1. Information Technology and People with Disabilities

During this time of great social and legal progress to integrate people with disabilities fully into American life, another type of revolution has taken place. In the last decade, technology has brought enormous changes to society as a whole. Computers are no longer simply the tools of scientists, but are now as much at home in the American household as the television or microwave oven. The Internet now allows people to correspond inexpensively in real time with friends in distant parts of the world, to shop in enormous bookstores, and to even take online courses taught by our best teachers. All of these things are now possible without even leaving our homes. And the technological revolution extends far beyond the Internet. Cellular telephones have become small and affordable and, in many parts of the world, are now more common than traditional telephones. Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) keep track of our increasingly busy schedules. Even the outdoors enthusiast is not without modern technology, as the Global Positioning System (GPS) has started to replace maps.

One challenge posed by the information revolution is to ensure that the promises of technology are available to all, including people with disabilities. Information technology can empower the lives of persons with disabilities if it is accessible, or further segregate them from mainstream society if it is not. A blind user can independently order groceries online and have them delivered to her door instead of trying to shop with an assistant at the local grocery store. A person with cerebral palsy can fill-in an online form for government services using simple keyboard strokes, while its paper equivalent may be impossible to complete manually. Innovations such as screen readers provide blind users with unrestricted access to their computers, by simply reading aloud the text that appears on a computer screen or by converting the text on a screen into the series of raised pins in a Braille display that can be read tactilely. Other technologies, such as speech recognition software, let users with limited dexterity use their voice to control their computers. Far from being the stuff of science fiction novels, the speech recognition technology now helps thousands of users with mobility or dexterity disabilities and carpal tunnel syndrome. More familiar technologies like closed captioning let deaf users understand the content of television broadcasts and multimedia presentations.

The changes that improve access for people with disabilities ultimately benefit everyone. Televisions in noisy airports, sports bars, and fitness centers display closed captioning. Some cars are now equipped with screen readers that provide audio navigation directions so harried drivers can focus on driving instead of reading paper maps. Speech recognition technology can now help those who never learned to type keep pace in a world where computers are increasingly common.

People with disabilities are among the greatest beneficiaries of this information technology revolution. In fact, many of these modern technologies that we now find useful were originally designed to provide people with disabilities basic access to the information that many of us took for granted. But, people with disabilities are also most at risk of being excluded by society’s advances, if the technological innovations are designed without considering accessibility. Today, meaningful participation in American society requires access to a full range of information technologies, including computers and the Internet. Business and communications rely more on information technology. Purchasing a product from a mail-order company has moved from mail, to the telephone, and now to the Internet. Government information and publications are becoming more difficult to find in any format other than electronic format. These benefits have created huge cost savings for both the public and private sectors, with the promise of instant access to everything 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The information technology revolution holds the promise of eliminating many of the historic barriers to people with disabilities, but it can also create new barriers to people with disabilities if not properly designed. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794d (section 508) ensures that federal agencies address these needs when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology (EIT).

2. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act: Accessibility in the Information Age

The 1998 amendments to Section 508 require federal agencies to ensure that EIT they procure is accessible to people with disabilities, unless certain exceptions apply. While the law does not directly regulate the technology industry, it creates an enormous financial incentive for manufacturers to make accessibility a key component of product design. Those who choose to ignore accessibility when they design their products are at a substantial commercial disadvantage when they market their products to federal agencies. As a result of these market forces, accessible technology is already becoming more widespread.

To implement section 508, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) published final EIT accessibility Standards on December 21, 2000, 36 C.F.R. pt. 1194. On April 25, 2001, the General Services Administration, Department of Defense, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration published a final rule to amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to incorporate the Access Board’s Standards. 66 Fed. Reg. 20894 et seq. (April 25, 2001). Section 508 became enforceable and the FAR amendments went into effect in late June 2001.

