Presentation by Ken Nakata, Director of Disability Initiatives and Government Compliance, BayFirst Solutions LLC. Biography and contact information at bottom. [Slide 1 titled, IT Accessibility Law and Policy—Reaching Your Goals by Following a Simpler Path to IT Accessibility with image of telescope on top of map] I would like to start off by telling you a little bit about myself and my perspective– and then give you some ideas about how to think about IT accessibility law and policy. My name is Ken Nakata and I am the Director of Government Compliance and Disability Initiatives for BayFirst Solutions, a Washington, DC consulting firm. I work in the other Washington– Seattle to be exact– with several developers and testers focused on IT accessibility. For 12 years, from 1992 through 2004, I was a Senior Trial Attorney with the Disability Right Section at the Department of Justice. I worked mostly on the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. During my last six years there, I was the Federal government’s lead attorney for Section 508 implementation and helped write the Access Board’s Section 508 standards and technical guidelines. With that kind of Ivory Tower background, I really did see just about everything an attorney could hope for. I confronted some pretty hard questions. I got to argue about the intricacies of the law and fought a lot of battles when people got things wrong. And, it seemed as though a lot of people were getting things wrong. But, you know what? People weren’t getting trapped because of hidden “gotchas” or complexities in the law. Instead, it was because they were getting caught up in the exceptions and losing sight of the big picture. I’d like to talk to you about that big picture because 99% of the time, it will guide you correctly. [Slide 2, titled IT Accessibility Can Seem Like a Maze of Complex Requirements, with image of complex maze] If you’re new to working with Section 508 or IT accessibility, I’m sure that you’ve encountered a few moments where it all seems like a maze. First, there’s the laws– like the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508– that seem to require slightly different and inconsistent things. Then there are the regulations that sometimes make you feel that you need a computer science degree and government contracting certification to make sense of. Things get a lot more complex in colleges and universities. We view education as a pretty fundamental right. Students also tend to do their best work late at night– exactly when your IT staff is probably safe at home in bed. [Slide 3 titled, You Need a Clearer Path, with image of a telescope on top of a map] What we all really want is a simple way out– a way to make all of the laws and regulations make sense. And, we also need a way to anticipate and meet the needs of our students. [Slide 4, titled Without a Guide It’s Easy to Feel Lost with image of woman looking confused and holding crumpled street map] And who can blame you for feeling lost and confused? It’s not like anyone ever sat down with you and tried to say how the parts tied together. If somebody did, I think that you’d agree that this is simple enough for a 7-year old to understand. [Slide 5, titled …Or You Can Have a Simpler Perspective, with photograph of man holding a small glass globe that he is staring into] After spending more than 15 years working in this field, I’m actually little embarrassed to say that this isn’t complex and intricate. In fact, I have one startling confession after working all this time in this area– the laws and policies are actually remarkably simple if you focus on the big picture. And, sure, there are sometimes limited exceptions but even these usually take a back seat to the overall goals. If you can avoid focusing on the small stuff and keep the big picture in mind, you’ll avoid almost all of the little gotchas along the way. By focusing on the big picture, you’ll not only avoid the traps and gotchas along the way to a great Section 508 program, but you will also set yourself up for creating a really great Section 508 program that better meets the needs of you, your school, and your students. My coworker Fred DiFiore will talk later about the day-to-day practicalities of setting up a program within the structure of these laws and regulations. But, that job will be a lot easier once you know your way through the maze of laws and regulations. [Slide 6, titled Follow an Easy Approach to IT Accessibility Laws, with bullet list with heading “Our Plan.” Under this heading are 3 bullets: (1) Focus on an Accessible IT Infrastructure, (2) Avoid Common Traps (aka “Don’t Let the Exception Swallow the Rule), and (3) Learn How Simple the Exceptions Are”] What I’m going to propose is a much simpler way of looking at things. Sure, it won’t cover everything or enable you to muse philosophically about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. But, it will give you the information you need to create the best IT accessibility program around. I’m going to base my presentation on three basic ideas. The most important one is showing you how Section 508 and