On March 6, 2012, the National Association of the Deaf took the lead, and was joined by several other consumer groups, in submitting comments on the U.S. Access Board rulemaking on its standards for electronic and information technology as well as its guidelines for telecommunications accessibility.
These guidelines help federal agencies comply with Section 508 requirements for making electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 covers websites, software technology, telecommunications products, multimedia, and computers. We are pleased with many of the recent modifications and made a few suggestions.
The Board requested comments about adopting standards that allow federal agencies to offer alternate websites or forms of access when a website is inaccessible. We expressed concern that this might create a “separate but equal” system and made it clear that if a video is shown online, it must be captioned and providing a written transcript should never be considered an acceptable alternate form of compliance. We also encouraged the Board to update its guidelines to include Video Phones in addition to TTYs as a form of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Also, points were made about the need to make sure that ICT devices have audio output connections points so they are compatible with Assistive Listening Devices.
Click here to view the NAD comments on the U.S. Access Board ANPRM.