Breaking Down Barriers

Doctors tell Luigart that his primary lateral sclerosis, a rare neurological disease, will eventually take away his ability to stand, perhaps in the next four to five years. Perhaps by then, some copiers will be equipped with control panels that tilt so a person in a wheelchair could use them. If copiers with swiveling panels become available, federal agencies will have a legal obligation to buy them.

Beginning June 21, the technologies that federal agencies develop, maintain, buy or use to perform their missions must be accessible to people with disabilities-both employees and members of the public. Both groups will have the right to sue for corrective action if agencies purchase inaccessible technology after that date. The June deadline and the threat of legal action are two of the recent amendments to Section 508 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act. David Capozzi, director of the Office of Technical and Information Services at the Access Board, says the amendments aim to "make sure the information age we're all in doesn't pass people with disabilities by."

Aiming at Access

In the Rehabilitation Act, Congress created the Access Board to develop standards for making federal buildings accessible to people with disabilities. The law also bars discrimination against people with disabilities in federal employment decisions and, in Section 504 of the law, requires agencies to provide reasonable accommodations to help disabled employees do their jobs. If a worker in a wheelchair could not see the control panel of a copier, then a reasonable accommodation would be to have someone else make copies for that employee. In 1986, Congress added Section 508 to the Rehabilitation Act, requiring agencies to consider accessibility when they purchase electronic equipment. The General Services Administration established accessibility guidelines, but they were largely ignored.

Then in 1998, Congress added teeth to Section 508 by transferring authority from GSA to the Access Board, requiring the Justice Department to report to Congress on the government's progress on accessibility every two years, and giving federal employees and members of the public the right to file complaints with agencies or file suit in court if technologies are not accessible.

Accessibility, as laid out in Section 508, is a step beyond reasonable accommodation. A computer screen reader-a software program that converts text into voice-is a reasonable accommodation for a blind person. But if a financial management software package is not designed to work with a screen reader, then a government accountant who is blind could not use it. In instances like that, "it's like you have posted a sign on the door that says no disabled need apply," says Jennifer Mechem, a disability program coordinator at the Education Department. Section 508 requires, for example, that agencies purchase financial management software that a blind person could use, even if there are no blind people in the office. "508 is not about assistive technology," Mechem says. "It's about making overall systems accessible." Similarly, if a senator's Web site is not designed properly, then a screen reader would be unable to help a blind constituent navigate through the senator's information. Section 508 requires the senator's Web designer to develop the site so blind people can easily use it.

On Dec. 21, 2000, the Access Board issued new guidelines covering six kinds of technologies for which federal officials must consider accessibility. The board established from four to 16 standards for each of the technology categories. The standards include:

• Software applications. Word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and other software can be designed so that people who are blind, deaf or have poor motor skills can use them. A word processing program that makes a bell-ringing sound when a document has been properly saved should also provide a visual confirmation for people who can't hear. A spreadsheet program in which a user can click on an icon to print a document should also offer the option of hitting Control-P on a keyboard so that a person who can't control a mouse could print.
• Web sites. Federal Web designers must make sure their sites can be read by screen readers. For example, the Interior Department's Web developer would need to include a hidden description that would tell a screen reader that a photograph on Secretary Gale Norton's biography page is "a picture of Secretary Norton." Colorblind users would run into trouble if a Web page told them to "click on the blue link," so the Web page would need to offer another clue, such as underlining, to help them know where to click.
• Telecommunications products. Telephones must be compatible with TTY devices for the deaf-devices that include keyboards and displays for transmitting and receiving text over a telephone line. Caller identification in audio should be available for people who can't see displays. Controls should be operable with one hand.
• Video and multimedia products. Televisions must be able to display closed captioning. Training videos must have captioning for the deaf and audio scripts for the blind.
• Self-contained, closed products. Cop-iers, printers, fax machines and information kiosks can be modified for people with disabilities. People who hold pointers in their mouths to make selections would not be able to use a touch-screen kiosk that only senses body heat from a finger. Screens that flicker or indicator lights that flash too quickly can cause a person with photo-epilepsy to have a seizure. Thus, flash rates must be set moderately.
• Desktop and portable computers. Computers must be designed so that assistive technology devices can be attached. Assistive devices include refreshable Braille displays and head pointing devices that can serve as a mouse for people with poor hand dexterity. The amount of force necessary to turn a computer on must be limited so that people with high spinal cord injuries or arthritis can use the machines.
  