similar laws focus on the goal of building an accessible IT infrastructure and that this should be you first and most important goal. I’d say everything else is secondary to that one goal and if you left here with one point to remember it’s that you want to create an accessible IT infrastructure. The second and third points just refine the first one. We’ll talk about how to avoid common traps and we’ll talk about how the exceptions to Section 508 and disability rights laws just make common sense. So, if you’re ready for the challenge, settle in and let’s get started. [Slide 7 with title, Your Goal is an IT Infrastructure Built Around Accessibility. Image of keyboard and mouse on top of architectural blueprints] The key to just about every current IT accessibility law comes down to one simple concept that we’ll spend quite a bit of time talking about. This concept is how to build an accessible IT infrastructure. This makes sense for several reasons. If you think about accessibility in the old-fashioned bricks-and-mortar world, you’ll remember that laws like the ADA focus on two types of accessibility. The first kind of accessibility focuses on one-to-one accommodations. Here we’re focused on things like making reasonable accommodations to ensure that a specific individual is accommodated. The second kind of accessibility is one step ahead and asks how to make the environment accessible. Here, we’re focused on doing things like making buildings accessible or meeting certain accessibility standards. This distinction– between individual-based accommodations and infrastructure accessibility– is key to everything we’re talking about today. One interesting thing to notice is that the second type of accessibility is actually easier– just build something to a specific set of rules and you’re done. [Slide 8 with title, Section 508 Focuses on an Accessible IT Infrastructure. Accompanying image of stacked blueprints] Let’s look at Section 508 to start. For those of you who are new to this area, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires Federal agencies to ensure that their electronic and information technology provides comparable access to people with and without disabilities. To do this, Section 508 requires the Access Board– the same agency that developed the accessibility guidelines for the buildings around us– to develop accessibility standards that have to be met. Section 508 was also novel because, for the first time, agencies could be sued if they didn’t follow these accessibility standards. This addition raised accessibility from an “optional” or “should have” feature into a “mandatory” or “must-have” requirement. [Slide 9 with title 4 Verbs to Section 508. Below this are four words cascading down, “develop, procure, maintain and use”] Let’s dive a little deeper into this idea that Section 508 is intended to get at an accessible IT infrastructure. If you remember what I said just a minute ago, Section 508 requires the Federal agencies to ensure that their electronic and information technology provides comparable access to people with disabilities. How? Well, Section 508 requires Federal agencies to provide that comparable access whenever it develops, procures, maintains, or uses that technology. The first two verbs– develop and procure– address new technologies… things that are bought or built. The last two verbs– maintain and use– seems to address existing or older technologies. [Slide 10 with title Section 508 is Enforceable Only for New IT. Only the word “procure” is in the middle of this slide] But here’s the catch. For lawsuits, Section 508 is limited only to one of those verbs– namely, procured technologies. In other words, it’s only the “new stuff” that agencies can be sued for. Remember what I was saying earlier about there being two types of accessibility laws? If you remember, there are the kind that deals with one-on-one accommodations and those that talk about infrastructure accessibility? Well, because Section 508 is enforceable only for new stuff and because Section 508 doesn’t talk about individual accommodations at all, Section 508 falls into that second type of accessibility law. This is really powerful stuff... at once both the same and different from other accessibility laws. Sure, like architectural accessibility, it deals with the infrastructure and following standards. But, Section 508 uses the buying power of the whole Federal government to change market forces to drive accessibility. Once I was giving a presentation in Japan shortly after Section 508 was amended. I talked about how Section 508 was an American civil rights law, but that it used the procurement process to encourage accessibility and the audience seemed stunned. Since then, other governments around the world have adopted similar types of laws modeled on Section 508. [Slide 11 with title Section 508 Does Not Address Reasonable Accommodations. Image of man seated in wheelchair shaking hand of standing man with back towards camera] As exciting as changing the world is, let’s get back to my main thesis– that Section 508 focuses on the infrastructure. I mentioned before that