Home Accessibility

A number of IUSR participants have expressed interest in finding out more details about the flurry of regulatory activities going on in the US Federal Government with respect to accessibility of electronic and information technology. We have compiled a list of the URLS that explain the activities and provide information on where to find out more.

Section 508--1998 revised section of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 which expanded the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. See the Dept. of Justice Section 508 home page for text and introduction. The second link below contains several accessibility checklists for software, web, IT, and machines, which are not guidelines, but give you something to think about..

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/508home.html

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board ("Access Board") is responsible for defining "electronic and information technology," for developing enforceable Standards for Section 508 by February 2000, and for providing technical assistance to persons and Federal departments and agencies having rights and responsibilities under Section 508.

http://www.access-board.gov

The Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee presented its final report to the Access Board on May 12.

http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/commrept/eitaacrpt.htm

• A press release highlights major provisions. http://www.access-board.gov/news/ADA public forum - news.htm

The General Services Adminstration's Center for IT Accommodation has a lot of information on their site.

http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/cita/index.htm

The FCC adopted new rules for Telecommunications Accessibility on July 14, 1999. It addresses section 255 of the Telecomunications Act of 1996.

http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/1999/nrcc9048.html
FCC Web site: http://www.fcc.gov

The TRACE R&D Center at the Univ. of Wisc. performs research in accessible design. The site has links to related information.

http://trace.wisc.edu/

TRACE receives some funding from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/NIDRR/

The following links were kindly submitted by Bill LaPlant of the Census Bureau.

In a brief paper, "ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY," John Williams talks about "Illiad," a text based web browser developed at NASA to support web access by people who are blind.

http://www.tiaonline.org/access/news.cfm

In "Section 255: Fueling the Creation of New Electronic Curbcuts," Steve Jacobs of NCR provides a list of inventions and inventors of mainstrem technology that we all use that were originally developed for people with disabilities.

http://www.tiaonline.org/access/news.cfm

TIA accessibility links page:

http://www.tiaonline.org/access/links.html

The home page of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media. These guys invented closed captioning.

http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/

The following links graciously submitted by Jaclyn Packer

Accessibility information provided by the American Foundation for the Blind

http://www.afb.org/tech_notes.asp

http://www.afb.org/accessworld.asp

Other helpful sites:

http://www.ncd.gov/

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

http://www.cast.org/bobby