CUDE

No. In a study conducted by Diane Cordry Golden of Missouri Assistive Technology in 2001, twenty-five "award winning" companies who produce instructional software for K-12 students (preschool through high school) were surveyed regarding the accessibility of their software to students with disabilities. Nineteen companies responded. Two reported that they were aware of accessibility issues and specifically Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. One of these two was beginning work on accessibility issues; the other had developed a planning committee.

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a web markup language, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). CSS accompanies HTML and gives both developers and users more control over how pages are displayed. CSS allows web developers to separate the appearance of a page (CSS) from its structure and informational content (HTML). This is a good idea since users access content using a wide variety of devices and media. The presentation of a document should therefore not be the same for everyone, but content and structure should be.

An often-cited rule in web design is "Test your website." Typically this involves reviewing your site in multiple web browsers and at multiple screen resolutions, as well as checking spelling and links. An accessibility check should also be included in this process.

Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM), an organization funded by the U.S. Department of Education, recommends the following seven-step process in its document titled The Planning, Evaluation, Repair and Maintenance Process:

Educators utilize a wide variety of authoring tools to create web sites. In virtually every category of computer software, if content can be created, it can be saved or exported as HTML. Many web authors simply export the content of their word processing files or of files they've created using graphics applications. Unfortunately, much of this web content is inaccessible to users with disabilities.

According to the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0:

A user agent is any software that retrieves, renders and facilitates end-user interaction with web content. User agents include web browsers, media players, add-ons (plug-ins & extensions), and web applications that help in retrieving, rendering and interacting with web content.

As mobile phones are integrated with other computing devices and networks, their role in education is evolving. Many educational entities in both K-12 and postsecondary environments continue to explore ways to integrate mobile phones into the classroom. The telephone, however, is one of the earliest examples of information technology that excluded individuals with disabilities.

"Section 255 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, require[s] manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and providers of telecommunications services to ensure that such equipment and services are accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities, if readily achievable. These amendments ensure that people with disabilities will have access to a broad range of products and services such as telephones, cell phones, pagers, call-waiting, and operator services that were often inaccessible to many users with disabilities" (source: U.S.

In the 1996 Amendments to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) was charged with developing technical standards by which compliance with the act could be measured. Section 508 required that the Access Board standards include "a definition of electronic and information technology that is consistent with the definition of information technology specified in section 5002(3) of the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 (40 U.S.C. 1401(3))."

Inaccessible designs of postsecondary campus web pages can result in citizen complaints, lawsuits, or regulatory action. The following are examples of letters from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights with respect to the accessibility of web pages in institutions of higher education:

As technology plays an increasing role in K-12, postsecondary, and adult education, educational entities are faced with assuring the accessibility of more technological resources, including computing labs and computer-assisted classrooms. In the higher education environment, colleges historically have addressed technology accessibility by setting up small, centralized assistive technology (AT) labs, often within the context of a disability services office.