one thing that Section 508 does not address is individual accommodations. This is not a shortcoming of the law. There are already other laws that talk about these individual-based accommodations, like Section 504 and Title II of the ADA. These laws build on Section 508. Just as having accessible buildings make it infinitely easier to accommodate people with mobility impairments, accessible technology as part of the IT infrastructure make it much easier to make one-on-one accommodations for people with disabilities easier. [Slide 12 with title ADA Title II / Section 504 Focus on an Accessible IT Infrastructure. Image of stacked blueprints] I mentioned that Section 504 and Title II of the ADA both build on the accessible infrastructure that Section 508 requires. Well, actually, Section 504 and Title II of the ADA have two sides to them. Part of each law deals with individual accommodations and part of each law deals with the infrastructure. Now, if you were the 504 or EEO director for your college, you would be very interested in how those one-on-one accommodations worked. But, as the IT accessibility coordinators and Section 508 coordinators, your focus is on the infrastructure side of Section 504 and Title II. If you happen to wear both hats, well Fred and I can talk to you separately. I worked in both areas and Fred is the only person I know of who’s created BOTH a top five Section 508 and Section 504 program. [Slide 13 with title, ADA Title II / Section 504 Focus on “Program Access”. Image in slide of US Capitol with fountain in foreground] So, what are Section 504 and Title II of the ADA? Well, first came Section 504, which was part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It requires that Federal agencies and fund recipients refrain from discriminating against qualified persons in disabilities in any Federal program, service, or activity. Title II extended this same concept to any program, service, or activity of a state or local government. All of this legal mumbo-jumbo comes down to this idea. If you have any program, service, or activity (including employment) that’s open to some class of people, it better not discriminate against people with disabilities who are a part of that class. Another way to remember this idea is to use the two buzzwords that civil rights attorneys like to use: “program access.” Simply put, Section 504 and ADA Title II are all about program access and making sure that people with disabilities are not excluded from those programs. [Slide 14 with title First Step for Program Access is for IT to be Accessible. Closeup image of electronic circuit board] When described that way, what’s the easiest way to exclude people with disabilities from a program? Make the buildings inaccessible, make the computer system inaccessible– in other words, make the infrastructure inaccessible. So the very first step to consider in providing program access is for the infrastructure itself to be made accessible. As IT Accessibility Coordinators, this is you first task. So, in some senses, Section 504 and Title II of the ADA always required what Section 508 required. But, Section 508 added the standards (how to build the accessible IT infrastructure) and spelled out the obligation in no uncertain terms. [Slide 15 with title Other Program Access Requirements Build on Infrastructure Accessibility. Image of person seated in wheelchair typing on laptop computer] Once your IT infrastructure is accessible, other program access requirement can more successfully build on those accomplishments. But, at this stage, this is where you either hand it off to your Section 504 Coordinator or put on your second hat as that 504 coordinator. My point is that you need to think about these two roles– the role of 508 coordinator and 504 coordinator– as two separate jobs and not as one. [Slide 16 with title State Laws Focus on an Accessible IT Infrastructure. Image of stacked blueprints] I am not a real expert on state laws, but I can tell you this. By and large, states that have adopted civil rights laws for people with disabilities have largely done so in ways that build on Federal laws, including Section 508, ADA Title II, and Section 504. States vary in the way that they have adapted these laws to suit their needs, but they have always made their laws consistent– usually by granting protections that go beyond the Federal requirements. Do you remember what I was saying earlier about the law having a few gotchas that people tend to get hung up on? In most cases, these are limited exceptions under the law that people extend way too far. For instance, the back office exemption and the national security exemption carve out exceptions for certain types of IT from Section 508. It’s not to say that they can’t be made accessible– it’s just that Section 508 doesn’t require them to be. These exemptions are frequently missed in state laws and policies about IT accessibility. So, if you focus on the general idea of making sure your IT infrastructure is accessible, you’re more likely to be safe under both Federal and state laws. [Slide 17 with title, Avoid Common Traps (aka “Don’t