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GCN Home > April 17, 2000 issue

Agencies fear Sect. 508 costs

By Christopher J. Dorobek
GCN Staff

A draft of a new regulation calls for federal agencies to begin making their technology as accessible to disabled users as their buildings.

The rules could have a significant impact on agencies’ budgets—costing the federal government up to $691 million per year, according to some estimates—and require agencies to buy accessible hardware and software and to revise their Web sites.

“Federal agencies must ensure that this technology is accessible to employees and the public to the extent it is not an ‘undue burden,’” said the Access Board, which drafted the rules.

The board is an independent federal agency that oversees standards on systems access for people with disabilities.

Derived from Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, the rules would apply to agencies when they develop, buy, maintain or use information technology. The rules would not require agencies to retrofit existing technology. Section 508 is designed to help disabled federal employees, as well as disabled citizens who use federal IT.

The Access Board will accept comments on the draft until May 31. After it reviews the comments, the board will post a final version.There is some question about when the rules would take effect. By law, Section 508’s enforcement provision, which establishes a complaint process, takes effect Aug. 7.

But Doug Wakefield, director of the Access Board’s Office of Technical and Information Services, said the new rules would not take effect until six months after the board posted the final notice in the Federal Register. “That will give everybody a chance to get their act together in terms of requests for proposals in the future,” he said.

Cost concerns

The rules have received much more attention among the disabled than from the IT or procurement communities, said Ira L. Hobbs, the Agriculture Department’s deputy chief information officer.

But the rules have sparked concern among systems managers and vendors. Many said they are concerned about the potential costs of the mandates. Some officials also said they are worried that they will be blamed for problems technology cannot solve.

The Access Board estimates that implementing Section 508 could cost the government anywhere from $85 million to $691 million.

The rules are so detailed that industry groups are still reviewing the nearly 50-page document, said Olga Grkavac, senior vice president of systems integration for the Information Technology Association of America of Arlington, Va.

“We are very supportive of the goal of the law. We want to be in compliance,” she said. “We still have more questions than answers.”

Officials at most agencies said they are awaiting a report from the Justice Department that will detail where agencies stand in complying with Section 508. That report is expected any day.



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