I stumbed across a statement the other day that there was a new federal law that all websites had to be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.

I wondered if anyone knew anything more about this. Does that simply mean correct page titles, and ALT image tag information? Or are there some new ADA meta tags that need to be included?

Thanks,

--
Rob Van Deren
BeaverheadRiver.com
SW Montana's Premier Online Directory

This has been developed a long time ago, and now with section 508, there is more "teeth" in terms of enforcing usability/accessibility issues. For a history of accessibility issues, go to http://www.w3.org.

To read about Section 508, go to:

http://www.section508.gov/

Of course, this issue is only relevant to United States company...while the United Nations is looking into localization issues, there is really no world-wide agreement or movement for enforcing accessibility/usability in commercial, non-for-profit, and other organizational web sites.

Regards,

Eliot Lee
http://anthrotech.com/

Thanks for the info Eliot.

This seems to be what I was looking for. It is a element by element overview of what needs to be done on a webpage to be compliant. It seems to be as clear and consise as government language allows ;-)

http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm

The w3.org's Web Accessability Initiative is at:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

There is also a list of helpful tools at:

http://www.section508.gov/acctools.html
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/existingtools.html

The "teeth" seem to be that the US government will only procure or produce "compliant" systems and products. Is this correct or is there an enforcement/fine provision for non-government websites?

These article tend to imply that while there is no fine, you can be sued under the ADA:

http://www.icdri.org/is_ yoursite_ada_compliant.htm
http://www.rit.edu/~easi/law/weblaw1.htm

It looks like that, in general, these requirements are generally good practice as they would ensure backward compatiblity with older browers and hand held devices.


--
Rob Van Deren
BeaverheadRiver.com
SW Montana's Premier Online Directory

508 only covers commercial sites that provide electronic internet services to governmental agencies. It does not explicitly include non-for-profits who provide the same type of services to governmental agencies, but really should. For example, while I work for a non-for-profit educational institution (College within an University), we provide Internet services for governmental agencies at the State level and sometimes on the National level.

Yes, these are good set of guidelines that all web developers and designers should follow.

And you're right about the ADA sueing mechanism...it is similar to how the NAACP has been involved in civil suits against companies that discriminate against diverse/minority groups.

However, companies that may not get sued, may lose governmental contracts due to non-compliancy with 508.

Regards,

Eliot Lee
http://anthrotech.com/