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Background on Accessibility

In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, including Section 508 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.

In 2003, California enacted Government Code 11135 – adopting, in its entirety, the amended U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This Act includes Section 508, Subpart B, Sub-Section 1194.22 providing for accessibility of government websites. California government websites are therefore required to comply with these laws. However, at the time the legislation was enacted, state departments and agencies were not provided with explanations or interpretations of the law indicating how it should be implemented, web accessibility training for implementation, or defined resources for consultation. The law was not systematically enforced at the state level.

In 2006, the Office of the State of California Chief Information Officer formed the Information Organization, Usability, Currency, and Accessibility (IOUCA) Working Group, which, in conjunction with the California Department of Rehabilitation, created accessibility recommendations for California. These recommendations comply with California Government Code 11135 including Section 508 and the Priority 1 and 2 level checkpoints of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0 “AA” Conformance Level) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These recommendations were adopted as statewide standards on June 16, 2006 by the State Portal Review Board, and July 14, 2006 by the State Portal Steering Committee, and are to be used for planning new and redesigned state websites. Download California's Website Accessibility Standards.

Why Accessibility Is Important

The 2000 Census identified nearly 6.2 million Californians as having an identified disability. By the year 2010, this number is expected to increase to 11 million, nearly 30 percent of the state's population. State government is responsible for providing service to all citizens, including those with disabilities.

Technology provides government the ability to reach its citizens electronically. Disabled citizens and the businesses that serve them can access electronic government with the help of assistive technologies. It is imperative that the state's web presence be designed in a manner that is accessible to all citizens, and compatible with commonly used assistive technologies. When properly designed, the Internet can provide an effective means for people with disabilities to interact with government. These principles apply to state agency intranets as well, as state employees with disabilities require effective web access to the same agency-internal information and services available to their fellow employees.

The Webmaster's Role

The webmaster's role in accessibility is to:

  • Become an advocate for accessibility in the agency
  • Be as knowledgeable as possible on the subject when validating for accessibility
  • Build accessible sites
  • Use automated testing but confirm it manually
  • Perform manual checks on the 50% missed by automated testing
  • Gain an appreciation of web accessibility by understanding the user perspective - testing with people with disabilities.