The following Questions and Answers were not addressed at the October 30 Webcast. If you have any questions please contact Bill Hetzner or Jim Kindrick.

Felix Leonard question:

Have you studied these (models of third party testing) and other compliance certification processes and metrics?

Answer:

Understanding the relationship between the Standard for Section 508 and other relevant resources is a primary objective of proposed task 2 of the Objective Measures project team. As a step in incremental progress, this task has so far been focused on 1194.22, those provisions of related to web-based information. 
Members of the Accessibility Forum staff have some experience with different models for compliance certification of software and hardware technologies, and members of the project team bring significant experience in various domains of testing and evaluation. 

We welcome people with testing experience on the project team. Sign up at www.accessibilityforum.org/projects/project_signup.html.

Steve Jacobs question:

What methodologies are being explored to conduct objective measures given that, in many instances, accessibility is subjective? For example, a contrast range accessible to one person with a vision disability may be inaccessible to another person with a vision disability.

Answer:

This is an excellent question. The Access Board Final Rule contains standards that vary greatly in their objectivity. Further, even highly objective measures cannot guarantee that a particular electronic and information technology (E&IT) is accessible to all persons with a particular disability. David Capozzi pointed out in his presentation at the October Accessibility Forum www.tvworldwide.com/event_accessibility_103001.cfm that the Access Board was very aware of this situation. It is not possible to make E&IT accessible to everyone. The challenge is to make it accessible and affordable to as many people as possible.

Compromises will be necessary. This is why the Forum and the Objective Measures project team is a coalition of stakeholders, E&IT vendors, Assistive Technology vendors, users with disabilities, federal government procurement and IT officials, and academic research and specialists. The job of the project team is to suggest measures and measurement methodologies to the Forum that provide the greatest good to the greatest number, at a reasonable cost.

William Derr question:

Y2K best practices included methods for specifying requirements and the ensuing satisfaction of those requirements. Certification based on objective standards for shrink-wrapped products may be in the offing, but when do you expect contracting officers and project managers in general to understand the level of effort required to make a custom application or website accessible and demand the performance of traditional testing methods to verify the satisfaction of those requirements?

Will the web-based course on the Section 508 website be available to instruct acquiring officers (IT Manager, Project Manager, etc.) and procurement officials (contracting officer and other acquisition staff) how the changes in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) impact how they develop requirements for E&IT procurements? Will it include discussions related to the procurement of custom-developed applications whether web-based or client-server?

Answer:

These are some of the issues the Objective Measures project team is addressing or will have to address in the near future. However, the Forum is operating under the assumption that it is better to develop methods to build accessibility into technology, rather than methodologies to test the end product. We are more concerned with developing methodologies that can be used in product development than we are in developing conformance testing. Nowhere is this more important than in custom-developed applications.
It will take some time for the Forum to come to agreement about measures and methodologies. In the meantime, there is a proliferation of Section 508 assessment tools, especially for web applications, on the market. The Objective Measures project team plans to examine these tools and their relationship to specific technical provisions and performance standards of Section 508. This work is currently focused on 1194.22, web applications, and a report is expected by the next Forum meeting, February 27 to March 1, 2002, in Denver.

Shiela Talcott question:

I have been working with the accessibility issue for over a year and one point is still unclear to me...If I am using JavaScript to open a new application in a browser window, Jaws does tell the user that a new window is being opened, but does this comply with the standards?

Answer:

This is an excellent example of a specific technical question about compliance to the Standard. It is not the function of the Accessibility Forum to serve as a compliance testing body. Rather, the purpose of the Forum is to come to a reasonable implementation of the standards resulting from Section 508. It is not our intent to interpret what the Access Board meant, but to figure out what is best for all the stakeholders.