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

[Âris Nusbaum]

Wow, Amtrak? That's one of the important ones that blind people 
would need to access, in my opinion.  Probably blind people in 
urban areas use Amtrak all the time.

 Chris

"A loss of sight, never a loss of vision!" (Camp Abilities motto)

--- Sent from my BrailleNote

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Kirt Manwaring <kirt.crazydude at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Thu, 19 May 2011 20:01:33 -0600
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Fwd: [gui-talk] Fwd: Federal Government Not 
Complyingwith Web Site Accessibility Requirements, Study 
Indicates

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/compute
rtechjorgepaez%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.craz
ydude%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/dotkid.nu
sbaum%40gmail.com