New Legislation Aims to Boost Section 508 Reporting Requirements

Last month, Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa, chair of the Senate Committee on Aging, introduced the Federal Agency Accessibility Compliance Act, which aims to boost Section 508 reporting requirements for agencies.

The new legislation is designed to ensure that all federal government services, programs, and communications are fully accessible. Specifically, the proposed legislation will bolster the role of federal Section 508 compliance officers in federal agencies, as well as require agencies to certify that their technologies are accessible.

Agencies will also have to post plans and timelines for making non-accessible technologies fully Section 508 compliant.

As part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 508 requires that government agencies procure, create, use and maintain Information Communication Technologies (ICT) that are accessible to people with disabilities, regardless of whether or not they work for the federal government.

The Federal Agency Accessibility Compliance Act will certainly make Section 508 compliance testing a mainstream approach across all of government.

As we highlighted in this blog post last year, federal agencies are turning to industry partners like Makpar to help with testing to meet Section 508 requirements – which will potentially be expanding with this new legislation.

Makpar’s approach to Section 508 compliance testing is grounded in going beyond the minimum requirements – focusing on the highest accessibility standards for the most comprehensive testing available.

For example, Makpar is helping one agency to verify that any object or function in their applications can be accessed in multiple ways – other than a computer mouse – and are compatible with other accessibility tools.

Contact us here to learn more about how Makpar can help your agency to develop a comprehensive Section 508 compliance testing strategy.