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Nonvisual Standards for Arkansas
Arkansas Nonvisual Standards
Act
1227 of 1999 requires the Arkansas
Department of Information Systems to develop a "technology access
clause" requiring "compliance with nonvisual access standards
established by the state" to be "included in all contracts for the
procurement of information technology by, or for the use of, entities covered
by this act".
The following nonvisual standards are in response to this legislation,
drafted through the Arkansas State Information Technology Planning Working
Group process.
The purpose of these standards is to ensure that the needs of Arkansans who
are blind or visually impaired are met through reasonable accommodation in the
information technology products and services of the state. Information
technology products and services include data, voice, and video technologies,
as well as information dissemination methods.
1. Effective, interactive control and use of the technology including, but
not limited to, the operating system, applications programs, and format of the
data presented, must be readily achievable by nonvisual means.
The intent is to make sure that all newly procured information technology
equipment, software and services can be upgraded or augmented to accommodate
the blind and visually impaired. These provisions do not require the
installation of software or peripheral devices used for nonvisual access when
the information technology is being used by individuals who are not blind or
visually impaired.
2. Technology equipped for nonvisual access must be compatible with
information technology used by other individuals with whom the blind or
visually impaired individual must interact.
3. Nonvisual access technology must be able to be integrated into networks
used to share communications among employees, program participants, and the
public.
4. Technology for nonvisual access must have the capability of providing
equivalent access by nonvisual means to telecommunications or other
interconnected network services used by persons who are not blind or visually
impaired.
5. These provisions do not prohibit the purchase or use of an information
technology product that does not meet these standards provided that either:
(a) there is no available means by which the product can be made nonvisually
accessible and there is no alternate product which is or can be made
nonvisually accessible; or
(b) the information manipulated or presented by the product is inherently
visual in nature, i.e. its meaning cannot be conveyed nonvisually.
