Lawmakers urged to make Web sites more accessible

Leaders from government and industry gathered on Capitol Hill Thursday to urge congressional offices to voluntarily make their Web sites more accessible to the disabled.

But Rep. Connie Morella, R-Md., said at the event that she wouldn't introduce legislation to force Congress to comply with a law that requires executive branch agencies to make their technology systems accessible to people with disabilities.

Section 508 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act requires all executive branch agencies to make sure that blind people can navigate federal Web sites, deaf people can read captions on federal videos and federal employees in wheelchairs can use copiers and other equipment not designed with them in mind. The law, which was amended in 1998, did not require congressional offices to comply.

But speakers at the Thursday event said that legislative offices have made their Web sites more accessible to the disabled over the past year despite the exemption. Thursday's event marked the first anniversary of the start of enforcement of the Section 508 rules.

Morella, a co-chair of the Bipartisan Disabilities Caucus, said she plans to send a letter to her fellow lawmakers that she hopes will act "as a catalyst" by drawing attention and interest to the issue, encouraging all offices to eventually become compliant.

Rep. James Langevin, D-R.I., the other co-chair of the caucus, challenged members of Congress to make their Web sites accessible. "This is an example of where the legislative branch needs to follow the lead it has set for others," Langevin said. But Langevin stopped short of endorsing legislation that would require congressional offices to comply with Section 508. In January, the Office of Compliance, an arm of Congress that oversees workplace practices in the legislative branch, recommended that Congress bring itself under the Section 508 requirements. "The Office of Compliance applauds those legislative offices that have voluntarily become Section 508-compliant and urges others to take the necessary steps to make their electronic and information technology fully accessible to all," an office bulletin said. For now, lawmakers said they hope that increased knowledge and awareness of Section 508 rules will suffice.