Accessibility Regulations and Tips for Reaching Older Adults and People with Disabilities

摘要

Providing accessibility to all audiences is not just the right thingto do--it is the law. As a group, communicators have a responsibilityto create accessible resources for people with disabilities, whetherthis involves classroom materials and press releases or onlinemeetings. While communicators are not lawyers, we need tounderstand the essence of the statutes, since the United StatesCensus Bureau (2006) reports that there are 51 million Americanswith disabilities. This article describes the laws' requirements andways for federally funded land-grant institutions to meet the intentof those laws. These institutions need to meet the requirements ofthe 1973 Rehabilitation Act (Section 504), the 1990 Americans withDisabilities Act (ADA), and Section 508, which amends the 1973Rehabilitation Act to include software and Internet presentations.Applied communicators must make reasonable efforts to ensure thatinformation products developed for people with disabilities are aseffective as those developed for other audiences.