Overview of the Law

The following two Acts are the main bodies of legislation covering the rights of people with disabilities:

  1. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990: prohibits discrimination on the the basis of disability in employment. Read more about the ADA.
  2. 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. Read more about the Rehab Act.
    • Section 508 of the Rehab Act (1998 amendment, 2018 revised standards): addresses information technology

Cornell University, in their Policy 5.12 Web Accessibility Standards, has adopted the revised 508 compliance standards for all of their electronic and information technology. This means Cornell’s web content, including documents, must be compliant to the WCAG 2.0 Level AA Success Criteria.

What makes documents accessible is simplicity and structure. Simpler, well-structured documents are easy to create and better for everyone to read.