Hello. I'm Aaron Allen, Section 508 Coordinator for CMS.
On behalf of our Chief Information Officer, Rajiv Uppal,
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch this video.
I am here to explain Section 508 and why it is important for all of us here at CMS.
Section 508 is a federal law.
In 1986, Section 508 was added to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
requiring Federal agencies like CMS
to make their information and communication technology
Available to people with disabilities.
This means, as CMS employees, we must give our co-workers
and members of the public with disabilities,
access to the information and computer technology
And materials we develop comparable to that access for people without disabilities.
As part of our ongoing effort to provide superior customer service
to everyone here at CMS, we want to be sure that all of our beneficiaries
and co-workers have access to the information they need.
To help us accomplish this goal, the CMS Section 508 Program Team
has developed a series of videos to give you more detail
about how to create documents, software and other electronic material
that is Section 508 Compliant.
We thank you for watching these videos and learning more about Section 508
and what this means to all of us at CMS.
Why is Section 508 Important?
There are more than 56 million people in the U.S.
with a disability, and this number is growing.
The five major categories of disabilities are:
Vision (including blindness, low-vision and color blindness),
Hearing (people who are deaf or hard of hearing),
Motor (where someone may be paralyzed
or not have the use of certain limbs),
Speech (people who are not able to speak
or who have a speech impediment),
and Cognitive (including people who have dyslexia, autism or ADHD).
By the very nature of Medicare and Medicaid programs,
many CMS customers have some of these health impairments
that challenge their abilities to access information,
often when they need it the most.
Some CMS employees have disabilities too,
and they should be able to access information
and materials vital to their work.
And, we should always remember that
compliance with Section 508 is a federal law.
And if any employee or any member of the general public
cannot access the material they need,
this could result in frustration, complaints and even legal action against CMS.
What services are provided by
the CMS Section 508 Program Team?
Our services include: Providing resources for
Section 508 Education and Awareness,
Conducting Systems and Application Testing,
Offering Section 508 Guidance on Procurements,
Delivering Resources to CMS Section 508 Clearance Officers,
and Consulting Stakeholders on Section 508 related issues
As an Employee, what should you do for Section 508 compliance?
Anyone new to the agency is informed about
CMS Section 508 during orientation.
And every year, CMS employees are required to participate in annual training.
Many of us at CMS work with Word
or Excel documents and PowerPoint presentations,
but you may not be aware that when you create these documents,
they should always be Section 508-compliant.
For these Microsoft Office applications,
there are built-in tools you can use
to determine if your materials are compliant
and that provide instructions on how to fix errors.
Every component has a designated Section 508 clearance officer
who can review materials before they are distributed.
Your component's Clearance officer can inform you of any compliance issues.
And should any remediation be required,
your clearance officers can provide
guidance on how to address them.
Employees can visit the Section 508 area
on CMS.gov to find remediation resources,
and the Tech Central office here at CMS headquarters
is ready to assist you with hands-on knowledge.
The CMS Section 508 Program Team is also available to answer questions.
You can email us at CMS_Section508@cms.hhs.gov.
As a Manager, what can you do?
Be sure your team members know about 508 compliance
and what they should do to ensure adequate customer service to co-workers,
constituents and customers.
Encourage your staff to seek out and use CMS Section 508 resources
and training materials.
And if you are the business owner of a project,
keep in mind that systems, applications or other programs you create for CMS
must be Section 508-compliant.
As a Contractor, what should you do?
Contractors and other vendors utilized by business owners
are required to prove their awareness, knowledge and ability
to adhere to CMS Section 508 standards and testing.
For software applications, this ability is acknowledged
through the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (or VPAT).
The VPAT is a document that verifies Section 508 Standards,
and this should be completed for new applications developed for CMS,
as well as for Commercial Off-The-Shelf products.
We have more details about the VPAT in additional videos in this series,
and in other resources.
Let's summarize the Basics of CMS Section 508:
Section 508 requires Federal Agencies like CMS
to make electronic documents and other materials
available to co-workers and to the general public
who may have accessibility related issues.
Compliance with Section 508 is the law.
Non-compliance could result in frustration, complaints or legal action.
There are simple methods for employees to check
and achieve 508 compliance
with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint materials.
Every component has a designated Section 508 clearance officer,
and materials should be reviewed by these clearance officers before they are distributed.
For systems and applications, business owners, contractors and other vendors are also required to ensure 508 compliance.
Software developers and vendors should acknowledge
their awareness of Section 508 standards
through the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (or VPAT).
For more general information,
on the web, go to CMS.gov:
www.cms.gov/
Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/
CMS-Information-Technology/
Section508/index.html
For a list of the current Section 508 clearance officers throughout the agency,
go to the same section of CMS.gov
and download the list of Clearance Officers at the bottom of the page.
For educational and training needs,
email the CMS Section 508 Education and Training Resource box
at 508Education@cms.hhs.gov.
For other questions, email the CMS Section 508 Program team
at CMS_Section508@cms.hhs.gov.
And we encourage you to view other videos
in this CMS Section 508 videocast series for specific topics of interest.