Section 508: Built into Business
From: Washington Technology - 11/24/2003 - Vol. 18, No. 17, P. 1
By: Gail Repsher Emery

Government agencies, contractors, and vendors have normalized Section 508
accessibility requirements as part of their business, said policymakers at
the Interagency Disabilities Educational Awareness Showcase (IDEAS)
conference last month. White House Domestic Policy Council associate director
Chris Kuczynski said that as a blind person himself, he experienced firsthand
the effects on government Web sites and other technology over the last two
years. General Services Administration (GSA) acting deputy administrator
David Bibb noted that the IDEAS conference drew 1,250 attendees this year,
twice the 2002 number. Nearly every government agency now has at least an
accessibility program manager, while the GSA and other government groups are
working on tools to help agencies specify what accessibility standards apply
in their request for proposals, a clarification that often currently
substituted for a general certification requirement. IBM's Brad Westpfahl
warned that a lack of specificity could hamper accessibility efforts on a
larger scale, as states and other nations each begin to look at their own
standards. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office IT coordinator Fred DiFiore said
that once standards are in place, enforcing them strictly is the easiest way
to avoid problems in the future. FAA Section 508 coordinator Deborah Douglas
Slade says another task is simply creating awareness, something the FAA is
doing through a training program. 

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