section 508

FALLS CHURCH, Va., March 8, 2010 – The Military Health System has launched a new Health.mil Web site that provides a single point of entry to military health
news, information and resources.

The site is part of the Defense Department's continued commitment to make health information available and easy to find, officials said. Content is categorized
by topic or audience, including servicemembers, retirees and families; health care providers; educators and researchers; Military Health System staff;
Defense Department leaders; and the media.

A Section 508 validator is a software application that can help you determine if your web pages meet the Section 508 standards. These are tools useful in ensuring that your website is accessible to persons with disabilities.

It is important to note that although these validators are readily available via the Internet, they may not be what you specifically need. It is a good idea to try them out first before including them in your accessibility procedures.

Also, remember that Section 508 validators do not entirely solve your accessibility problems. They can nonetheless let you find the issues much faster. Manual testing is still required to ensure your site’s accessibility.

When a redesigned Recovery.gov Web site was unveiled last month to track the distribution of stimulus dollars, it was touted as another example of the Obama administration’s push for greater transparency. But the technology and design of the site left one segment of the population less than satisfied.

Advocates for people with disabilities found a number of accessibility flaws on the site that jumbled the spending data or otherwise put it beyond the reach of people using screen readers and other assistive devices.

Bruce Bailey is an Accessibility Specialist with the United States Access Board . Today, he talks with FCB about Section 508 compliance — and how cloud computing might help agencies and businesses when it comes to meeting government standards for those with disabilities.

He says part of the problem is that the current provisions were written in 2001 — when the Internet was a different animal.

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?

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.

When posting documents on web sites, they have to follow the same accessibility requirements that the site does. For example, when the web site needs to comply with Section 508, PDF documents do too. There are a few things which I find are often overlooked when creating accessible PDF documents, in the following you can read about those and ensure that you address those issues as well.

Although the Office of Management and Budget holds up USASpending.gov as an example of how the Web can provide greater transparency into government operations, the site also has a number of serious shortcomings that limit its effectiveness, according to Seth Grimes, a data management and analysis systems consultant for Washington-based Alta Plana Corp.

As it was planned President Barack Obama declared his administration's intent to sign the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities today. The actual signing will take place in New York at the end of July.