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Public Policy

The goal of the Disability Policy Collaboration is to impact national public policy for people with developmental disabilities, including those with cerebral palsy and intellectual disability, and their friends, families and loved ones.

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ADA Information: General Information

Federal Web Sites Must Upgrade

Among the rules issued this week is one requiring most federal agencies to redesign their Web sites to "make the pages more accessible to people with disabilities," the AP/Dallas Morning News reports. Officials said that many changes "will be easy," but others "may be costly." According to the new standards, graphics must be labeled with a few words to explain each image, areas in color must be provided also without color, "complicated tables and similar Web constructs should have text legends" and Adobe Acrobat files must also be offered in plain text.

Doug Wakefield of the federal intragency U.S. Access Board, who helped devise the new regulations, said that complying with the rules could cost the government between $100 million and $600 million. James Gashel, director of governmental affairs at the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, called the standards "absolutely ideal."

Sally Katzen, deputy director for management at the White House's budget office and chair of the federal council of information technology officers, added, "I think this is truly a significant step forward. It helps not only the disabled but all federal workers. This is where the federal government should be."

Source: Hopper, AP/Dallas Morning News, 12/22