SIGIA-L Mail Archives: SIGIA-L: ADA/508 Summary
SIGIA-L: ADA/508 Summary
From: Tim Salam (ia_at_timsalam.com)
Date: Wed Jun 20 2001 - 12:00:29 EDT
...As promised! I'd like to thank everyone who contributed to this thread.
Your comments and help were much needed and greatly appreciated. Also,
thanks for everyone's patience for me to get this summary happening! On
with the show...
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Bibliography & Reference Material:
**Fraser, Beth M. (1998). Including users with disabilities: Designing
library Web sites for accessibility. Choice, 35 (suppl. Aug. 1998), p.35-7.
**Hansen, Miriam B. (1999). Designing Web pages for people with
disabilities. The Unabashed Librarian No. 111, p. 19.
**Jobe, Margaret M. (Fall 1999). Guidelines on Web accessibility for the
disabled. Colorado Libraries, 25(3), p. 45-46.
**Kautzman, Amy M. (1998). Virtuous, virtual access: Making Web pages
accessible to people with disabilities. Accessed July 11, 2000, at:
http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/jun98/story3.htm
**Lescher, John F. (2000). Designing Web sites for the blind. EContent,
23(2) Apr./May 2000, p.14-23.
**Plotkin, Marc J. (2000). Accessibility guidelines for federal Web sites.
Internet Connection, 6(10), p. 1-4.
**Rouse, Veronica. (Jun. 1999). Making the Web accessible. Computers in
Libraries, 19(6), p. 48-53.
**Solomon, Karen. (2000). Disability divide: Finding unexpected barriers
online, many Internet users are pushing companies to make good on the
promise of universal access. The Standard Jun. 26, 2000 accessed Jul. 7,
2000, at: http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,16236,00.html
**Tedeschi, Bob. (2001). Advocates of People with Disabilities Take Online
Stores to Task. New York Times, January 1, 2001.
**Valenza, Joyce Kasman. (2000). Surfing blind. NetConnect (supplement to
Library Journal 125(16), Oct. 1, 2000)\, p.34-36.
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Websites:
508 Standards
List of Final Standards from the Access Board:
www.access-board.gov/news/508-final.htm
GSA: www.gsa.gov/Portal/main.jsp?catcode=1-8-1-3-0-0
Department of Justice: www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/
Federal IT Accessibility Initiative: www.section508.gov/
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative: www.w3.org/WAI/
Tools, Info, etc.
Designing Usable Web Sites: http://usableweb.com/
Macromedia Suite of Tools:
http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/
The Accessible Web Author's Toollkit: http://aware.hwg.org/tools/
Bobby: www.cast.org/bobby/
Color Deficient Vision: www.visibone.com/colorblind/
Captioning: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/access/
Accessible Tables: www.webaim.org/tutorials/tables
Accessibility Resources: http://www.usability.gov/accessibility/index.html
Section 508 Mailing List: http://trace.wisc.edu:8080/guest/listutil/SEC508
Gary Perlman's accessibility/Section 508 resources:
http://hcibib.org/accessibility/
Software companies with automated 508 testing tools:
http://www.hisoftware.com
http://www.interliant.com
http://www.508audit.com
http://www.0-1.com
http://www.508compliant.com
http://www.ssbtechnologies.com
http://www.508fixers.com
Optavia www.optavia.com also teaches courses on Section 508 compliance from
a design and usability perspective.
Corporate Accessibility Websites
IBM: http://www-3.ibm.com/able/overview.html
Microsoft: http://www-3.ibm.com/able/overview.html
Adobe: http://access.adobe.com/
Apple: http://www.apple.com/disability/
Trace Center: http://trace.wisc.edu/
Assistive Technologies
IBM Home Page Reader: http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html
JAWS: http://www.hj.com/JAWS/JAWS.html
Lynx: http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm
Acrobat Access Plug-in: http://www.fdisk.com/doslynx/lynxport.htm
Legal Aspects:
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Public Law 336 of the
101st Congress, enacted July 26, 1990. Text available online:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/pubs/ada.txt
Mason, Michael. (2000). Does the ADA Apply to the Web? Washington
Technology. September 25, 2000. Available online:
http://www.washingtontechnology.com
Pressman, Walter. (2000). Carrot and Stick. The Industry Standard
Magazine. May 8, 2000. Available online:
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,14544,00.html
U.S. Department of Justice. (1996). Correspondence between Deval
Patrick, Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, U. S.
