[nabs-l] Fwd: [gui-talk] Fwd: Federal Government Not Complying with Web Site Accessibility Requirements, Study Indicates

Mike Freeman k7uij at panix.com
Fri May 20 02:51:57 UTC 2011 

Actually, AMTRAK's site is accessible -- it just isn't useable -- they're
two different things.

Mike


-----Original Message-----
From: nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nabs-l-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Jorge Paez
Sent: Thursday, May 19, 2011 7:26 PM
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Fwd: [gui-talk] Fwd: Federal Government Not Complying
with Web Site Accessibility Requirements, Study Indicates

What screenreader are you using?

On May 19, 2011, at 10:01 PM, Kirt Manwaring wrote:

> This surprises me-not that I'm a government internet expert, but I've 
> seen a lot of their sites and the only one that really gave me any 
> trouble was Amtrak.
> 
> On 5/19/11, Jorge Paez <computertechjorgepaez at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Begin forwarded message:
>> 
>>> From: David Andrews <dandrews at visi.com>
>>> Date: May 19, 2011 8:22:40 PM EDT
>>> To: david.andrews at nfbnet.org
>>> Subject: [gui-talk] Fwd: Federal Government Not Complying with Web 
>>> Site Accessibility Requirements, Study Indicates
>>> Reply-To: "Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk 
>>> Mailing List" <gui-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> CONTACT:
>>>> Chris Danielsen
>>>> Director of Public Relations
>>>> National Federation of the Blind
>>>> (410) 659-9314, extension 2330
>>>> (410) 262-1281 (Cell)
>>>> <mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org
>>>> 
>>>> Federal Government Not Complying with Web Site Accessibility 
>>>> Requirements, Study Indicates
>>>> 
>>>> National Federation of the Blind Expresses Outrage, Demands Swift 
>>>> Action
>>>> 
>>>> Baltimore, Maryland (May 19, 2011): A study that has just been 
>>>> published online in the journal 
>>>> <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0740624X>Government
>>>> Information Quarterly has found that of one-hundred Web sites 
>>>> operated by federal government agencies, over 90 percent do not 
>>>> comply with government accessibility guidelines and likely cannot 
>>>> be used by people who are blind or have other perceptual or motor 
>>>> disabilities.  The study, entitled "Accessibility of U.S. federal 
>>>> government home pages: Section
>>>> 508 compliance and site accessibility statements" and coauthored by 
>>>> Doctoral Student Abiodun Olalere and Professor Jonathan Lazar of 
>>>> Towson University, found that the home pages of over 90 percent of 
>>>> the Web sites they evaluated contained violations of the 
>>>> government's own guidelines for compliance with Section 508 of the 
>>>> Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  That law requires that government 
>>>> electronic and information technology be accessible to people with
disabilities.
>>>> 
>>>> Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind,
said:
>>>> "Blind Americans are outraged that the government is failing to 
>>>> comply with its own guidelines to make government information and 
>>>> services available to citizens with disabilities.  Given the clear 
>>>> legal requirements of Section 508 and the fact that use of the 
>>>> Internet is critical to education, employment, access to government 
>>>> benefits and services, and all other aspects of modern life, there 
>>>> is no excuse for failure to follow and rigorously enforce these 
>>>> guidelines.  We demand that officials in all branches of government 
>>>> take immediate steps to bring all federal Web sites into compliance 
>>>> with the law, and we pledge to continue to hold the federal 
>>>> government accountable if it continues to treat the blind and others
with disabilities as second-class citizens."
>>>> 
>>>> The study evaluated the home pages of one-hundred government Web 
>>>> sites across all three branches of the federal government, 
>>>> including executive agencies, independent agencies, government 
>>>> corporations (e.g. Amtrak), the United States Congress, the United 
>>>> States Supreme Court, United States federal courts, and "open 
>>>> government" Web sites like <http://www.usajobs.gov>www.usajobs.gov 
>>>> and <http://www.ready.gov>www.ready.gov.  The authors utilized both 
>>>> automated-software tools and human-expert inspections on each home 
>>>> page, and determined that over 90 percent of the home pages were 
>>>> not in compliance with the Section 508 regulations.
>>>> 
>>>> Most of the accessibility problems were common ones that are easily 
>>>> resolved, such as unlabeled images, mislabeled forms or tables, 
>>>> videos without captioning, flash without any textual equivalents, 
>>>> and lack of keyboard equivalents for mouse-over actions. The 
>>>> authors noted that this is not a problem unique to one agency.  
>>>> Similar problems occur on multiple agency Web sites, and the core 
>>>> problem is the lack of consistent compliance activities and enforcement
throughout the federal government.
>>>> 
>>>> The study makes several recommendations to increase compliance, 
>>>> including improved resources on complying with the guidelines; 
>>>> better documentation of best practices; publishing of information 
>>>> about which agencies are compliant and noncompliant with 
>>>> accessibility guidelines as part of the open government dashboard; 
>>>> and better enforcement and monitoring procedures within government 
>>>> agencies, such as the loss of Web-posting privileges for repeatedly
posting inaccessible content.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ###
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> About the National Federation of the Blind
>>>> 
>>>> With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind 
>>>> is the largest and most influential membership organization of 
>>>> blind people in the United States.  The NFB improves blind people's 
>>>> lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and 
>>>> programs encouraging independence and self-confidence.  It is the 
>>>> leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the 
>>>> nation's blind.  In January
>>>> 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan 
>>>> Institute, the first research and training center in the United 
>>>> States for the blind led by the blind.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gui-talk mailing list
>>> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info 
>>> for
>>> gui-talk:
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/computerte
>>> chjorgepaez%40gmail.com
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> nabs-l mailing list
>> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
>> nabs-l:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/kirt.crazydud
>> e%40gmail.com
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nabs-l:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/computertechjo
> rgepaez%40gmail.com


_______________________________________________
nabs-l mailing list
nabs-l at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
nabs-l:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/k7uij%40panix.com

More information about the NABS-L mailing list