Some software companies already have revamped their products in response to Section 508. The latest versions of Adobe's Acrobat and of JetForm's FormFlow help users design documents that can be read by screen readers for the blind. Macromedia has created a program for Dreamweaver, a Web design application, to make sure Web pages meet the 508 standards. American Management Systems has improved accessibility in the last two versions of Momentum, the company's federal financial management software. The four software companies made the improvements without increasing the cost of their products. On the hardware side, Compaq and Hewlett Packard have set up accessibility offices to coordinate with designers and engineers to make sure the Section 508 standards are incorporated in their products. Those efforts will benefit all of the companies' customers-not just government clients.

Buyer Beware

After the Access Board issued its standards, procurement officials amended the Federal Acquisition Regulation to instruct federal buyers to include accessibility requirements in statements of work for contracts, beginning with solicitations issued on June 21. The government will not be certifying products as Section 508-compliant, though GSA may develop a self-certification model for companies to follow. So the onus falls on federal buyers to decide on a case-by-case basis whether products meet Access Board standards. The regulation says officials who request purchases, not contracting officers, are responsible for accessibility.

Buyers should use Access Board standards to guide them as they conduct market research to see what accessibility features are commercially available. If no products are available that meet a standard, then buyers can waive the standard-as long as they keep a record of their market research. If one product is more accessible than another but is 50 percent more expensive, a buyer can claim that buying the more accessible product would pose an undue burden. Again, the buyer must explain the undue burden in writing. Federal purchasers don't have to adhere to the standards when they buy national security systems or when the purchase costs less than $2,500. Beginning in 2003, however, purchases under $2,500 will have to meet the accessibility standards.

Documentation will become particularly important during bid protests. Some observers expect bidders that lose to file protests with the General Accounting Office if they think contract winners' products are less accessible than their own. The threat of bid protests is a stick that may encourage companies to make their products as accessible as possible. Agency officials must make sure that employees and the public have a way to complain if technologies are not accessible. Employees and citizens should be able to follow the same procedures available for making other disability discrimination complaints. Federal Web sites should have contact information so that public users can point out inaccessible pages. If a Web page can't be fixed promptly, citizens also can ask agencies to supply them with the information they are seeking in an accessible format.

If employees or citizens file suit in federal court, they can request corrective action and attorneys fees, but they cannot seek damages. The National Federation of the Blind's Gashel says he doesn't expect a rash of lawsuits against agencies though the federation has not shied away from legal action in the past. In 1999, the federation sued America Online for not designing its content with blind people in mind. AOL settled and agreed to revamp its pages. In its report to Congress this year, the Justice Department will focus on two aspects of Section 508: Web site accessibility and complaint procedures. So federal officials should make sure Web designers are working hard to make popular sections of sites accessible under Access Board standards. They also should make sure procedures are in place for employees and other users to file complaints.

Mary Lou Mobley, a Justice Department attorney, says the bottom line is that every piece of technology federal officials buy has to comply with Section 508 standards unless doing so creates an undue burden, unless there is no commercially available product that meets the standards, or unless the technology involves a national security system. "It doesn't require every agency to throw out its existing copiers," Mobley says. "But if you are buying a new copier, you need to make sure it complies with the 508 standards."

Quick Stats

• More than 122,000 federal workers-about 7 percent of the workforce-have disabilities.
• About 20,000 of those workers have severe disabilities.
• One in five Americans has some kind of disability; one in 10 has a severe disability.
• More than 70 percent of people with severe disabilities are unemployed. Sources: Office of Personnel Management, Census Bureau

On the Web

Check out Section 508 standards, acquisition rules and sample procedures for complaints and procurement decisions in GovExec.com's Section 508 resource guide at www.govexec.com/508.