Laws, Regulations, & Policies Flashcards
Accessibility civil rights laws
These are laws that emphasize equal rights for people with disabilities, often making it illegal to discriminate against people with disabilities under certain defined conditions, such as employment, access to buildings, government services, or “places of public accommodation” such as restaurants, retail, entertainment, etc. Sometimes these laws include technical standards. Other times they do not. The Americans with Disabilities Act is an example of a civil rights law.
Accessibility procurement laws
These laws require that accessibility be taken into account when making a purchase or when contracting for services. For example, the law could state that if there are three potential products and two of them meet accessibility standards, only the products that meet the standards should be considered for purchase. It would be against the law to buy the product that does not meet accessibility standards. The most prominent procurement laws (like Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in the United States, and EN 301 549 in the European Union) apply only to government entities, but it is possible that a future law could impact private businesses.
Accessibility industry-specific laws
Sometimes an industry is so important to accessibility that the government writes a law just for that industry. This section discusses the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
The ADA is a broad civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment, architectural design, transportation, examinations and courses, and other services offering “public accommodation.” Even though the ADA says nothing about web accessibility explicitly, many of the web accessibility lawsuits in the United States invoke the ADA as the basis for the legal complaint, because of the language about “public accommodation.”
The ADA applies to:
Private entities that own, operate, lease, or lease to places of public accommodation. Essentially this refers to businesses and other organizations open to the public, with the exception of religious entities and private clubs.
Federal and state government entities.
The ADA is enforced by:
Consumers (people with disabilities) filing formal complaints
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires the U.S. federal government to take accessibility into account when procuring information technologies: websites, telephones, copiers, computers, and other technologies, including both hardware and software. The parts of Section 508 most relevant to web accessibility are “1194.21 — Software applications and operating systems,” “1194.22 — Web-based intranet and internet information and applications,” and “1194.31 — Functional performance criteria.” In January 2017, Section 508 underwent a refresh that was many years in the making. A significant change is that the WCAG level A and AA guidelines are now incorporated by reference and required by Section 508. Prior to the refresh, Section 508 included its own list of requirements, which were a modified subset of WCAG 1.0 (not the current version of WCAG).
Section 508 applies to:
US federal government entities only, but the effects of Section 508 have permeated the information technology landscape because so many businesses, non-profits, and local and state governments do business with the federal government. To sell to the federal government, private entities have to offer accessible products and services.
Section 508 is enforced by:
Consumers (people with disabilities) filing formal complaints
21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA)
The CVAA requires “advanced communications services and products” to be accessible to people with disabilities, including video communications, text messaging, web browsers on mobile devices, and other similar technologies. Perhaps of greater significance to web developers, all video programs presented with captions on television must be presented with closed-captions on the internet. As it is written, the CVAA does not explicitly apply to web-only videos, but the video captioning requirement in WCAG applies to videos of all kinds on the internet, whether broadcast on television or not.
The CVAA applies to:
All entities already covered by FCC regulations (namely: telecommunication hardware and software providers and television broadcasters and television hardware/software providers)
The CVAA is enforced by:
Consumers (people with disabilities) filing formal complaints
Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA)
The ACAA of 1986 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in air travel and requires air carriers to accommodate the needs of passengers with disabilities. In March 1990, the Department of Transportation (DoT) issued a rule defining the rights of passengers and the obligations of air carriers as a direct result of this law. On November 12, 2013 the DoT issued rule (DOT-OST-2011-0177-0111 opens in a new window) regarding the accessibility of carrier websites and ticket kiosks, which will require these sites and kiosks to be accessible to people with disabilities. The final rule published was published in the Federal Register (FR Vol. 78 No. 218 opens in a new window) on November 12, 2013 and went into effect on December 12, 2013, thirty days after publication.
The ACAA applies to:
U.S. and foreign air carriers operating flights within or to the U.S. or selling tickets to the U.S. public
The ACAA is enforced by:
Consumers (people with disabilities) filing formal complaints
The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
The AODA “applies to every person or organization in the public and private sectors of the Province of Ontario, including the Legislative Assembly of Ontario” if the person or organization “provides goods, services or facilities… employs persons in Ontario… offers accommodation… owns or occupies a building, structure or premises… or is engaged in a prescribed business, activity or undertaking or meets such other requirements as may be prescribed.”
European Union
EN 301 549: “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe”
The European Union decided to create a set of standards for use in ICT (Information and Communication Technology) procurement legislation, similar to Section 508 in the United States. Mandate 376 established the initiative to create European accessibility procurement requirements, and the result is EN 301 549d opens in a new window—also available as an ETSI standard (PDF) opens in a new window—titled “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe,” published in February of 2014. Like Section 508, EN 301 549 covers a variety of technologies, not just the web. Portions of EN 301 549 that deal with the web refer to WCAG level AA.
United Kingdom
The Equality Act of 2010
One of the main laws related to web accessibility in the UK is the Equality Act of 2010. The Equality Act is a broad law which prohibits discrimination in the workplace and in society in general on the basis of:
Disability Race or ethnic identity Sex Pregnancy or parenthood status Sexual orientation or identity Religion, belief, or lack of religion/belief
The Equality Act applies specifically to public authorities “and to any other organisation when it is carrying out a public function.”
