Accessibility laws (was RE: [thelist] Dropdowns - good or bad ?)

[McCreath_David]

>> My "not a lawyer" understanding is that at this point in time, 
>> Section 508 applies SPECIFICALLY to "Federal Departments and 
>> Agencies."
>
>that is absolutely correct... it also impacts organizations that do 
>business with the federal government, and based on some other 
>stuff i've read, will most likely cascade to state governments as 
>well...

An additional impact will probably be organizations that benefit from the
government's e-Rate program that subsidizes connectivity (like public
schools and municipal libraries). Our district gets our multiple T-1s and
district-wide network at about half price. Under the Children's Internet
Protection Act (currently languishing in the House, but through the Senate
on wings, and expected to pass the House without difficulty), e-Rate
recipients HAVE to install filters of some kind or lose the subsidy.
According to one reading of the act, non-compliance would also require
repayment of all past e-Rate discounts. In our case that would amount to
literally millions of dollars. 

Now I doubt that the accessibility discussion will reach the same fevered
pitch as protecting kiddies from porn, so I don't know that they would
invoke that kind of threat, but I'm hedging my bets and trying to train all
the web builders in my district to think "Accesible First".

Dave
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home: http://home.gci.net/~mccreath/
work: http://www.asd.k12.ak.us/