[Accessibility_sig] specialized sites

[Lucey, Ron]

Charlene:

Congratulations on your new position. As a TSL Talking Book patron I
appreciate your interest and commitment to accessibility. 

1. Our reading of TAC 206B is that the DIR rules apply to both public
Internet pages and Intranet web pages intended for employee use. Even if
your agency or department does not currently have an employee with a
disability the law still applies. There is an exception rule for
significant difficulty or expense which requires the approval of your
agencies executive director or commissioner.

2. Regarding captioning requirements, the Health and Human Services
Agencies have a higher requirement for captioning than other state
agencies due to provisions in another law (H.B. 2292 78th Session).
Although TSL is not required to caption all video and multimedia
content, your agency may consider captioning along with other means of
access including posted text transcripts. Transcripts do not always
offer the same richness of information as synchronized closed
captioning. If you choose to use transcripts try to include any
important images, charts, or graphics from the multimedia content
in-between the text to enhance the information presentation for
individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. Although DIR rules require
captioning to be considered when a request is received, it is often much
more difficult to apply captioning after a production has been completed
than to include it in the original production plans.

Any exceptions in the DIR rules are based on significant difficulty or
expense and not on the significance of the information.

Ron Lucey
Program Accessibility Coordinator 
Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services
ron.lucey at dars.state.tx.us
Phone:	(512) 377-0577
FAX:	(512) 424-4154



-----Original Message-----
From: accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org
[mailto:accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org] On Behalf Of Charlene
Zvolanek
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 5:25 PM
To: Discussion list for web and software accessibility issues
Subject: [Accessibility_sig] specialized sites

Hi All;

I just took a position at the Texas State Library and Archives
Commission, and my first order of business is to get the various content
providers to build accessible materials. 

I have a small avalanche of sites and content that were developed
outside the 508 and TAC 206.50 guidelines. I am fielding questions from
various directions about the whys and the hows and the whether we have
tos.
One question I got today that I want the group to help me out on is in
relation to distance learning for library employees throughout the
State. I am pretty sure I know the answers to the following questions,
but am looking for backup.

New training materials have been developed by our distance learning
division for library employees throughout the state, and includes
"non-essential" videos providing elaboration on the training topics. 

The questions posed to me were:

	1. I know these laws apply to our main public Website and to
public information that we disseminate but do they fully apply to online
courses that live in a separate environment (in this case, on our online
training site at onlinetraining.tsl.state.tx.us) and that are not
intended for the general public but for a specific audience of Texas
library staff? I am familiar with Section 508 and the new TAC
accessibility laws but I thought they really applied to our public
Website and have been fuzzy on whether they apply to our online
courses.....

	2. The videos are not captioned at this time but are also not
ESSENTIAL to the content of the online course in question. They are
optional videos with audio. As such, would it suffice to provide a
text-based summary of the videos within the course itself? 


My understanding is that all content available to the public must meet
all 508 and TAC 206 requirements. The fact that this is non-essential
does not exempt us from meeting requirements. The text-based summary
would need to provide equivalent information as the video does for a
traditional end user. 

True? 



thank you,
charlene zvolanek
webmaster (3 weeks in)
Texas State Library and Archives Commission http://www.tsl.state.tx.us
512-936-2505

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