Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act - Frequently Asked Questions

A.5 - Are there regulations implementing Section 508?

Yes, there are two regulations addressing the requirements of section 508.

i. Access Board Standards. The first regulation implementing section 508 was issued by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (the "Access Board"), an independent Federal agency, whose primary mission is to promote accessibility for individuals with disabilities. This regulation is referred to as the Access Board’s "standards."

The standards, along with an explanatory preamble, were published in the Federal Register, as a final rule, on December 21, 2000 (65 Fed. Reg. 80499). The standards are codified at 36 CFR Part 1194 and may be accessed through the Access Board’s web site at http://www.access-board.gov.

The Access Board’s standards consist of several subparts which, among other things:

• define EIT (see 36 CFR 1194.4);

• set forth "technical provisions" that:

• address the required functionality / performance of specific technologies and product categories (see "Subpart B" of the Access Board’s standards);

• identify broader functional performance criteria to cover technologies or components for which there is no specific provision in Subpart B -- e.g., because the technology or product does not yet exist or was not contemplated by the Access Board during the promulgation of the standards (see "Subpart C" of the Access Board’s standards); and

• include requirements for accessible information, documentation, and support for EIT (see "Subpart D" of the Access Board’s standards);

• define agencies’ authority to consider EIT that does not meet the applicable technical provisions in Subpart B, but provides equivalent facilitation that meets the functional performance criteria of Subpart C (see 36 CFR 1194.5); and

• set forth some of the exceptions to the requirement to buy EIT that meets the applicable technical provisions (see 36 CFR 1194.3).

The Access Board’s standards become enforceable on June 21, 2001 (see section H.2., below).

ii. FAR Rule. The second rule issued to implement section 508 amends the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to ensure that agency acquisitions of EIT comply with the Access Board’s standards. The entire FAR is found at 48 CFR Chapter 1, located at http://www.arnet.gov/far/. The FAR change implementing section 508 was published along with an explanatory preamble in the Federal Register on April 25, 2001 (66 Fed. Reg. 20894) and is effective as of June 25, 2001 (see section H, below). The FAR rule can be found at http://www.section508.gov.