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

[Âris Nusbaum]

Oh...  here we go again! The government not complying with their 
own laws! Hey lawmakers, if you're trying to convince us that 
some law you're trying to pass is so great, follow the same law! 
Is that too much to ask? I was talking about this at the LAW 
Program with Mark Riccobono, and he was being sarcastic when he 
said this, but this is how rediculous this whole thing is.  
Here's what he said: "But we wouldn't want our great lawmakers to 
have to carry the overly heavy burden of actually following the 
laws that they make us follow.  That's just too much of a burden 
for them to carry." Rediculous, rediculous, rediculous'' and did 
I say rediculous! Thank you NFB and Dr.  Maurer for saying what 
needs to be said and holding the government accountable.  Dr.  
Maurer said it perfectly.  * Sigh! All right, here we go!

 Chris

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

--- Sent from my BrailleNote

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Jorge Paez <computertechjorgepaez at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Thu, 19 May 2011 21:06:30 -0400
Subject: [nabs-l] Fwd: [gui-talk] Fwd: Federal Government Not 
Complying withWeb Site Accessibility Requirements, Study 
Indicates



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.


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