Tuesday October 03, 2006

First 'TEITAC' meeting

Last week I had the pleasure of representing Sun at the first meeting of the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (or TEITAC for short). This advisory committee was created earlier this year in order to advise the U.S. Access Board on updates to the accessiiblity provision in Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act and Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act. This advisory committee consists of (now) 42 companies, organizations, and government agencies - all sitting around a large U-shaped table filled with laptops, power strips, network cables, and in front of a backdrop of seats with members of the public watching the proceedings. We were thoughtfully assigned a modified "boy-girl-boy-girl" seating arrangement - alternating between industry, advocacy, and government agency (with the occasional non-US representative mixed in).

Of the many topics discussed and presentations given over the three day event, I was most taken by essentially variants of the same comment from several government agencies, state representatives, and the public: that the accessibility provisions in Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act serve as a model worldwide. They are not only adopted - practically verbatim - by Federal Agencies who aren't formally required to use them, by many U.S. States, by at least one commercial company, and by countries around the world. As one person elequently noted, some 500 million people worldwide with disabilities will be impacted by this work. Another reminded us that while Section 508 is procurement legislation, it is also essentially civil rights legislation, and the work of the Access Board and this advisory committee will have an impact on the lives of people around the globe.

10 organizations petitioned to join the already large advisory committee (I'm told it is the largest U.S. government advisory committee in the history of the Federal Advisory Committee Act). Many of the arguments put forth for why these organizations should be part of TEITAC were strong and compelling. However, since a supermajority (3/4ths) of the existing advisory committee members needed to vote "for" someone in order for them to be added to the advisory committee, only one - AOL - managed to join.

While membership in the advisory committee is an honor and priviledge, I believe the bulk of the work will actually take place in the subcommittees formed to focus on specific parts of both Section 508 and Section 255. Membership in the subcommittees is open to experts and interested parties beyond just those on the main committee, and announcements of the subcommittees and information about them should be available soon on the 508/255 Refresh page. I hope that the nine folks who petitioned to join the advisory committee bring their contributions to the subcommittees, to help improve the already very impactful and successful accessibility provision of Section 508 and Section 255. (2006-10-03 15:27:35.0) Permalink