VCampus Corporation (Nasdaq: VCMP), the leading provider of end-to-end, web-based e-learning solutions, today announced that the VCampus e-learning platform complies with Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act and the globally recognized W3C Guidel
VCampus Corporation (Nasdaq: VCMP), the leading provider of end-to-end, web-based e-learning solutions, today announced that the VCampus e-learning platform complies with Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act and the globally recognized W3C Guidelines for Web Accessibility. Compliance enables VCampus’ government customers to meet Federal mandates, and also helps the company’s corporate and higher education customers achieve their goals to provide e-learning to all of their users regardless of disabilities.
Testing confirmed that the VCampus technology meets the strict Federal disability guidelines by enabling the company’s e-learning platform to use a "reader" program to convert text found on any page into audio. The VCampus platform has been rated Priority Level 1 compliant by a commercially available software used to test compliance.
In addition, VCampus meets the even more stringent W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, Conformance Level "A." These guidelines are intended to prevent web design practices that can pose obstacles to people with disabilities, such as images and image-map hotspots that lack alternative text, misleading structural elements on pages, uncaptioned audio or video, limited alternatives for users who cannot access frames or scripts, tables that are difficult to decipher when linearized, or sites with poor color contrast.
"VCampus is proud to be among the first e-learning companies to comply with Federal and global guidelines that ensure fair access to information technology," said Ron Freedman, Vice President of Security Solutions and Government Sales at VCampus. "The Federal government has made clear its commitment to providing equal access through this mandate, and many corporate and academic organizations will comply with these guidelines as a mark of quality similar to the way they use ISO standards. VCampus is already helping government agencies ensure compliance, and looks forward to working with organizations that do business with the government, those that provide products and services to people with disabilities, and all types of organizations that strive to meet a range of needs, to implement e-learning sites that are accessible to all."
Part of the Federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and significantly strengthened in the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Section 508 strives to provide access to and use of Federal executive agencies’ electronic and information technology (EIT) by individuals with disabilities. The law now requires that new Federal web sites and some existing ones make their content and functionality available to people with motor, visual or auditory disabilities. The compliance deadline, met by VCampus, was June 25, 2001.
Eleonora Panto