Accessibility and Section 508

[Gale Andrews]

In this thread, the government requirement of a VPAT certificate or 508 compliance is alluded to. Has any document been developed that a government agency can use in a request for use of Audacity? If so, could you point me in that direction? Thank you!

As Leland said (http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 913#p18913 ) we don't believe Section 508 compliance is necessary at present, so no compliance document has been developed. If someone working directly in or for US government approaches us (for example a missile contractor wanting to take sound measurements with Audacity) we can consider documenting such compliance. We do know of many educational establishments in the US who use Audacity without it being documented as 508 compliant, and without large numbers of such establishments asking that it should be so documented.


Gale

[[email protected]]

Thanks, Gale. Is there a specific format in which a government agency should request possible development of this documentation? I would like to pursue this as we are requesting approval of Audacity at a government training institution.

[kozikowski]

You may run into some interesting problems with that.

Audacity 1.2 is the current "stable" version and widely considered completely outdated, unacceptable and in some cases unworkable. Audacity 1.3 is Beta software and most agencies will not authorize it.

Someone else posted with a similar problem.

Koz

[Gale Andrews]

Thanks, Gale. Is there a specific format in which a government agency should request possible development of this documentation? I would like to pursue this as we are requesting approval of Audacity at a government training institution.

Is your "government training institution" just a privately owned college supported by government funds or actually owned and operated by the US government? If you believe this institution is legally required to abide by Section 508, you would be welcome to arrange for an e-mail to be sent to me, signed by a senior officer of that institution, and confirming such compliance is mandatory on yourselves. We could then consider completing a VPAT. I have no particular objections if this is a one-off exercise. However:

* compliance is not mandatory on suppliers (hence the "voluntary" in VPAT)
* as per VPAT FAQs, the documentation says a VPAT may be completed where the product is to be "sold in the Federal space". Audacity is free, so I suggest you should ascertain whether this means 508 does not apply to free products, or whether it means the documentation has not considered a product could be free.

Koz's point is valid too. We hope (but don't guarantee) to have a new Stable 2.0 version out at the end of the year, based on the Beta 1.3 line. If your managers won't certify Beta software, you may be better to wait for 2.0 to come out. Also the accessibility features in the current 1.2.6 Stable version are limited compared to those in 1.3 (2.0 to be).



Gale