>Hi Folks,
>
>The lastest MSDN newsletter has an article about Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. These are guidelines for making technology accessible to all US federal employees, regardless of disability.
>
>In February 2000, the standards will be set; by August all agencies must be in compliance. This means that vendors not in compliance will have a hard time getting federal government contracts, and you can bet there will be a trickle down to the state and local levels.
>
>So what does this mean for VFP developers? Good question. While there are screen readers and other general purpose tools and software for making applications accessible, what should we do to promote usability of custom applications?
>
>Maybe on a refresh, a voice will read off the salient data elements being displayed? Buttons will announce purpose as the mouse moves over them?
>
>Any ideas, anyone?

John,

Probably things like not hard-coding color choices so that blue/green color-blind people can choose their own color set and don't get stuck with blue words on a green background.

Maybe things like standards for screen and font size.

Also keystroke combinations that harmonize with the sticky keys that MS already has available. IOW not using SHIFT+&+INS+NumLock, which a one-handed user can't do easily.

Wonder if they will insist that government cars be operable by blind people?