Accessibility at Cal Poly PomonaThe Americans with Disabilities Act gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities similar to those provided to individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. It guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications. (Source: U.S. Access Board)
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a civil rights law designed to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability in any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. Section 504 guarantees certain rights to individuals with disabilities, including the right to full participation and access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to all children regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. (Source: National Resource Center on ADIHD)
Section 508 requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities.
In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible technology interferes with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted 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. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ' 794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others. It is recommended that you review the laws and regulations listed below to further your understanding about Section 508 and how you can support implementation. (Source: http://www.section508.gov)
Executive Order 926 is the California State University's (CSU) Policy on Disability Support and Accomodations. The purpose of this executive order is to document and make explicit the systemwide policies for the disability support and accommodation program and to engender monitoring and full compliance with all of the disability support and accommodation elements.
The " Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 " are a W3C specification providing guidance on accessibility of Web sites for people with disabilities. They have been developed by the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative .
The specification contains fourteen guidelines which are general principles of accessible design. Each guideline is associated with one or more checkpoints describing how to apply that guideline to particular features of Web pages.
An appendix to the guidelines, " List of Checkpoints for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 " presents the checkpoints sorted by priority for easy reference. These guidelines not only make pages more accessible to people with disabilities, but also have the side benefit of making pages more accessible to all users, or to users using different browsers or one of the emerging handheld or voice-based computers.
The guidelines are written for a variety of audiences—people who are designing Web sites; people who are checking existing Web sites for accessibility; organizations that wish to require a given level of accessibility for their Web sites; and others who are interested in ensuring that people with disabilities can access information on the Web. (Source:http://www.w3.org/1999/05/WCAG-REC-fact.html)
Section 255 of the Act requires telecommunications products and services to be accessible to people with disabilities. This is required to the extent access is "readily achievable," meaning easily accomplishable, without much difficulty or expense. (Source: U.S. Access Board)