Department of Justice, and U.S. Senator Tom Harkin. September 9, 1996,
Available online: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/foia/tal712.txt
[This is the opinion that advocates of applying ADA to the Web seem to
think is the Holy Grail.]
U.S. Department of Justice. (2000). Enforcing the ADA: A Status Report
from the Department of Justice, April-September 2000. Available online:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/aprsep00.htm.
[Oddly enough, this 41-page report doesn't appear to mention the
Internet.]
U.S. Department of Justice. (2001). ADA Regulations and Technical
Assistance Materials. Available online:
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/publicat.htm
U.S. House of Representatives. (2000). Applicability of the Americans
with Disabilities Act (ADA) to Private Internet Sites. Hearing Before
the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary.
106th Congress, 2nd Session, February 9, 2000. Available online:
http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/judiciary/hju65010.000/hju65010_0.HTM#1
20
[As far as I know, Congress held this hearing but didn't follow-up with
a report, opinion, or anything else.]
Waddell, Cynthia. (1998). Applying the ADA to the Internet: A Web
Accessibility Standard. Presented to the American Bar Association, June
17, 1998. Available online: http://www.rit.edu/~easi/law/weblaw1.htm
[This woman is in charge of the City of San Jose's Web accessibility
standard. She seems to believe that the ADA is applicable.]
Waddell, Cynthia. (2000a). The National Federation of the Blind Sues
AOL. Human Rights, 27(1). Available online:
http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/winter00humanrights/waddell2.htm
Waddell, Cynthia. (2000b). Will the National Federation of the Blind
Renew Their ADA Web Complaint Against AOL? Disability Compliance
Bulletin and National Disability Law Reporter, 18(5): 9. Available
online: http://www.icdri.org/aol_nfb.htm
Waddell, Cynthia and Mark D. Urban. (2000). An Overview of Law & Policy
for IT Accessibility. A Resource for State and Municipal IT Policy
Makers. Available online: http://www.icdri.org/an_overview_of_law_.htm
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Comments:
---------------Michael Fry wrote:
I'm definitely not an expert, but here's what I (think I) know:
First, I notice that a lot of people responding to your question are
mentioning Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Note that Section 508
only legally applies to electronic and IT developed, procured and
maintained by U.S. Federal agencies--as well as those used by their
employees or the general public. If you're inquiring on behalf of a
resource that isn't related to the Federal gov't, e.g. a private
business, a municipal Web site, etc., Section 508 doesn't apply (though
it might be a good template for accessibility guidelines).
As for the ADA, the *text* of it is available at
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/pubs/ada.txt. Titles II and III are what
people typically refer to when talking about the Internet.
Unfortunately, if you want to know precisely how the ADA applies to the
Web, it may not be so simple: it seems the jury is still out on whether
or not it actually does. The ADA doesn't specifically mention the
Internet--it was passed in 1990, so that's no shocker--but the Act's
failure to mention Internet resources is one of the common arguments
against applying it to Web sites. In other words, "It doesn't *say*
anything about Web sites, so it must not apply."
The Depts. of Justice and Education both issued statements in 1996 that
effectively said that the ADA *does* apply to the Internet, but the
courts haven't consistently agreed--they've issued conflicting opinions,
most of which seem to revolve around the issue of whether or not Web
sites are "places of public accommodation." (Again, everything in the
ADA, including who's covered by it and how they can comply, is targeted
at physical structures, e.g. restaurants, hotels, businesses, etc., so
it's apparently all a matter of interpretation.)
A lot of people seem to think the DoJ opinion
(http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/foia/tal712.txt) is what's likely to hold, but
since the courts can't seem to agree, I don't know what the final word
is on this. [If you here something 'definitive' please post it to the
list.] My guess is that if you adhere to either the W3C's guidelines or
those req'd by Section 508, you'll cover yourself. (Obviously, the ADA
doesn't spell out what a Web site would have to do to be compliant.)"
---------------
---------------Stacy Surla wrote:
Make no mistake, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (as amended
by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998)does apply to the web and other
Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) procured by or created by the
Federal government. The Final FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) rule at
www.section508.gov/docs/Final99607A.htm incorporates the EIT Standards for
acquisition of Web and other EIT for the government.
---------------
---------------Dan Gardner wrote:
I wrote a short paper for a graduate information law class which
outlined section 508 and touched on ADA and related rulings briefly. It is
written as an overview and a user's guide to section 508 and its available
at: http://www.seerfish.com/pdf/508.pdf
---------------
---------------Nancy Sims wrote:
I don't think anyone's disputing that Section 508 applies. I thought
Michael's post summarized the issues surrounding the application (or
non-application) of the _ADA_ to Internet quite well:
The ADA itself might possibly apply to the Internet. As Michael said,
the DOJ and DOE have said that it does apply, but courts have not been
able to agree on whether websites can be considered "public
accommodations", and if they can, how to determine which sites are
public accommodations.
