[Foundation-l] VPAT

[phoebe ayers]

On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 5:27 AM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 20 February 2011 13:09, aude <aude.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Section 508, widely used beyond government, is a benchmark to allow us
>> to assess how we do in this regard.
>
>
> Yep. 508 compliance for software is considered simply good practice,
> even if you don't *have* to apply it.

This is true; for instance, software used at U.S. public universities
routinely has to comply with Section 508 as well -- so the potential
userbase who might care if MediaWiki is compliant or not is
potentially quite large. Of course we don't need to care what the U.S.
government in particular thinks, but we should certainly care how
usable our software (and by extension the projects) is for disabled
people, and answering the VPAT question publicly is a service for many
potential MediaWiki users. If there are other similar regulations in
other countries, that's relevant too.

-- phoebe