Department of Transportation is Working to Establish an, "Undue Burden Advisory Board" The Department of Transportation has established an “Undue Burden Advisory Board.” Agencies do not have to procure EIT that meets the section 508 technical provisions if doing so imposes an undue burden– a “significant difficulty or expense. Update: On January 30, 2003, the Department of Transportation issued section 508 procedures that include an Undue Burden Advisory Board (UBAB), a multi-disciplinary group of section 508 experts, that reviews, analyses, recommends, and advises on complex undue burden issues, with ultimate review at the Secretarial level.

B. The Department of Justice's Survey: Past and Present

1. The 1999-2000 Interim Self-Evaluations and Report

Section 508 requires federal agencies to conduct an initial self-evaluation to determine how accessible their EIT is to people with disabilities:

. . . the head of each Federal department or agency shall evaluate the extent to which the electronic and information technology of the department or agency is accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities . . . , compared to the access and use of the technology by individuals . . . who are not individuals with disabilities, and submit a report containing the evaluation to the Attorney General.

29 U.S.C. § 794d(c). The statute also requires the Department of Justice (“the Department”) to issue an interim report to the President and Congress:

. . . the Attorney General shall prepare and submit to the President a report containing information on and recommendations regarding the extent to which the

electronic and information technology of the Federal Government is accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities described in subsection (a)(1).

29 U.S.C. § 794d(d)(1).

Pursuant to this directive, in 1999-2000 the Department created survey instruments and led federal agencies through their first comprehensive section 508 self-evaluation. Topics covered in that self-evaluation included:

• Web Pages;
• Software;
• Telecommunications;
• Information Transaction Machines;
• Electronic Office Equipment; and
• Procurement Policies and Practices.

The results of agencies' self-evaluations formed the basis of an April 2000 Report, Information Technology and People with Disabilities: The Current State of Federal Accessibility , from the Attorney General to the President (2000 Report). The 2000 Report contained detailed findings of fact, analysis, conclusions, and recommendations. Many of those recommendations have been implemented across federal agencies.

For example, the 2000 Report recognized the need for increased coordination among the agencies in implementing section 508. As a result, almost every agency has designated a Section 508 Coordinator to serve as an agency “point of contact” for up-to-date information about section 508. The General Services Administration oversees these coordinators to ensure that they are knowledgeable about the latest events involving section 508. In addition, the last several months have seen the development of a Section 508 Steering Committee, comprising senior members of the key agencies involved in section 508 implementation. The Steering Committee has also overseen the development of consistent technical assistance to guide the agencies in implementing section 508.

To improve awareness of issues affecting users with disabilities, the Department recommended in the 2000 Report that agencies encourage the development of voluntary committees of persons with disabilities. As a consequence, many agencies seized this opportunity and now consult with users with disabilities — both inside and outside the agencies — to recognize issues affecting users with disabilities and to develop cost-effective solutions.

The Postal Service has embraced section 508 as the “right thing to do.” The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) sees its mission as serving all people, including those with disabilities. USPS web developers and program managers across the corporation are "508-aware" and have a greatly heightened sensitivity to ensuring that their EIT complies with the Section 508 Standards for accessibility. As Ray Morgan, Manager of the Technology & Standards Office in the Information Technology organization at USPS, reported: On June 21, 2001, over 450 of the USPS's 650 registered web sites had been made accessible. More existing sites are still being converted. The law doesn't require remediation of existing web sites; we're doing this because we want our web sites to be accessible to everyone. A byproduct of our internal web site registration process established to track 508 compliance is we now have the tool and cross-functional discipline to track USPS web sites in general. This will allow us to ensure that we don't have duplicate sites, and flag for elimination those sites that consume support resources but don't bring added value to the USPS or our customers. Persons who worked long hours in crafting USPS processes, policies, and guidelines, and bringing systems, documents, etc. into compliance all report that it's a project they feel good about being involved in. When we say "It's the right thing to do," it's not merely a slogan; postal employees working on 508 issues believe it and feel it.

Federal agencies have also adopted many of the recommendations for web pages, including testing web pages for accessibility before posting, developing agency-wide style guidelines for accessible content, posting dedicated e-mail addresses for users with disabilities, and providing special information to assist users with disabilities to access services and information available through agency web sites.