As you (Stacy) note, Section 508 applies to technology procured or
created by the Federal gov't. The reason the tech industry is taking
note of 508 is that if they want to sell their services to the Feds, they
must be 508-compliant. But there's probably quite a few places that are
thinking, "Well, we don't have any intention of selling to the
government, so we don't have to worry about being in compliance with
Section 508."
If the ADA _does_ apply to the Internet, then even groups who don't
intend to have anything to do with the Federal government might have to
make their resources accessible.
In the same way that a privately-owned restaurant has to provide access
and allow service animals, etc. under the current interpretation of the
ADA; Yahoo and Google and Amazon and MapQuest and tons of other sites
could be considered areas of public accommodation and therefore be
required to make themselves accessible.
Section 508 is making designers, architects, and lots of other IT workers
sit up and take notice; if anyone ever really gets the ADA applied to a
website or other Internet resource, it'll have an even bigger impact.
Besides, it's just good principles to go for universal design in the first
place, but others may not agree with me there.
---------------
---------------Stacy Surla wrote:
Oh gosh, what Nancy Sims says. 'Scuze me, you are right, ADA and Section
508 aren't the same thing.
In fact, Section 508 doesn't even "follow the money" - that is, an
organization that receives Federal funding doesn't have to make its
information technologies accessible -- only if it's receiving money to
procure/create information technologies for the Fed, is it required to make
those specific things 508 compliant. So, having ADA explicitly address info
techologies would, presumably, have a further-reaching impact than 508
alone. Still, the procurement power of the Federal government is already
making a difference to web accessibility. For instance, Adobe is making
quite an effort to make sure PDFs can readily be made accessible to screen
readers and such devices.
I guess I'm sensitive from hearing so many folks say that web accessibility
doesn't or shouldn't apply to them. Sorry, I mistook the aim of your
comments.
---------------
---------------Elisabeth Paine wrote:
Section 508 will apply to most state governments as well. Although 508
directly refers to federal procurement, the Department of Education has
decided that it applies to any state that recieves funds through the
Assistive Technology Act. I would be really surprised if this wasn't all
states. It may also trickle down to the municipal level if a state requires
any body receiving state funds to adhere to the same guidelines the state
does.
I kept finding vague references to this in a variety of documents, but here
is the one that gave me the most direct info:
http://www.icdri.org/SL508overview.html
---------------
---------------Michael Fry wrote:
My distinct
impression is that there's no such thing as 'ADA compliance' for Web
sites. That is, it has not been conclusively determined by the courts
that the ADA applies to Web sites. Moreover, there are no written
standards or technical specs for how one might achieve such compliance
should it be required in the future.
The Dept. of Justice has argued, both in and out of court, that the ADA
is applicable to the Web (see either
http://www.teleport.com/~kford/webwatch/0023.html or
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/foia/tal712.txt). While many observers believe
that the ADA should and will ultimately be found applicable, the courts
haven't yet unanimously agreed. (See
http://www.libertyresources.org/news/news_22.html as well as the
references from my earlier post for more on the various opinions.)
In any case, I'm aware of no discussion relevant to actual guidelines or
specs that would ensure compliance were it suddently required. In other
words, I'm not sure how compliance would be measured or enforced.
Section 508 and the W3C's WAI guidelines do exist, but they aren't
technically related to the ADA. The former are targeted to (what
certainly seems to be) a different audience, i.e. Federal agencies. The
latter are, to my knowledge, merely suggestions from a group of
concerned citizens, so to speak; they're not part of any Federal
requirement.
If you want to play along with the RFP, I suggest you base your proposal
on the Section 508 standard, the WAI guidelines, or one of the standards
authored by various state and local governments, e.g. City of San Jose,
etc. (A number of people have posted URLs for these.) I'd also make it
clear that, in fact, there's no ADA requirement to meet. Adhering to one
of the aforementioned specs would be sensible and in the interest of
both the college and its site's users--it might save time and money
later if compliance were ultimately required--but it isn't currently
required by the ADA.
My $.02.
---------------
end of summary
[ Tim Salam ]
[ information architect ]
[ http://timsalam.com ]
[ 480.332.5521 ]
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