Let the Exception Swallow the Rule”. Close-up image of spider web] So there you have the general rule– focus on meeting the standards and building an accessible IT infrastructure. Now, I’d like to talk to you about some of the traps that confuse people along the way. Most of the time when people start talking about exceptions, that’s where things get murky. People start thinking so much about the exceptions that they forget about the general rule. I predict that, if we just remember the one key idea we’ve been talking about– making sure that the IT infrastructure is accessible– you won’t get confused. But, you can tell me when we’re done. [Slide 18 with title, Don’t Vary from the Standards When Buying or Developing IT. Image of cover of Section 508 regulations] The first important trap is to remember to focus on the standards when you are developing or procuring IT. Too many people get stuck in the idea of meeting the needs of particular individuals or meeting the needs of every possible disability. That’s just not practical. Think about it in real world terms for a moment. Say you were tasked with constructing buildings on your campus. Every time you built a building, would you convene a focus group of likely users who had disabilities and build the building to meet their needs? Well, if you did you wouldn’t be able to predict future needs and your buildings would all have varying degrees of accessibility. Instead, we build to local building codes and to the ADA Accessibility Guidelines, which were designed to provide universal access to the vast majority of people with disabilities. It’s easier, more uniform, and far more effective than designing things to meet the needs of particular people with disabilities. The same holds true for Section 508. Just make sure you follow the standards whenever you are building or buying the new stuff– i.e. the stuff that affects your IT infrastructure. [Slide 19 with title, Section 508 Holds You to the Standards. Image of gavel on legislation] Do you remember what I was saying earlier about how there were 4 basic verbs to Section 508 (develop, procure, maintain, and use), but people can sue agencies only when they violate Section 508 as they procure IT? What that means is that people can sue agencies when they ignore the Section 508 standards during the procurement process. The standards are available on the Access Board’s website at www.access-board.gov. It’s important that you follow these standards. Most states that have created their own laws have also adopted the Section 508 standards as is. Some states and many organizations have adopted policies encouraging the use of more rigorous standards, like the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), available at http://www.w3.org/WAI. This is all well and good, but remember that the Section 508 standards are your bare minimum set of requirements. [Slide 20 with title, Meeting the Standards Get You 90% of the Way for Other Laws. Image of man carrying briefcase summiting mountain] Just making sure that your developed and procured IT meets the Section 508 standards gets you 90% of the way home. Again, to borrow an analogy from the physical bricks-and-mortar world, making sure that buildings are accessible from the very beginning makes it much easier to accommodate people with disabilities later on. So too, making sure that your newly developed and procured IT meets the Section 508 standards will make 504 accommodations infinitely easier down the road. [Slide 21 with title Don’t Get Confused with Accommodating Individuals. Image of women using wheelchair typing on laptop computer] The second trap-- and the one that I’ve mentioned several times so far– is to not get confused with accommodating individuals with disabilities. This isn’t to say that you don’t accommodate people with disabilities– you’ll get in real trouble if you don’t. The point is to think of the two obligations as different. When you are developing or buying IT, put on your Section 508 hat. And, when you are trying to figure out how to meet the needs of particular individuals with disabilities, put on your Section 504 hat. [Slide 22 with title Section 508 Does Not Address Reasonable Accommodations. Image of man seated in wheelchair shaking hand of standing man with back towards camera] I know that I’ve said this before, but it deserves repeating. Section 508 does not address reasonable accommodations. In fact, if you look at Section 508, you won’t find those words anywhere in Section 508. Sure, there is some general language in Section 508 that talks about ensuring that IT is accessible to people with disabilities– and many people twist this all around until the exception swallows the rule. Don’t do this– just remember that the focus of Section 508 is following the standards and making the IT infrastructure itself accessible. [Slide 23 with title Reasonable Accommodations Build on Section 508. Close up image of braille] Ultimately, the best way to accommodate the most people in the long run is to make sure that your IT infrastructure is accessible. For instance, without accessible software, it doesn’t