"A Better Employer" for the Disabled
By: Ben White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2001; Page A25

Veterans Affairs program analyst Jane Sheehan, like many blind federal
employees, can whiz through most aspects of her job. But she occasionally has
trouble with run-of-the-mill office equipment. The fax machine sometimes
misbehaves: It "beeps and boops," then explains itself on a small screen that
Sheehan can't read. It's a regular frustration. 

But as of Monday morning, if the VA decides to replace the machine, it will
have to find one capable of conveying information in a nonvisual way. In
fact, the way the federal government designs Web sites and buys software,
phones and fax machines will change because of new regulations requiring that
new federal information technology systems and equipment be accessible to the
disabled. 

Although the rules will have their most immediate impact inside the federal
bureaucracy, advocates for the disabled say because of the government's size
as an information technology buyer, they will likely ripple out through the
private sector. 

"When someone as big as the federal government gets serious about this and
says this is what we expect, then it's going to have a big impact," said
James Gashel, governmental affairs director for the National Federation of
the Blind. 

The road to implementing the regulations began in 1998, when President Bill
Clinton signed legislation modifying the 1973 Rehabilitation Act to require
that new federal information technology be accessible to the disabled. The
effort intensified in December, when a small, little-known federal agency
drew up standards for compliance with the new regulations, violations of
which will open agencies to possible lawsuits from employees and potential
vendors. 

President Bush highlighted the regulations during a visit to the Pentagon
yesterday. He said they would make the government a "better employer" for an
estimated 120,000 disabled federal workers while making online government
information more accessible to the disabled outside government. 

Among other things, the new standards require that any visual elements, such
as charts and graphs, in new government information systems include text that
can be picked up by screen-reading software used by the blind.  Audio content
must include captions for the deaf. 

Information conveyed with color, such as blue Internet links, will have to be
conveyed through text as well. 

The regulations do not expressly require agencies to make existing Web sites
accessible -- or existing hardware or software for that matter -- but
officials at several departments said they are trying to do so. 

Although the regulations have not garnered much public attention, they have
information technology officials inside government agencies worried about how
to comply with them. 

"People are nervous," said Diana Hynek, who coordinates the Commerce
Department's compliance effort. "There is no certification body, no Good
Housekeeping stamp of approval" to make it clear which products meet
accessibility standards and which do not. 

Terry Weaver, director of the Center for Information Technology Accommodation
at the General Services Administration, said that when it comes to buying new
software, "the easy answer is that there is no easy answer."  

Weaver noted that GSA has been working with software companies to come up
with a template to help agencies determine which programs comply. 

David Capozzi of the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance
Board (also known as the Access Board), the independent agency that wrote the
standards, said agencies may not find software that meets all requirements
right away. 

"If there isn't a product that fully meets the standards, then you purchase
whatever best meets the provisions. No one expects that every product is
going to be fully accessible immediately," Capozzi said. 

And while some reports have portrayed implementing the new regulations as a
mini-Y2K with the potential for disaster, Ernesto Castro, director of the
technology integration service at the VA, described it instead as the start
of a partnership between commercial vendors and government. 

"We really see this as a beginning and not an end," he said.