Opening Doors to Information Technology - Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act of 1973

摘要

Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act of 1973 has the potential to make the biggest impact on reducing barriers to technology for many people with disabilities. Although it only applies to the U. S. Federal government, its impact is being felt in the U. S. state governments, the private sector, and around the world. Section 508 was signed into law on August 7, 1998. The purpose of Section 508 is to ensure that technology does not stand as a barrier to employment and the full productivity by people with disabilities. Section 508 is not about assistive technology; its purpose is to improve access to "mainstream" technology, (making it easier to provide assistive technology) There are 54 million (20.6%) persons in the United States alone that have some level of disability. Over 70% of working age persons with severe disabilities have minimal or no employment and the U. S. Federal government currently employs approximately 167.900 persons with disabilities. More then two-thirds of Americans have some type of access to the Internet and in less then a decade, email has become a fundamental communication tool. In 1998 the U. S. Postal Service delivered 101 billion pieces of paper mail; estimates of the number of email messages transmitted that year range as high as four trillion. The number of electronic mailboxes worldwide reached almost 570 million in 1999. According to a report put out by UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles), by 1997, some 19 million Americans were using the Internet. That number tripled in one year and then passed 100 million in 1999. In the first quarter of 2000, more then five million Americans joined the online world, roughly 55,000 new users each day. Every 24 hours, the content of the Worldwide Web increases by more then 3.2 million new pages and more then 715,000 images. Last year alone the number of hits on U. S. web pages passed the one billion per day mark.