matter how much your IT staff is willing to spend on buying screen readers– they just won’t work unless the building blocks are in place. Following the Section 508 standards and keeping your eye on the long-term goal of making your IT infrastructure accessible ultimately makes reasonable accommodations possible. [Slide 24 with title Section 508 Doesn’t Drive the Procurement. Image of receipt book] The last trap– and one that Fred and I see over and over again– is not using common sense and letting the need for accessibility override everything else. Until now, we’ve been talking about how important it is to keep Section 508 first and foremost in your mind when making a procurement, so what I’m about to tell you now may sound a little confusing– Section 508 doesn’t drive your procurement. I know that this sound completely contradictory, but trust me… it will make sense. This is really a critical point, so it’s important to pay attention to this trap. Yes, the Section 508 standards must be adhered to. Yes, you must keep them first and foremost in your minds as you make a procurement. But, they don’t drive the procurement. What does drive the procurement then? [Slide 25 with title Your Business Needs Come First. Image of process diagram with first step “Business Needs”] The answer, of course, is that your business needs drive the procurement. When someone in your organization wants to buy something, you can’t step in and say, “Section 508 won’t let you buy that.” Instead you need to consider the legitimate business needs for the procurement. For instance, if someone in your organization needs a high-volume copier for preparing handouts for students in huge lecture style classrooms, they may have a legitimate business need for a copier that can produce over 100 copies per minute. [Slide 26 with title Section 508 is Considered After Business Needs. Image of process diagram with second step “Section 508 Standards”] Only after you have considered your business needs do you consider how to meet the Section 508 standards. Getting back to our example of the copiers, suppose that the legitimate business needs are for a copier that produces 100 copies per minute. Once you have established that fact, then you apply the Section 508 standards and ask yourself how to find the product that best meets the Section 508 standards from among those copiers that can produce 100 or more copies per minute. What if there are no Section 508 compliant copiers that can produce over 100 copies per minute? Section 508 requires you to buy the copier that comes closest (or “best meets”) the Section 508 standards from among those copiers that can make 100 or more copies per minute. [Slide 27 with title This Doesn’t Mean that Section 508 is Less Important. Image of scales with business needs and Section 508 at balance] We’ll talk more about how to balance business needs and meet the Section 508 standards in a few minutes. The important point for now is the order in which Section 508 is considered in the process. And remember that it’s a process– first one thing and then another. So, first you consider your legitimate business needs and then, from among the products that meet those business needs, you consider Section 508 requirements. It’s not to say that Section 508 is not important, but the order in which it’s considered. [Slide 28 with title Understand How Simple the Exceptions REALLY Are. Image of man standing on giant question mark] We’ve talked about some of the traps that can get confusing to IT Accessibility Coordinators and I’ve given you a few examples of what to avoid and how to avoid them. I’d like to take a few moments now to talk about the exceptions generally in an attempt to tie up just about everything you need to consider into a neater package. [Slide 29 with title Most Exceptions are Easy to Understand. Image of extended hand holding open compass] I’m sure you’ve heard people talk about the exemptions to Section 508– like commercial unavailability, undue burden, national security, etc. But, I’m going to go out on a limb here and ask you to not try to catalog in your mind all the different exemptions. I’m going to suggest that it all actually makes perfect sense. [Slide 30 with title Section 508 and Other Laws Never Require the Impossible. Image of table listing claims and associated names (here in parentheses). They are “It’ll blow my budget to buy it” (Undue Burden); “You’re making me buy something I can’t use” (Fundamental Alteration); “That’s impossible to create” (Technical Infeasibility); “It doesn’t exist” (Commercial Unavailability)] Let’s start with a bold assertion: Section 508 and the ADA never require you to do the impossible. It’s just that, when we are trying to describe why something is impossible, we use different legal sounding names to describe it. For instance, if something blows my budget, we call that “undue burden”. If you’re being asked to buy something that doesn’t meet your business needs, we call that “fundamental alteration.” If you are being asked to buy something that can’t be made, we call that “technical infeasibility.” Lastly, and we’ll come back to