[nfbcs] Legal Requirements for Website Accessibility

[Mike Freeman]

John:

You are correct. 508 regs are, at least in theory, binding upon the Federal
government and upon sites that receive Federal funds. The problem is in
seeing to it that these regs are enforced -- that and making pages that
nominally follow the guidelines useful in practice as well as in theory.

You know this already, of course.

Mike Freeman


-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of John G. Heim
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2014 9:40 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Legal Requirements for Website Accessibility

Are you sure the 508 regulations aren't legally binding? I think they are
binding on entities that receive funding from the federal government. If the
entity doesn't receive funding from the federal government, the 508
regulations don't apply, not even as guidelines. I have never heard an
accessibility expert say the 508 regulations work well as guidelines, quite
the opposite in fact.
 The Web Access Initiative puts out guidelines so that may be the source of
the confusion.

I've been told that the University of Wisconsin considers itself bound by
the 508 regulations because we receive money from the federal government.
I've never heard them referred to as guidelines. It seems even a bit
contradictory to think of regulations as guidelines. But I will admit I'm
not sure what the law says.

Anyway, Nicole asked about the navy Federal Credit Union which may or may
not get money from the feds. You can't necessarily go by the name.


On May 9, 2014, at 8:21 PM, Michael Babcock wrote:

> I don't think they are required to do anything by law. there  are section
508 standards, but these are just standards not laws.
> http://www.section508.gov/
> 
> Let me know if you find anything, because this same situation happened to
me with one of my banks, switched all of my accounts to a local bank, that
takes accessibility into consideration.
> thanks
> michael
> On May 9, 2014, at 6:16 PM, Nicole Torcolini <ntorcolini at wavecable.com>
wrote:
> 
>> Where can I find information about legal requirements for website
>> accessibility? A little over a month ago, Navy Federal Credit Union
>> completely revamped there website. The layout is mostly the same, and,
>> although a few things are the tiniest bit more accessible, many things
are
>> much more inaccessible, some even to the point of being unusable. I
filled
>> out a survey about the new website about a month ago and provided my
contact
>> information. However, I have not heard anything. I plan on contacting
them
>> again, but, before I do, I would like to know what they are required to
do
>> by law.
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Nicole
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