| The Tuesday, March 8th meeting of the Rocky Mountain
Internet Users Group (RMIUG) will discuss "Section
508: the Good, the Bad, and the not-so-Ugly."
In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act,
commonly called "Section 508," to require Federal
agencies to make their electronic and information
technology accessible to people with disabilities. The
law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop,
procure, maintain, or use electronic and information
technology.
Section 508 doesn't mandate that all websites follow
these rules: it only requires that websites developed
for the US government comply.
So if Section 508 doesn't really affect most websites
should we care?
Or are there inherent benefits to everyone when you
design a website that blind people can use? How can
complying with Section 508 be better for everyone?
During our next meeting we will explore Section 508
and attempt to answer the following questions:
-What is Section 508?
-Which companies really need to comply?
-Even if a company doesn't should they?
-How can adhering to Section 508 guidelines make your
website more usable to the average, non-disabled
person?
-How expensive is it to comply with Section 508?
To answer these questions, RMIUG will bring in an
expert speaker on the topic:
Erika Noll Webb (ewebb@quintusdesign.com), is a
principal of Quintus Design: A consulting firm that
specializes in the design of high-technology products
and systems using proven customer experience research
methodologies. Erika has a background in
neuropsychology and earned a Ph.D. in Cognitive
Neuropsychology from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, with a minor in Human Factors.
Following graduate school, she spent 5 years as a
faculty researcher at the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center where she worked primarily with
the elderly in a series of research studies of
patients with Alzheimer's Disease and dementia. Erika
uses this unique combination of skills and experience
to the design or redesign of products for
accessibility for such companies as Hewlett Packard,
Compaq, and Qwest.
URL's of interest:
-------------------
Quintas Design: http://www.quintusdesign.com
Section 508 website: http://www.section508.gov
The meeting is Tuesday, March 8th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm
(with optional 6:30 pm start for refreshments and
informal networking). The meeting will be held at The
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at
1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from
the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take
Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for
approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills. NCAR is at
the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving
directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/),
click on Driving Directions, enter your starting
address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the NCAR
lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point
you to meeting, which is held in the main auditorium,
right off the lobby. The meeting is free and open to
the public, but we may pass the hat to help defray
expenses.
Our
meeting location seats about 120 people.
That is usually enough room to accommodate all attendees,
but it's impossible for us to predict how many
people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is
always on a first-come, first serve basis, and in the
event of more attendees than seats, we won't be able
to admit additional people into the auditorium after
all seats are filled.
Thanks
to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG
meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com)
which provides Creative and Technical Talent
for Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications
and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of
food and beverages for RMIUG
meetings.
ONEWARE
(http://www.ONEWARE.com)
-- a Colorado-based software company that
provides semi-custom web-based applications,
sponsors the RMIUG meeting
minutes.
Copy
Diva (http://www.copydiva.com)
which provides
marketing project management, marketing
communications
consulting, and web content development
is the AV
sponsor for RMIUG.
Consultants
and companies are invited to bring Internet-related
Product
information, brochures, and business cards
which will be displayed on an
information table.
There are email mailing lists set up for
this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html
You can also reach the
RMIUG "Executive" Committee at
rmiug-comm@rmiug.org. Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/
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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR
and we are their guests. NCAR has security
regulations in effect
that we must follow in order to use the
facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling
to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she
not attend and instead read the minutes
after the meeting.
Here
are the NCAR security policies that must
be followed:
1.
No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide
name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including
providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation
and courtesy are expected when dealing with
NCAR staff.
If
there are any questions or concerns with
this policy, please contact me directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin
(josh@r...).
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