In 1990, the Federal Government passed the American Disability Act to ensure support and access for the disabled. In 1998, the US Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act enacting Section 508 to require Federal agencies to make electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others. Section 508 addresses legal compliance through government procurement and has technical standards against which products are evaluated to determine if they meet the technical compliance.
Also, many organizations often believe that Section 508 compliance is a “one time” effort and do not consider ongoing release changes or product updates impact to compliance.
Organizations do not understand the needs of the disabled and how they can make modifications incrementally to begin their compliance with a long-term plan for more fully compliant sites and applications.
CentreIT processes have been proven with large federal contracts for multiple agencies including US Customs and Immigration Service (USCIS), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), state/sounty and commercial clients. Our process provides for the initial audit, process/standards creation, vendor product compliance, testing, remediation, and follow-on maintenance including scheduling of automated test tools and release testing. Our process will provide the long-term plan as well as auditable documents should a Deptartment of Justice or American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) audit arise.