is that the lack of progress may be more due to other organizations and processes that the Access Board has to work within rather than due to some internal problem at the Access Board.

If that is the case, it might be more productive to approach the Access Board as an ally to find out what assistance they might need to overcome those challenges.

It definitely makes sense that people would be frustrated with the length of time the Section 508 refresh is taking. Unfortunately, we all make comments that can make it sound like the Access Board is the adversary rather than a partner. And if there are external sources that are making it difficult for the Access Board to make progress, the appearance of those comments probably do not help with fixing the situation.

I definitely would recommend you following your suggestion to contact the Access Board to see if you can get more information on why progress is so slow. That would be a good start in figuring out what might be the most effective thing we can do to get things moving again.

Thanks,
Tim

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Mon, Feb 09 2015 3:13PM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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There are so many reasons why it's taking so long for the new regulations that I don't know where to begin. No one is our enemy, no one is at fault, and yet everyone is at fault, too.
So here's the short version from inside the DC Beltway...

The Access Board was set up in the 1970s after the first legislation for barrier-free access to buildings was passed. Curb-cuts, dimensions for handicapped restrooms, etc. were its only focus for many years. Other areas were assigned to the Access Board over the years, including access to medical diagnostic equipment and since 1998, Sec. 508 accessibility. Their process for developing and revising guidelines -- all guidelines for all areas -- is slow, deliberately slow, in order to get the job done right.

The "board" of the Access Board is comprised of a couple dozen public and federal government members. You can view the roster here: http://www.access-board.gov/the-board/members This board meets every other month, reviews items for all its coverage areas (not just Sec. 508), and when they can't achieve quorum, the meeting's agenda is postponed to the next session. I was told this happened in the fall, no quorum therefore no movement on Sec. 508.

Another factor is that of all the board members listed, I don't see anyone's bio mentioning expertise in computer technologies. Some are architects/engineers and architectural barrier experts, there are quite a few people who've headed up organizations that service people with various disabilities, but not one bio lists any expertise in technology. Don't misinterpret my words: these are highly capable people with impressive credentials...just not in technology, as far as we can tell.

It is a very small agency; budget is only a little over $7 million, and reading the tea leaves from the annual employee survey you can determine that they have 28 employees. You can view the director's annual report here: http://www.access-board.gov/the-board/budget-and-performance/performance-and-accountability-report. My conclusion is that they are understaffed, which is not unusual today at any DC agency; staff reductions have been in place since the Reagan administration of the 1980s, and agency budgets were decimated in 2002 with the beginning of US war efforts. The money had to come from somewhere, so we kissed our social services goodbye and sent it overseas.

At OMB (the agency responsible for reviewing all US federal regulations), their budget and personnel problems are similar. I believe the OMB office reviewing the Sec. 508 refresh is the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/oira. The list of regulations under review in 2014 is here: http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/eoReviewSearch;jsessionid=FF929CABBC83708759EE16FB293754BD and I don't see the Section 508 Refresh on their list. Maybe this isn't the right office? Maybe no one put it on the list? And I wonder how many people at that review office know how to make an accessible Word document themselves.

My final comments:

1. I think Sec. 508 is caught up in a dysfunctional government system. It will take a large public outcry to see any change. (I'll give suggestions for that later.)

2. No one in government understands what Sec. 508 is, how to make documents and websites accessible, and how much in-accessibility hurts our citizens. People are stymied and, therefore, nothing changes. No one wants to push the paperwork forward because they don't understand the consequences.

3. Whoever's desk the paperwork is sitting on most likely can't make an accessible Word. The fear inside government agencies is pure doom and gloom; they'll have to do twice as much work in the same workday for the same pay. I deal with this misconception every day. As some of us on the list have said, all they need is a basic MS Word class plus a little extra and voila! Most government documents become accessible.

And that's the short version! If you want the long version, we'll have to do it over beers at the local pub <grin>.

