Read on for more information about Section and its various compliance requirements:. Section requires federal agencies to make their Information and Communication Technology ICT — including smart phones, websites, PDFs, software, and other electronic devices — accessible to people with disabilities. Not only this, but addressing digital accessibility can help your organization avoid costly ADA compliance litigation as well as litigation from other anti-discrimination federal and state laws.
Section is an amendment of the United States Rehabilitation Act of that requires, among other things, federal agencies to make their websites and other ICT accessible to persons with disabilities.
It is an amendment of the Workforce Investment Act of and clarifies that it is not only employees of federal agencies with disabilities that need to be provided with equal accessibility but also all of their users. Per EPA. The U. Access Board is responsible for developing Information and Communication Technology ICT accessibility standards to incorporate into regulations that govern Federal procurement practices.
On January 18, , the Access Board issued a final rule that updated accessibility requirements covered by Section , and refreshed guidelines for telecommunications equipment subject to Section of the Communications Act. The final rule went into effect on January 18, The rule updated and reorganized the Section Standards and Section Guidelines in response to market trends and innovations in technology.
In the terms set by the Rehabilitation Act, that means that federal organizations and websites must:. The Section refresh also focuses on addressing the function of products, not just the products themselves.
Rules that once addressed, say, telephones and computers separately now cover all products that offer a similar function—all devices that can be used to browse the internet, for instance.
This is particularly useful considering how much more prevalent multi-functional devices like smartphones and laptop computers have become since the previous update. Other key upgrades in the latest Section refresh include clarification about the way federally employed technology interacts with assistive tools such as screen readers, and a specific requirement that any web page that is available to the public or communicates official agency business must meet accessibility standards.
As with most accessibility considerations, a combination of manual and automated testing is advisable to determine Section compliance. An automated scan of your website can detect many accessibility issues that would take a large amount of time and effort to identify by hand, and can be scheduled to rescan periodically to make sure that your site does not fall out of compliance as your content changes.
At the same time, there are a number of situations that require manual accessibility testing to ensure that your solutions are workable for real people. These include issues such as compatibility with screen readers and other assistive tools, keyboard-only navigation, accessible coding, and more. Even after the Section refresh, there are some notable exceptions to these accessibility requirements. There has also been some confusion over the years because Section differentiates between legal and technical compliance.
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