[Accessibility_sig] specialized sites

Thu Oct 12 10:10:42 CDT 2006

As a small business owner you are not subject to the requirements of
House Bill 2819 unless you are acting as a service delivery contractor
on behalf of a state agency. You may have other web accessibility
responsibilities under Title 3 of the Americans with Disabilities Act as
illustrated by the highly publicized Target law suit. However, small
businesses are not held to the same expectations for making
accessibility accommodations that may be an undue burden in the same way
that a much larger company would be expected to provide accessibility.
Based upon the size of your small business, a posted text transcript may
be an acceptable level of accommodation for making video or multimedia
presentations accessible.

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 

________________________________

From: accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org
[mailto:accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org] On Behalf Of Nike
Myrick
Sent: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 8:01 PM
To: Discussion list for web and software accessibility issues
Subject: Re: [Accessibility_sig] specialized sites

If you don't have in line captioning, what about providing a written
transcript that can be downloaded? I don't know what the legal
requirements, but being a small business owner, I would be interested in
learning more. 
Thanks, 
Nike

On 10/10/06, Lucey, Ron <Ron.Lucey at dars.state.tx.us> wrote: 

	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
<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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