DOJ and GSA to monitor agency Section 508 compliance

The Justice Department and the General Services Administration will start monitoring more closely agency compliance with a law that requires federal online content to be accessible to the disabled.

The law, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, is typically an afterthought in most agencies. But a July 19 memo from Dan Gordon, administrator for federal procurement policy within the Office of Management and Budget, and Vivek Kundra, the federal chief information officer, says that DOJ and GSA will step up their reporting of agency accessibility observance.

Specifically, beginning in fiscal 2011, which starts Oct. 1, GSA will produce a quarterly review of Section 508 compliance by solicitations posted on FedBizOps, the mandatory governmentwide procurement document clearinghouse, the memo states.

DOJ will issue a report in spring 2011 about agency compliance--the first such report since 2004--and thereafter issue follow up reports every two years, the memo states.

Agencies will also have to self-assess their implementation of Section 508 this September, the memo also says.

Section 508 is also in the process of being updated. The draft rule of the Section 508 refresh was closed for comment on June 21.

Social media is one grey area that will likely be addressed by the revised regulation, as is the definition of "covered material" or "covered content," which is official communications by the agency. The U.S. Access Board said the new guidelines will hopefully be more user-friendly, with built in advisories that correspond to each rule and references to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and WCAG supporting materials.

For more:
- download the memo, "Improving the Accessibility of Government Information" (.pdf)

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