Re: Boilerplate contract language for ADA

Scott,
As has been pointed out, the e-Berkeley Policy has a
section on accessibility. We used the phrase:

    all essential administrative material must, to the
    extent feasible, be made accessible to people with
    disabilities

(http://itpolicy.berkeley.edu/e-Berkeley.policy.html#acce)

The language in this section was necessarily vague -- a
"best estimate" as to how campus should proceed until new
legislation and/or court cases caught up with use of the
Internet. However, there is not much new to add. As far
as I know, there are still currently no statutory require-
ments or UC guidelines specifically setting out "must do"
standards for accessibility of websites.

I have been hoping to carve out some time to review and
update the e-Berkeley policy overall, and in particular
to address the accessibility area, but so far I haven't
found that time. I stand by the e-Berkeley language as
a recommendation that we "do our best", but there is
no strict legislative or policy requirement language
to point to.

Several salient points:

  - Sarah Hawthorne is the current campus ADA Compliance
    Officer (Assistant Provost, Equity Standards &
    Compliance ) not Ward Newmeyer--an outdated reference
    that I REALLY need to fix on the e-B Policy site;

  - the previous Webnet web page with referrals on this
    topic, to which I had linked, appears to be broken so
    I need to fix my page to point to Webnet's current
    "Developer Resources" page:
    http://webnet.berkeley.edu/resources.php

  - a recent court case (Southwestern Airlines) actually
    seemed to set precedent that the ADA does NOT apply to
    websites:
(http://news.com.com/Disabilities+Act+doesnt+cover+Web%2C+court+says/2100-1030_3-5384087.html?tag=nefd.top)

   - ADA Accessibility Guidelines are available from W3C:
     http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ -- however, these are just
     guidelines. To paraphrase an esteemed colleague who
     sent me an individual email on this topic:

     While we might urge vendors to adhere to W3C guidelines
     wherever possible, it may not be appropriate to force
     design choices in a contract negotiation before proper
     analysis can be done. It's during the analysis stage
     that developers and stakeholders should decide these
     issues. In many cases, it is acceptable to offer
     alternatives to using the web app -- such as a phone
     number to call for support. The focus of the law (ADA)
     seems to be on making sure that business can be done by
     those with disabilities -- not that we force all web
     applications to work for all types of handicaps.

That said, I certainly feel that the campus needs to devote
some resources to creating well-organized recommendations
and educational materials in the "accessibility of online
resources". Perhaps we could identify a person or group
of persons with the time and expertise to work on this.
--Karen

At 10:44 AM -0800 11/16/04, Scott Lehman wrote:
>I'm looking for some boilerplate language that I can drop into a
>contract for web development. Specifically, I would like to ensure
>that the website will comply with statutory requirements and UC
>guidelines for the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
>
>A pointer to a document or a reply with the actual phrases would be
>ideal. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>Thanks,
>Scott
>
>*******************************
>
>Scott Lehman
>Systems Analyst, IS Department
>UC Berkeley Extension
>1995 University Avenue #7018
>Berkeley, CA 94720-7018
>V: (510) 643-6219
>F: (510) 642-1394
>
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-- 
=========================================================
  Karen E. Eft   Information Technology Policy Manager
  UC Berkeley (510)642-4095 http://itpolicy.berkeley.edu
=========================================================
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