Lessons learned from US section 508

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Lessons learned from US section 508
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UsableNet Presenter Emily DixonFormer US
Product Marketing Manager Director of European
Developmentemily_at_usablenet.com
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Accessibility in Europe

• On 8 December 1999, the eEurope initiative was
  launched by the European Commission (EC) to
  accelerate Europes transformation into an
  Information Society.
• With the theme of an information society for
  all, it endeavors to bring the benefits of this
  society to all Europeans, including those with
  disabilities.
• .2003 has been designated the European Year of
  Disabled People (EYDP) by the European
  Commission.

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Accessibility in Italy

• 5 degli italiani sono colpiti da disabilita
• ''Abbattiamo la barriere virtuali che non
  consentono ai disabili una migliore qualita'
  della vita ed una piena integrazione sociale''.
  Lucio Stanca
• Proposta di Legge Primo obiettivo del
  provvedimento è rendere accessibili i siti
  internet e comunque tutti i rapporti
  telematici tra cittadini e Pubblica
  Amministrazione.

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US legislation What is Section 508?

• Section 508 of the U.S. Federal Rehabilitation
  Act ensures people with disabilities access to
  goods and services provided by the federal
  government.
• The 16 paragraphs of 1194.22 of Section 508 is
  based largely on WAI (Web Accessibility
  Initiative) guidelines from the W3C (World Wide
  Web Consortium).
• On June 25, 2001, accessibility requirements for
  Federal electronic and information technology
  took effect under Section 508 of the
  Rehabilitation Act.

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Who has to comply?

• Federal departments and agencies including the
  U.S. Postal Service
• Contractors providing services or products to
  Federal agencies must provide Section 508
  compliant deliverables.

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US compliance with Section 508?
UsableNet

• UsableNet has worked with NASA, the Department of
  Education, USDA, National Institute of Health,
  Postal Service--in total over 100 US departments
  to provide tools for testing, repair and
  compliance with Section 508.
• Two years later, many government websites are
  still struggling to comply with section 508.
• Those who confronted the problem quickly and
  utilized tools for automating the process are far
  ahead of the rest.

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What is Web Accessibility?

• Accessibility is the ability of anyone, including
  those who have disabilities to access content and
  information on the Internet.

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Why is Accessibility important?

• With the growth of the Internet as a critical
  medium for communicating information and
  providing services, it is important that this
  information be accessible to everyone, including
  people with disabilities.

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The whole story

• As people age, most are eventually affected by a
  disability.
• Poor eyesight, arthritis and hearing loss are
  common among older individuals.
• According to the Trace Center, 75 of people over
  the age of 65 are affected by a disability.

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What can Europe learn from US section 508?

• The importance of standards with explicit
  guidelines.
• How to implement an accessibility policy.
  Training and education, accountability, and
  management.
• The role of tools in the accessibility project.

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Explicit Guidelines

• Often, legislation refers to the W3C WAI
  guidelines.
• US section 508 was pulled from W3C guidelines,
  but states the requirements explicitly so that
  there is no confusion should the W3C guidelines
  change.
• Focus on compliance should be on the standards
  (law), so that organizations are not looking at
  different assistive technologies for testing.
  (i.e. a site that works on Jaws is not necessary
  accessible to everyone)

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The Process

• Establish an accessibility policy.
• Educate webmasters and developers on what
  accessibility is and how to implement accessible
  web design.
• Execute and Enforce policy with website testing,
  and retrofitting of existing sites. Create
  internal accountability.

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Retrofitting existing sites

• Test existing content according to accessibility
  guidelines.
• Create a plan for retrofitting content to comply
  with accessibility guidelines.
• Choose a tool to test and repair content to speed
  the process up and save on development costs.

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UsableNet tools for testing and repair

• LIFT for Dreamweaver in Italianworks inside the
  Dreamweaver environment to test and fix content
  quickly and easily.
• LIFT Machinean enterprise solution for testing
  live public and password protected websites.
• (Used by IBM, NASA, and US universities. Winner
  of Best New Technology Award from GCN.)

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How UsableNet can help

• Free sample accessibility test on
  www.usablenet.com.
• Accessibility Trainingaccessibility training in
  Milan on July 7th with Professore Giorgio
  Brajnik.
• Free initial Accessibility evaluation and Demo of
  LIFT products.
• For more information contact Emily_at_usablenet.com