this one, if you are asked to buy something that doesn’t exist, we call that “commercial unavailability”. [Slide 31 with title You Don’t Have to Use Undue Burden in Almost Every Case. Image of compass on top of map] Of all of these exceptions, the trickiest is undue burden. Section 508 allows you to not procure something if doing so constitutes an undue burden. Undue burden has a not-so-helpful definition– it means a “significant difficulty or expense.” In practice– and as interpreted by the courts and the Department of Justice– it means something that affects your year-end budget or that will cause so many administrative headaches that it is practically impossible. In practice, you really don’t want to go here if you don’t have to. The courts will put you under the microscope if you try to make this claim. But here’s a little trick. In almost every case, you don’t have to claim undue burden because there is usually another exemption that you can use instead. For instance, if something is impossible, it’s also technically infeasible. If buying a compliant product means you can’t meet your business needs, it’s a fundamental alteration. And, usually financial impact isn’t the reason something becomes an undue burden. In my experience, when two otherwise identical products meet your needs because they have similar features, they usually cost about the same– even when one has minor changes to make it meet the Section 508 standards and the other one doesn’t. The marketplace is just too competitive to encourage price gouging for Section 508 compliance. [Slide 32 with title Buy What You Can Buy (“Commercial Unavailability”). Image of hand holding out credit card] I’ve been talking about something for the last few slides that I’d like to focus more carefully on now. The idea is that Section 508 only requires you to buy what’s available. At first blush, this seems like such an obvious statement that it hardly deserves mentioning. But, let’s consider that real world hypothetical we talked about a few minutes ago– the high-volume copier. Let’s assume that you’ve determined having 100 pages a minute is a must-have business need. But, let’s also assume that no high-volume copier on the market fully meets all the Section 508 standards, but there are copiers that make 50 pages a minute that produce 50 pages a minute. Do you tell the person who needs the copiers that they have to take a copier that only can produce 50 pages a minute? The answer is, of course not. Your business needs drive the procurement. Those business needs reduce the pool of candidates and Section 508 steps in to help you decide which of those candidates you can buy. [Slide 33 with title Commercial Unavailability Follows Principal of Doing What You Can Do. Image of person operating cash register] This idea is very consistent with what we’ve been talking about– Section 508 doesn’t ask you to do the impossible but only that which is possible. In my copier example, your practical business needs frame your procurement. Section 508 doesn’t interfere at all with that process. [Slide 34 with title You Can Buy Non-Compliant Products if No Compliant Products Exist. Image of person handing cashier a credit card to buy something] That may include buying products that don’t meet the Section 508 requirements if only non-compliant products are available. Yes, I know that may sound like heresy, but it’s true. And, it makes sense. Back in 2000 when the Section 508 standards were created, most products didn’t meet the Section 508 standards. Did this mean that procurements of IT had to come to a standstill– not at all. And, even today, there are plenty of products that don’t absolutely fully comply with Section 508. Consider software, for instance. With typical office applications literally having tens of thousands of different commands and user interface elements, it is virtually impossible for any company to claim that their product fully meets each of the standards. [Slide 35 with title Section 508 Only Requires You to Buy the Most Accessible Product. Image of standing person explaining document to seated woman] We hear people talk all the time about requiring “Section 508 Compliant” products– as if we could expect the equivalent of a Good Housekeeping seal of approval before we can buy a product. Obviously, complete compliance is a good thing but if there are NO high-volume copiers that meet all the Section 508 requirements, you can still buy a “non-compliant” copier if, from among those copiers that meet your business needs, you choose the one that best meets the Section 508 requirements. Instead, Section 508 only requires you to buy the product that “best meets” the Section 508 standards. This makes sense because it encourages companies to strive constantly to make their products more and more compliant. And because it gets away from the “all or nothing” perspective, it enables you to still keep your focus on creating the most accessible IT infrastructure as possible. [Slide 36 with title Ask Yourself “Who is Likely to be Using the Product. Image of woman looking at computer screen] Continuing with this idea of making the