The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination
on the basis of disability in programs conducted by
Federal agencies, in programs receiving Federal financial
assistance, in Federal employment, and in the employment
practices of Federal contractors.
Section 504 states that "no qualified individual
with a disability in the United States shall be excluded
from, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination
under" any program or activity that either receives
Federal financial assistance or is conducted by any
Executive agency.
Section 508 now establishes requirements for electronic
and information technology developed, maintained, procured,
or used by the Federal government. Section 508 requires
Federal electronic and information technology to be
accessible to people with disabilities, including employees
and members of the public.
In December 2000 the Federal Access Board issued final
standards for electronic and information technology
under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. These were
adopted and published in the Federal Registrar in April
2001 with enforcement to begin June 21, 2001.
While these standards currently apply to federal government,
it is the direct responsibility of Florida state government
agencies and their web designers and developers to become
familiar with these accessibility guidelines and to
apply these principles in designing and creating any
official State of Florida web site.
While the core structure of the MyFlorida.com™
Portal already adheres to Section 508 Compliance, there
are ongoing progressive measures in place to assure
complete compliance throughout the State of Florida’s
Internet information structure and Web-based enterprise.
In an effort to assist all agencies with compliance,
the following online resources are provided:
All Florida State Government web sites must comply
with Section 508 to ensure the widest possible audience
easy access to government information. These standards
are based on access guidelines developed by the Web
Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C).
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