Accessibility Awareness In 1973 Congress passed the Rehabilitation Act This law required that buildings and other architectural elements be accessible for individuals with disabilities In 2000 Congress passed an amendment to the Act which required all US government information technology to be accessible to individuals with disabilities The Rehabilitation Act is about Civil Rights The Architectural and Building Access comes under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act The Information Technology Access comes under the new Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

Accessibility Awareness What does Section 508 require?Section 508 states that all information technology systems be accessible to individuals with disabilities, any disability. Information Technology systems include computer hardware and software, electronic service systems such as Postal Stamp machines and Automated Teller machines, telefax and telephone systems and document management and copier systems.

Accessibility Awareness What do NASA employees need to know about 508? If the NASA employee is involved in any information technology or telecommunications activities, the employee needs to know the requirements for accessibility. These requirements are cited in several locations including – –

Accessibility Awareness Generally, what does Section 508 require with respect to information technology accessibility? The Section 508 ruling applies to all forms of hardware and software in the general categories of information technology and telecommunications. The next section of this familiarization program will identify the IT/Telecommuncations components affected and how.

IT/Telecommunications Components TelecommunicationsTelecommunications devices need to be accessible to individuals with hearing disabilities, this usually means installing a TTY terminal set wherever there is a lobby.

IT/Telecommunications Components Video and multimedia productsThe 508 ruling states that in locations where there are TV sets that the TV set be capable of showing Closed Captioning information; The ruling also states that where there are audio-only presentations, the presentation include text-based equivalent or captioning information; The ruling also states that a text-based description of the actions within a video be available to end users.

IT/Telecommunications Components Self Contained, Closed products –These products include: Copiers Information Kiosks Information Transaction Machines Printers Telefax machines Calculators and calculation machines Similar products The Section 508 rules for this category of IT/Telecommunication component states the device will include self-contained accessibility features.