Regarding what we can do:
My first thought is that we need to develop a gross-roots lobbying effort like every other cause! Numbers mean a lot, especially lots of citizens complaining about discrimination to their senators and congressional representatives. Only senators, representatives, and the President have the clout to question an agency, or check with its director and ask what's going on.

But before we ask for something, we, the community, need to figure out exactly what we're going to ask for! Right now, none of us know what the latest draft of Sec. 508 states. The most recent version online is from 2011, 4 years ago. What's changed in it since then?

And given the errors Karen talked about in the Access Board's session last week on making accessible Word documents, I'm really worried what's in the latest 508 draft! Hopefully their crazy techniques aren't being written into the regulations themselves.

What to ask your senators and representative to do?
1. Raise the Access Board's budget to allow it to hire more people specifically for accessible technology, not architectural barriers or their other subjects. Technology changes faster than doors and toilets. They probably need some technology + accessibility experts on staff, and also on the board.
2. Ask him/her to see where its review is at OMB.

And ask President Obama to do the same. The White House has put out "presidential statements" over the years stating how all the agencies must meet Sec. 508 regulations. Well, without the new Sec. 508 Refresh, the agencies are having a hard time doing that! He needs to put some muscle on the Access Board and OMB, get the logjam fixed, and get 508 on the books, ASAP.

Those with disabilities should personalize their letters. Tell them about your disability and how inaccessible websites, Word documents, PDFs, etc. has affected your life. Ask your friends and family members to also write.

Make sure your politicians don't let their politics get in the way of your rights. This is not a Democratic, Republican, Tea-Party, Libertarian, Green Party, or Whatever Party issue. It's a people issue; disabilities affect people of all political persuasions, creeds, races, and economic groups. Don't let your Senators or Congressional Representative hijack this into a political broo-ha-ha.

You can contact your Senators through the Senate website here: http://www.senate.gov/ If you don't know their names, use the form field Find Your Senators in the upper left. That will take you to their individual webpage where there is a link to email them directly (for security purposes, all email to Congress goes through these websites, so don't try to circumvent them).

Contact your Congressional Representative here: http://www.house.gov/ Same as the Senate; use the form field Find Your Representatives in the upper left, and email them from their individual webpage.

And contact President Obama here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments

These emails are screened by aides, not your senator, congressman, or the President. But...and this is a very significant "but"... when the number of emails reaches a critical mass, the aide tallies the numbers and passes them along to the boss. There really is strength in numbers.

We don't want everyone to post the same email: that's a negative and will flag everything as spam. I think I've given enough background above so that you can write something in your own words. Keep it short, 3 or 4 sentences at most. Don't badmouth anyone. And keep your eyes on the prize; ask for the main item which is to get OMB to complete their review and hand it back to the Access Board.

And don't worry if you didn't vote for these people: that's irrelevant. It's the law that they must represent voters and nonvoters alike. You do, however, have to be a US citizen.

--Bevi Chagnon
(closet policy wonk)

From: John Foliot
Date: Mon, Feb 09 2015 3:49PM
Subject: Re: Community Activism (wasRegarding Section 508 discussion)
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Chagnon | PubCom wrote:
>
>
> Regarding what we can do:
<snip>
> And contact President Obama here:
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
>

Actually Bevi, there is also this: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov

However you/we have just 30 days to get 100,000 signatures in order to get a
response from the White House. And it's up to you/us to get to 150
signatures in order for your petition to be publicly searchable on the We
the People tool on WhiteHouse.gov.

I am confident that we could get the 150 signatures in a few hours (Social
media!), but can we get 100,000? Hitting that number would take a conserted
effort from a number of groups to mobilize their base: AFB, NFB, and AFD
quickly come to mind, and many more like that. There is also the
community(ies) of people who work in EDU and GOV spaces that deal with these
issues routinely, as well as many similar folk in the private sector (like,
you know, many of the people reading this now :-) )

However, we don't get multiple kicks at the can here, so the advance work
leading up to a petition would need to be covered by a grass-roots effort.
Perhaps tying the launch (or completion) of the petition to GAAD (Global
Accessibility Awareness Day) might help
(http://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/gaad.html) - this year it's May
15th. Personally, at this time I can't jump in too deep on this effort (and
besides, I'm Canadian eh), but happy to lend a vote of moral support and any
help with broadcasting a plan.

