Federal Government to Hold Listening Session on Section 508 for Technology Companies

May 27, 2011

Interested parties are invited to provide thoughts and suggestions on the Federal government's implementation efforts on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. 794(d)).

In July 2010, OMB issued a memorandum that, among other things, directed the U.S. Access Board, GSA's Office of Governmentwide Policy, the Federal Chief Information Officers Council (CIOC) and the Chief Acquisitions Officers Council (CAOC) to engage with citizens, Federal employees and other stakeholders in an open forum to gather comments and ideas that might be used to improve the accessibility of government information.  As a result, representatives from the organizations listed in the OMB memorandum have been conducting Listening Sessions with a variety of stakeholders at a number of venues around the country.  

A notice was posted in the Federal Register on May 24, 2011, announcing the next Listening Session.  It will be held at Stanford University 450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 on June 17, 2011 from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. (PT).  This Listening Session will also include time for a dialogue with representatives from technology companies. We hope to generate an interactive discussion on what challenges industry sees impacting the development of products and services that meet the government's Section 508 requirements.  It will also include time for general comments from the public. Representatives from technology companies, persons with disabilities, their advocates, and government employees are invited to participate.

More information can be found here:

HTML : http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-24/html/2011-12642.htm  

Or PDF: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-05-24/pdf/2011-12642.pdf

Matthew Gerst