[Web4lib] Clarification on Clarification on Section 508

Mon Apr 17 16:17:14 EDT 2006

Richard,
  I feel I need to further clarify your post. You are correct that Section 508 is a Federal Procurement law. . 
  From the USDED Section 508 Resources web page:
    Section 508 requires Federal departments and agencies that develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology to ensure that Federal employees and members of the public with disabilities have access to and use of information and data, comparable to that of the employees and members of the public without disabilities.
  However, some states have laws and/or regulations that require their agencies to also follow Section 508 standards. Thus, people need to check their state laws. The Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center has a great resource that covers state accessibility issues.

  From reading this thread, I think that people are confusing various laws and regs. It is pretty common to confuse Section 504, Section 508   and ADA Title II and Title III requirements. All of these pertain to access and discrimination issues.

  Section 504 is an Education Civil Rights law that applies to any educational group, program, or establishement. It  states that no one, including those with disabilities, are to 
    be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . ."[1]
  As someone who has been covered under Section 504 as a student from elementary - graduate school -- and the ADA from the time it was passed -- these laws are applicable to state and localities.  From my understanding, if you have a site that is compliant under ADA -- you will be ok under Sections 504 and 508.  Is this true?

  Under the Section 504 (of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) if you receive federal funds then you must comply with the regulations. There are few colleges/universities that do not receive such funds -- even private school often receive federal funding. 

  Title II of the ADA applies only to public entities -- thus, private schools and other private organizations do not have to comply to the ADA.

  An excerpt from the DOJ's ADA website article on website accessibility:

    The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and, if the government entities receive Federal funding, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, generally require that State and local governments provide qualified individuals with disabilities equal access to their programs, services, or activities unless doing so would fundamentally alter the nature of their programs, services, or activities or would impose an undue burden. 

  Another article I like, "Questions and Answers on Disability Discrimination under Section 504 and Title II", helps to differentiate between ADA Title II and Section 508 requirements. Another short article highlighting Section 504 and ADA is "Disability Discrimination: Overview of the Laws" on the Dept. of Ed site.
  For those of you who work for in a special library, Title III pertains to: 

    "places of public accommodation" (businesses and non-profit agencies that serve the public) and "commercial facilities" (other businesses). From summary found on the ADA Regulations and Technical Assistance Materials website.
  I work for a state agency and any prop osals we recieve for communications/information tech has to be Section 508 and ADA compliant. I had fun explaining this to prospective vendors during the process of our RFP. "No, *almost* compliant does *not* count." oh and of course "Yes, you state that your next release will be Section 508 and ADA compliant. But, we are purchasing a system *this* year.'  *sigh*

  Kelly Green

  ~KM Analyst/Digital Librarian w/lifetime lessons in disability law <gryn>

Richard Wiggins <richard.wiggins at gmail.com> wrote:
  Section 508 is a procurement law for Federal agencies. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that electronic and information technologies acquired by Federal agencies be accessible. Some people believe that Section 508 establishes a "building code" for entities outside
the Federal government, but I just don't see such a provision in the law.

If a university develops IT systems or Web sites for use by Federal
agencies, then the law presumably applies.

http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=3 says:

"The standards cover technology procured by Federal agencies under contract
with a private entity, but apply only to those products directly relevant to
the contract and its deliverables."

This is not to day that a university should not comply with Section 508 and
other standards. My only point is that Section 508 imposes obligations on
the Federal government, not on universities as does Title IX in college
athletics or FERPA in student records. It is not a matter of the law not
being enforced; it is simply not against that law for a university to put up
a Web site that fails to meet 508 standards. Some universities have adopted
campus-wide standards for official sites; many have not.

/rich

On 4/15/06, Thomas Dowling wrote:
>
> I'm sure Jon can answer this at least as well as I can, but let me jump
> in.
>
> Most publicly funded institutions of higher education in the U.S.
> technically have a legal obligation [I am not a lawyer!] to make their
> web sites comply with Section 508, though there's explicitly no
> enforcement provision in that obligation.
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