Tossing it out there for thoughts.

JF

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Tue, Feb 10 2015 12:29PM
Subject: Re: Community Activism (wasRegarding Section 508discussion)
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Yes, social media is definitely one method.
To have the highest impact, It should be organized by our organizations.
Anyone out there want to take on this role?
--Bevi Chagnon

From: Jennison Mark Asuncion
Date: Fri, Feb 13 2015 4:39PM
Subject: Re: Community Activism (wasRegarding Section 508 discussion)
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Slight correction (apparently we didn't update everywhere), Global
Accessibility Awareness Day this year is in fact on May 21 not May 15.

Jennison

On 2/9/15, John Foliot < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Chagnon | PubCom wrote:
>>
>>
>> Regarding what we can do:
> <snip>
>> And contact President Obama here:
>> http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
>>
>
> Actually Bevi, there is also this: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov
>
> However you/we have just 30 days to get 100,000 signatures in order to get
> a
> response from the White House. And it's up to you/us to get to 150
> signatures in order for your petition to be publicly searchable on the We
> the People tool on WhiteHouse.gov.
>
> I am confident that we could get the 150 signatures in a few hours (Social
> media!), but can we get 100,000? Hitting that number would take a conserted
> effort from a number of groups to mobilize their base: AFB, NFB, and AFD
> quickly come to mind, and many more like that. There is also the
> community(ies) of people who work in EDU and GOV spaces that deal with
> these
> issues routinely, as well as many similar folk in the private sector (like,
> you know, many of the people reading this now :-) )
>
> However, we don't get multiple kicks at the can here, so the advance work
> leading up to a petition would need to be covered by a grass-roots effort.
> Perhaps tying the launch (or completion) of the petition to GAAD (Global
> Accessibility Awareness Day) might help
> (http://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/gaad.html) - this year it's May
> 15th. Personally, at this time I can't jump in too deep on this effort (and
> besides, I'm Canadian eh), but happy to lend a vote of moral support and
> any
> help with broadcasting a plan.
>
> Tossing it out there for thoughts.
>
> JF
>
>
>

From: Phill Jenkins
Date: Sat, Feb 14 2015 12:42PM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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I have good news to share with you about the update of the Access Board's
Section 508 standards and Section 255 guidelines. Yesterday, the Office
of Management and Budget cleared our notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM);

it will now be sent to the Federal Register for publication. We will make
the NPRM and supporting documents available on our website (
http://www.access-board.gov) on Wednesday, February 18. It should be
published in the Federal Register shortly after that.

We will provide a 90 day public comment period and will hold two public
hearings on March 5 and March 11. Here are the details for the public
hearings:

March 5, 2015 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (PT)
Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel
One Market Place
Mission Beach A & B (3rd floor)
San Diego, CA 92101

Note: This hearing will be held in conjunction with the CSUN Conference
but persons wishing only to testify need not register for the conference.

March 11, 2015 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (ET)
U.S. Access Board Conference Room
1331 F Street, NW
Suite 800
Washington, DC 20004

Witnesses can testify in person at the hearing in San Diego. Witnesses
can testify in person or by telephone at the hearing in Washington, DC.
Copies of the rule will not be available at the hearings. Call-in
information and a communication access real-time translation (CART) web
streaming link for the Washington, DC hearing will be posted before the
hearing at http://www.access-board.gov/ictrefresh.

For information on pre-registering to testify, please contact Kathy
Johnson at (202) 272-0041, (202) 272-0082 (TTY), or
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = .

If you have questions about the rule once it is made public, please
contact Tim Creagan at (202) 272-0016, (202) 272-0074 (TTY), or
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = .

