State accessibility laws

Accessibility Laws by State

Understanding accessibility laws by state with focus on section 508.

Public colleges and schools need to thoroughly understand accessibility laws to achieve and maintain compliance. In this series, we will look at captioning laws in different states. Our focus will highlight Section 508 specifically to gain a better understanding of how some states have further adapted this section of the Rehabilitation Act for their accessibility regulations.

Section 508

FCC Closed Captions Guidelines
FCC Closed Captions Guidelines

The Rehabilitation Act’s Section 508 outlines accessibility regulations for federal bodies that include access to federal buildings and digital access. Section 508 is is a federal law and doesn’t have the same effect on private organizations.

Section 508 says that federal departments and agencies need to ensure electronic and information technology permits disabled individuals to access and use all data. The level of use has to be comparable to the experience those without disabilities have to the same information. This includes:

  • Video and multimedia
  • Operating Systems
  • Websites
  • Software
  • Internet Applications

Unless the agency or department can prove undue hardship, those with disabilities need to be able to have the same quality of access to electronic and information technology

Little 508

Looking closely at accessibility laws by state, some states have accessibility regulations that are either similar to Section 508 (called little 508) or require 508 compliance on a state level. For instance, public colleges and schools that are in these states need to make sure that they are creating video content that is in compliance. States using a little 508 or similar regulation are:

Accessibility laws by state

In the next several blog posts, we will look at captioning regulations of five states: California, New York, Texas, Florida and Illinois. We will start with New York, which uses Section 508 and WCAG in its state accessibility regulations.

In the meantime, you can try complimentary video captioning to test it out. If you are looking for more information on accessibility laws, sign up for our newsletter.

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Nicole E. Flynn, CMO at cielo24, is deeply interested in exploring and communicating the ways in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) intersects with various aspects of our daily lives. She is passionate about exploring the ways in which AI can be ethically harnessed to improve the quality of life and make our world a better place. Nicole seeks to educate and inform audiences about the potential of AI technology and how it can be used to drive innovation and growth.

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