ACCESSIBILITY FOR EVERYBODY: UNDERSTANDING THE SECTION 508 - ACCESSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

While other books are looking to the Web and people with disabilities to focus attention on accessibility issues, Accessibility for Everybody: Understanding the Section 508 Accessibility Requirements looks that whole picture -- accessibility for everyone in every environment. The U.S. government quickly realized that they have a wealth of older applications that will never appear on the Internet, but require some type of remedial upgrade to make them more accessible. The Section 508 rules don'tjust touch on the Internet, they provide rules about every aspect of computer use. Issues such as how to build accessible furniture or adding accessibility features to the phone system cannot be addressed within the scope of this book, but the book will touch on every issue the average Windows developer is going to want to know about. Eventually, the vast majority of developers will recognize the need to add accessibility as one of the design goals for any application. However, one of the issues hindering that goal is the language used to convey the legal requirements for accessibility. This book seeks to remove the artificial hurdles presented by the language of the law by presenting the information in plain English. In short, this book about accessibility will make the Section 508 requirements more accessible to the average developer. Web sites, programming examples, sources of additional information, and other aids to make the job easier are included.