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The core mission of the Postal Service™ is to "bind the nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of its people." Aided by technology, electronic communication has become both a supplement to the traditional paper-based exchange of ideas and a communication channel for access to the Postal Service itself. In light of the need to include people with disabilities in the work of the Postal Service, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that all Postal Service information be accessible to all citizens and to all Postal Service employees. In an age where technology is opening new doors for everyone, persons with disabilities should not encounter technology as a barrier. Technology must be of assistance to all people and provide uniform communication to all.
Despite the general goodwill of technology designers, some sophisticated devices that have been developed to enhance communication have inadvertently become barriers for people with disabilities. For example, Web sites with unexplained graphics can be incomprehensible to blind people. Small print intended to reduce the size of documents is hard to read for people with limited vision. Complex phones intended to simplify a job do not always support TTY (teletypewriter) access for deaf people and may represent a barrier for someone with dexterity or cognitive problems. Compression techniques that enable video to travel through the Internet can disrupt the synchronization needed for captioning for people who are hearing impaired.
Section 508 gives guidance to create accessibility by providing both clear statements of the challenges posed by different types or classes of technology and the approaches needed for universal access. Some of the guidance is clear and easy to accomplish. Some of the approaches require deep awareness of disability issues and a sophisticated understanding of both traditional technology and assistive device technology. And, in some instances, best practices that enable full access require a fresh approach to established techniques.
Before June 2001, when Section 508 took effect, the Postal Service formed a Program team to define our strategy, to create guidance that specified our techniques to build accessible technology, and to begin the process of institutionalizing the knowledge and skills needed to insure compliance with the law.
Just as the physical environment required legislation to make wheelchair access a part of building codes, the clear mandate for accessible electronic technology has required Section 508. Just as builders took several years to gain a functional understanding of physical accessibility, a period of transition has been part of our conversion to full information technology accessibility compliance.
All software purchased or created by the Postal Service since the law took effect is as compliant with Section 508 standards as possible.