TCS Associates - Eduardo Meza-Etienne

2/8/2001
TCA Associates

I am writing on behalf of an 8a/MBE certified company located in Wheaton, MD. The president and CEO of the company is a deaf woman who understands and has gone through the challenges of being a disabled person in the IT industry. We hold a couple of contracts involving assistive devices and we have seen first hand the numerous problems that Federal disabled employees face everyday.

After reviewing the proposed rule regarding Electroninc and information Technology Accessibility, we did not see anything requiring the agencies to provide, through a contractor, technical training for the use of the assistive device or software to both the disabled employees and the people that interact with the disabled employee.

Another important issue that is not included in the proposed rule is sensitivity training, which should be required to all agencies in order to increase the overall knowledge and improve attitudes among transit personnel to those people who have disabilities.

Thank you and I hope these comments are taken into consideration.

Sincerely, Eduardo Meza-Etienne, Director of Business Development