More on Federal Accessibility Requirements

[Thomas Dowling]

Last week, Charles Gimon posted a note about forthcoming (U.S.) federal
government requirement for accessibility to electronic information.  Final
details on these rules are available at
<URL:http://www.access-board.gov/news/508-final.htm>.

These rules apply only to federal agencies, and not other organizations,
even if they receive federal money.  I suspect it's just a matter of time
before most state and municipal governments start crafting similar rules,
especially now that there's a federal policy for accessibility wonks to
point to.

For web developers, the main points of interest will be section 1194.22 of
the entry in the Federal Register
(<URL:http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/508standards.pdf>).  These are
the actual guidelines for web accessibility, the first 11 of which
correspond to the Priority 1 checkpoints from the WCAG.  Karen Schneider's
TIFF-hungry patent searchers will also be happy about paragraph (m):

    (m) When a web page requires that an
    applet, plug-in or other application be
    present on the client system to interpret
    page content, the page must provide a
    link to a plug-in or applet that complies
    with § 1194.21(a) through (l).
    protocols.

As with most accessibility guidelines, if you can get your site past Bobby
OR use it with Lynx OR use it with images, styles, and scripting turned
off, AND use a little common sense, your site is probably okay.

Thomas Dowling
OhioLINK - Ohio Library and Information Network
tdowling at ohiolink.edu