IT infrastructure as accessible as possible, I’d like to share some other ideas with you and give you yet another way of thinking about how to achieve the goal of an accessible IT infrastructure. [Slide 37 with title You Can’t be Sued for Something that Affects No One. Image of isolated computer] The reason for creating an accessible IT infrastructure is to ensure that the system is primed and ready for accessibility. But, what if the system ultimately can’t affect others? Let’s take a few examples. Say, for instance, you are buying generic memory chips for computers. They are certainly electronic and information technology but they have no user interface. So, you don’t have to worry about Section 508 compliance. In fact, my friend Doug Wakefield has always said he’s never met a memory chip that wasn’t Section 508 compliant. [Slide 38 with title Back Office Exemption Exempts Products that Affect No One. Image of tangled Ethernet cables at network switches] Another example that reinforces this same principle is the so-called “back office exemption.” This exemption excludes from coverage IT that is located in uninhabitable locations accessed only occasionally for maintenance. Again, if the inaccessibility of the IT affects no one– either because it has no user interface or because it is located in remote locations, common sense tells us that it won’t affect the accessibility of the IT infrastructure. [Slide 39 with title Example: Boss Wants a New Cell Phone. Image of hand holding small shiny cell phone] Let’s take a harder example. Say your boss wants one of those sleek and tiny new cell phones. He has a particular model in mind and he doesn’t have a disability. But, this sleek little unit doesn’t come close to meeting the Section 508 requirements. Do you have to go back to your boss and tell him that he has to take the big clunker of a cell phone that meets the standards? Of course not! One way to look at the problem is that your boss has articulated a strong need for a particular small phone, so you might try to justify this on the basis of the fundamental alteration defense. But, that’s risky business– what if your whole department tries to make the same claim. Ultimately, it’s highly unlikely that buying such a personal item like a cell phone for one user is likely to affect the overall IT infrastructure. There’s a concept in law called “standing to sue”– basically meaning that someone has to be actually affected by the decision to file a complaint. Another way to think about this is the saying, “no harm, no foul;” someone has to be “injured” by a decision to file a complaint. This isn’t written into Section 508, but it’s just applying common sense and keeping an eye on the big picture. [Slide 40 with title IT Accessibility Isn’t So Difficult After All. Photograph of man holding a small glass globe that he is staring into] So that, in a nutshell, is all that you really need to know about IT accessibility. Sure, my overview didn’t tell you about every bump in the road or how to do the job of your EEO or 504 Coordinator. Instead, we focused on how Section 508 fits in and how ADA Title II and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act work along with it. My feeling is that the simpler you can make this stuff, the more effectively you can do your job, the more effectively you can communicate these needs to others so they can help you do your job, and ultimately the better you can make your campuses and universities accessible to everyone. [Slide 41 with title The Path to IT Accessibility in Clear and Simple. Image of straight road leading to rainbow in distance] I can be reached at ken.nakata@bayfirst.com. Fred DiFiore and other members of the BayFirst team can help you work through your IT accessibility difficulties and have you sailing down the road to IT accessibility. And, with that, I will end and take questions and then turn it over to my colleague Fred DiFiore. About Ken Nakata Ken Nakata is the Director of Disability Initiatives and Government Compliance for BayFirst Solutions LLC, a Washington, DC consulting firm focusing on program management and systems engineering, where he leads a team of program managers, IT developers and testers with considerable accessibility backgrounds. A former Department of Justice Senior Trial Attorney since 1992, Ken was the lead attorney for IT accessibility law and policy for the Department and the Federal government’s Section 508 Working Group. A highlighted presenter at over 100 conferences both domestically and internationally, Ken coauthored all of the Attorney General’s reports on Section 508 compliance to the President and Congress and received the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Information Technology in 2000. His technical expertise includes many scripting and programming languages and he has been certified as a Programmer for the Java 2 Platform by Sun Microsystems. He received his Bachelors of Art degree in Mathematics from Johns Hopkins University and his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Ken can be reached at 206.524.4472 (office) or at ken.nakata@bayfirst.com. 1