P.S. We will also offer a free webinar about the proposed rule on Tuesday,

March 31 from 1:00 pm - 2:30pm (ET); you can sign up for the webinar at
http://www.adaconferences.org/CIOC/

David M. Capozzi
Executive Director
U.S. Access Board
1331 F Street, NW
Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20004-1111

202-272-0010 (direct dial)
202-272-0054 (IP TTY)
202-480-7149 (mobile)

= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = (e-mail)
www.access-board.gov (web site)

Visit our website and sign up for one of our free webinars.

re-posting my earlier post, it didn't come through my digest, so I wasn't
sure it was posted.
Regards,
Phill Jenkins,
IBM Accessibility

From: Katie Haritos-Shea
Date: Sat, Feb 14 2015 10:47PM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
← Previous message | Next message →

Wonderful news Phill!

* katie *

Katie Haritos-Shea @ GMAIL
On Feb 14, 2015 2:44 PM, "Phill Jenkins" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> I have good news to share with you about the update of the Access Board's
> Section 508 standards and Section 255 guidelines. Yesterday, the Office
> of Management and Budget cleared our notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM);
>
> it will now be sent to the Federal Register for publication. We will make
> the NPRM and supporting documents available on our website (
> http://www.access-board.gov) on Wednesday, February 18. It should be
> published in the Federal Register shortly after that.
>
> We will provide a 90 day public comment period and will hold two public
> hearings on March 5 and March 11. Here are the details for the public
> hearings:
>
> March 5, 2015 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (PT)
> Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel
> One Market Place
> Mission Beach A & B (3rd floor)
> San Diego, CA 92101
>
> Note: This hearing will be held in conjunction with the CSUN Conference
> but persons wishing only to testify need not register for the conference.
>
> March 11, 2015 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. (ET)
> U.S. Access Board Conference Room
> 1331 F Street, NW
> Suite 800
> Washington, DC 20004
>
> Witnesses can testify in person at the hearing in San Diego. Witnesses
> can testify in person or by telephone at the hearing in Washington, DC.
> Copies of the rule will not be available at the hearings. Call-in
> information and a communication access real-time translation (CART) web
> streaming link for the Washington, DC hearing will be posted before the
> hearing at http://www.access-board.gov/ictrefresh.
>
> For information on pre-registering to testify, please contact Kathy
> Johnson at (202) 272-0041, (202) 272-0082 (TTY), or
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = .
>
> If you have questions about the rule once it is made public, please
> contact Tim Creagan at (202) 272-0016, (202) 272-0074 (TTY), or
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = .
>
> P.S. We will also offer a free webinar about the proposed rule on Tuesday,
>
> March 31 from 1:00 pm - 2:30pm (ET); you can sign up for the webinar at
> http://www.adaconferences.org/CIOC/
>
>
> David M. Capozzi
> Executive Director
> U.S. Access Board
> 1331 F Street, NW
> Suite 1000
> Washington, DC 20004-1111
>
> 202-272-0010 (direct dial)
> 202-272-0054 (IP TTY)
> 202-480-7149 (mobile)
>
> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = (e-mail)
> www.access-board.gov (web site)
>
> Visit our website and sign up for one of our free webinars.
>
> re-posting my earlier post, it didn't come through my digest, so I wasn't
> sure it was posted.
> > Regards,
> Phill Jenkins,
> IBM Accessibility
> > > >

From: Chagnon | PubCom
Date: Sun, Feb 15 2015 5:57AM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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From: JAKE JOEHL
Date: Sun, Feb 15 2015 8:12AM
Subject: Re: Regarding Section 508 discussion
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This is great news indeed. I'm excited to see what's all in store for the refresh. I've been rather quiet on here as of late due to email issues, but thanks bunches for this.
Jake

Please visit me at http://jazzyjj.dreamwidth.org .
JAKE JOEHL
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

On Feb 15, 2015, at 6:57 AM, Chagnon | PubCom < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you times infinity!

--Bevi Chagnon

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