Do You Feel Section 508 Refreshed? The New ICT Rules Are in Effect

*******SUPERSEDED....INCORRECT INFORMATION**********

In January 2017, the U.S. Access Board issued the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards and Guidelines, updating its existing Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, (“508 Standards”), and the Telecommunications Act Accessibility Guidelines under Section 255 of the Communications Act of 1934 (“255 Guidelines”). These Standards are now in effect as of January 18, 2018.
How does this affect the requirements for PDF compliance with Section 508?
The new rules are a lot to digest, as the encompass accessibility regulations for a huge range of electronic information technology.  Most of it does not pertain to our services at Accessibility In Mind (AIM), let's see what the actual rule says about PDFs:

The requirements for one specific type of electronic documents—those stored in PDF—are established by referencing the applicable ISO standard. PDF/UA-1 provides a technical, interoperable standard for the authoring, remediation, and validation of PDF content.

The new ruling provides much more specific requirements than the original rules, as it references the detailed guidelines of PDF/UA-1. PDF/UA-1 provides a technical, interoperable standard for the authoring, remediation, and validation of PDF content to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities who use AT such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and joysticks to navigate and read electronic content.

This is a major leap forward, as the 20-year old Section 508 regulations didn't know what a PDF was, let alone what made a PDF accessible. Various agencies created their versions of their interpretations, most notably HHS (last update here is 2013) with no consensus reached. This left clients and remediators with the responsibility to actually create and publish accessible documents, and the ability to claim compliance with little fear of reprisal.

The International Standard for Accessible PDF Technology (PDF/UA-1) finally provides a roadmap for remediating, testing, and ensuring accessible PDFs that are compliant with the "refreshed" rules.

Accessibility is our goal here at AIM, and we are "refreshed" and ready! All documents remediated by Accessibility In Mind are compliant with PDF/UA-1

A Long Road For the Disabled: Accessible Information and Ancient Regulation, a Brief History of Section 508 and the "Refresh"

Technology evolves at lightning speed- regulations for accessibility, not so much.

Section 508 became effective in 2000- how can 17 year-old regulations apply to today's enormous, ubiquitous electronic information flow? Smart phones, tablets, "always on" connectivity weren't part of life in 2000, and regulations written in the 20th century, essentially "pre-internet", can't be expected to be relevant. Add to that the proliferation of new devices to deliver information; the iPhone came out in 2007, the iPad in 2010-- were certainly not being considered when Section 508 was born. Those of us with "access" consume massive amounts of information electronically, a quantum leap in a few short years. But accessibility is far from universal. Are we getting anycloser to implementing sensible rules to ensure that technology today and in the future is accessible to all?

The original standards requiring electronic and information technology to be "accessible", the 1998 Section 508 amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, has an unarguably fair premise:  Universal access to the internet and electronic documents, with a mandate to "eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals."

It was "mandated" that the rules be regularly reviewed and updated, but guess what? There may have been some reviews, but no updates SINCE 1998. Different government agencies have interpreted the rules and created their own checklists, most notably the HHS checklist which has had no substantial changes since it was originally published in 2007. "Every man for himself" seems to be the guiding principle.

The Access Board has been meeting sporadically over the years, and finally agreed and published an update. Federal agencies will be required to comply with the revised Section 508 standards beginning on January 18, 2018 (unless budget cuts and de-regulation takes over...).

Here's a brief timeline of how we finally got here:

February 3, 1998 –Original Telecommunications Act Accessibility Guidelines
December 21, 2000 –Original Section 508 Standards
July 6, 2006 –Members named to Advisory Committee (TEITAC)
April 3, 2008 –TEITAC presents final report
March 22, 2010 –Draft proposed rule (ANPRM) to update the Section 508 standards and Telecommunications Act guidelines
December 8, 2011 –Revised draft proposed rule (2nd ANPRM)
February 27, 2015 –Proposed rule (NPRM) published in Federal Register
January 18, 2017 –Final rule published in FR

"Only" 7 years passed from the first drafts of an update to publication in the Federal Register, but 18 years will have passed between the original standards and this much-needed update. Whew....makes me tired to think about it.

Head over to Section508.gov for their toolkit for the refresh, and let's get accessible and compliant!!! One tiny step in the right direction, I guess we should be cheering.

FINALLY! U.S. Access Board Updates Interpretation of Section 508!

The U.S. Access Board has released a final rule that updates accessibility requirements for information and communication technology (ICT) in the federal sector covered by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The rule also refreshes guidelines for telecommunications equipment subject to Section 255 of the Communications Act. The six-year process of updating these requirements constitutes the first refresh since Section 508 was created in 1998.

"This update is essential to ensure that the Board's Section 508 standards and the Communications Act guidelines keep pace with the ever-changing technologies covered and continue to meet the access needs of people with disabilities," states Sachin Pavithran, Chair of the Board's ICT ad hoc committee. "The Access Board is grateful for the input it received from the public and stakeholders throughout the rulemaking process which greatly enhanced the final product."

The rule jointly updates and reorganizes the Section 508 standards and Section 255 guidelines in response to market trends and innovations, such as the convergence of technologies. The refresh also harmonizes these requirements with other guidelines and standards both in the U.S. and abroad, including standards issued by the European Commission and with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a globally recognized voluntary consensus standard for web content and ICT. In fact, the rule references Level A and Level AA Success Criteria and Conformance Requirements in WCAG 2.0 and applies them not only to websites, but also to electronic documents and software.

"Throughout this process," according to Access Board Executive Director David M. Capozzi, "the Board worked very hard to ensure consistency with other consensus guidelines and international standards to promote global harmonization and facilitate compliance." He noted that, "ICT requirements that are closely aligned remove ambiguity, increase marketplace competition, and lead to better accessibility features and outcomes."

The updated requirements specify the technologies covered and provide both performance-based and technical requirements for hardware, software, and support documentation and services. Access is addressed for all types of disabilities, including those pertaining to vision, hearing, color perception, speech, cognition, manual dexterity, and reach. The rule, which will be published later this month in the Federal Register, restructures provisions so that they are categorized by functionality instead of by product type due to the increasingly multi-functional capabilities of ICT products. Revisions are also made to improve ICT usability, including interoperability with assistive technologies, and to clarify the types of ICT covered, such as electronic documents.

The Board released a proposed version of the rule for public comment in February 2015 and, before that, earlier drafts of the rule. The rule is based on recommendations from an advisory panel the Board chartered, the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee which included representatives from industry, disability groups, government agencies, foreign countries, and other stakeholders.

The rule will take effect in one year. The Section 508 standards, which are incorporated into the federal government's procurement regulations, apply to ICT procured, developed, maintained, or used by federal agencies. The Communications Act guidelines cover telephones, cell phones, pagers, computers with modems, switching equipment and other telecommunications equipment.

The Board will conduct a webinar on the rule on February 2.