Legislation

According to recent legislation, companies that sell textbooks in California must make digital versions of the books available by 2020. Senator Elaine Alquist, the author of the law claims that it will significantly reduce costs for students.

I'm mostly scratching my head: what's the point here? And don't get me wrong, I appreciate the effort, but there's really nothing more to it.

After years of relying on the generosity of their able-bodied family members and friends, persons with disability in Kenya have cause to welcome the new
year with smiles.

Soon, they will be able to access public buildings, operate public telephones and board public service vehicles (PSVs) on their own, thanks to a 2003 Act
of Parliament that came into effect almost seven years later.

Just recently, the National Federation of the Blind filed the third Section 508 related complaint in a row. Will this change how seriously Section 508 compliance will be taken?

Well it didn’t take long for me to find another so called “accessible website” through an article at http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/October2009/27/c3016.html
titled “ONTARIO PROVINCIAL POLICE | OPP launches redesigned website enhancing public access to OPP information“.

The Author states;

To be inclusive of people with disabilities, the website was designed to meet current accessibility standards.

What standards would that be?

Surely not Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0(WCAG), or even WCAG 1.0!

BALTIMORE, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the nation's oldest and largest organization of blind people and the leading advocate for equal access by the blind to information technology, and Carlos Mora, a blind resident of Baltimore, Maryland, filed an administrative complaint today with the United States Department of Education. The complaint asserts that one of the United States Department of Education's Web sites, U.S.A. Learns, violates Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act because it is inaccessible to blind people who use text-to-speech screen access technology or Braille displays to access information on the Internet. Because of the inaccessibility of the U.S.A. Learns Web site, blind people cannot access or navigate through the content of the English vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation lessons that are offered through the site.

Let's examine the costs and benefits of Section 508. Before we start selling to the Federal Government or working on one of its development, it is worth looking into what will cost us, what's necessary, and what kinds of benefits can we expect.