Defining "Accessibility"
and Texas House Bill 2819
By
Jim Thatcher
Knowbility, Senior Research Fellow
In 1963 I joined the Mathematics Department of IBM Research along with my blind thesis Advisor, Dr. Jesse Wright. Jesse and I worked on mathematics and Computer Science for about 20 years until around the birth of the IBM PC, in the mid eighties.
Dr Wright and I built one of the first audio access systems which use synthesized speech to read the text on the PC screen for a blind user. It became IBM Screen Reader/DOS in 1987 and the phrase became generic for an industry. In 1988 I led the development of the first screen reader for the graphical user interface; it became ScreenReader/2 for OS/2 - a futile effort by IBM to enter the PC operating system market.
In those days "accessibility" was almost unknown. As a screen reader developer I understood better than most how terribly important it was for software to be well behaved - but we didn't call it "accessibility;" we just complained about non-standard controls and widgets that proliferated in the burgeoning PC software market place.
That changed; in the mid ninety's I turned away from developing assistive technology and turned to working on issues of accessibility of information technology within the IBM Corporation. There were two aspects of that effort. First, a growing number of blind employees using IBM Screen Reader on their jobs needed accessible products with which to work. And second, we wanted IBM to set an example of producing accessible products for its customers.
My approach to accessibility in IBM was to lead the development of technical accessibility guidelines to be used within IBM for the development of hardware, software, and the web; guidelines that were intended to cover all disabilities. We made those guidelines public. Although they have evolved over the years they are still available (http://www.ibm.com/able/guidelines.html) on the IBM Accessibility Center web site.
It is extremely important to have technical standards for accessibility. Web designers or software developers have no concept of what it means to make their information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Those developers and designers could have the best of intentions, yet without specific technical standards, like those we developed for IBM in 1997, there is little hope of their producing accessible products.
In 1998 the federal government recognized the importance of standards and guidelines for accessibility. Twenty years earlier, before there even were screen readers, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 had the requirement that federal agencies purchase accessible information technology. But accessibility was not defined so the law had little or no effect. The Workforce Reinvestment Act of 1998 amended Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by requiring that standards be drawn up which, in effect, would define accessibility of electronic and information technology.
With the passage of the amended Section 508, the U. S. Access Board empanelled an Advisory Committee to draw up accessibility standards for electronic and information technology (Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee, or EITAAC). I was vice-chair of that committee. In June of 2001 when the Section 508 law became effective there was a set of technical accessibility standards that had been subjected to months of public review. These standards cover all disabilities and they cover all kinds of Electronic and Information Technology.
That is where Texas House Bill 2819 comes in. HB2819, passed by the Texas State Legislature in 2005, adds Subsection (e) as an amendment to Government Code 2054.118 which regulates the purchase of information technology resources by the state.
The key point is in the first paragraph of that subsection:
Texas state agencies, the legislature, public institutions of higher education, and other state governmental bodies, such as commissions, boards, councils or authorities shall develop, procure, maintain and use accessible electronic and information technology that conforms to the applicable provisions set forth by the Federal Section 508 standards (36 CFR Part 1194) Subparts B-Technical Standards (1194.21-1194.26); Subpart C (Functional Performance Criteria) & Subpart D (Information Documentation & Support).
That legalese (CFR Part 1194 …) is exactly what we all know as Section 508: http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm.
Prior to the passage of HB2819 there already were requirements for accessibility of information technology in Texas law but, as was the case for the earlier Section 508, without specifically saying what that meant. HB 2819 ties the requirement for accessibility to the national Section 508 Accessibility Standards. In addition to the paragraph above the law specifically includes this definition of accessibility.
"Accessible Electronic and Information Technology" means E&IT that conforms to the standards for accessible E&IT as set forth under the Federal Section 508 standards 36 CFR Part 1194 3 Subparts B-Technical Standards (1194.21-1194.26); Subpart C (Functional Performance Criteria) & Subpart D (Information Documentation & Support)."
So the Section 508 Standards are taken as defining "accessibility." They cover the range of electronic and information technology - hardware, software, self contained units, documentation and the web and they cover the range of disabilities. The Functional Performance Criteria provide standards that would apply to E&IT that may be invented after the standards were created, requiring, for example:
§1194.31 (c) At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user hearing shall be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing shall be provided.
There are competing standards for the web accessibility including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/) from the W3C and Japanese Industrial Standard for Web Accessibility (JIS) (http://www.mitsue.co.jp/english/column/backnum/20040625a.html).
There are weaknesses in the Section 508 Standards just as there were in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Version 1.0 which are now being revised, June 2005 Draft WCAG Version 2.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/. But there is only one place where you can find accessibility standards or guidelines that apply to all disabilities and that apply to all aspects of Electronic and Information Technology.
Texas House Bill 2819 ties the intent of accessible IT in the State of Texas to a set of national standards which companies like IBM and Sun and Microsoft already understand and embrace because of their activities in the federal sector. Rather than two (or more) sets of products depending on jurisdiction, HB2819 levels the playing field applying a single set of technical accessibility standards for all Electronic and Information Technology.
Texas House Bill 2819 makes the requirement of accessibility clear and it makes the requirement practical.