The U.S.  Department of Education is committed to making its electronic and information  technologies accessible to individuals with disabilities by meeting or  exceeding the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C.  794d), as amended in 1998. Section 508 is a federal law that requires agencies  to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to electronic information  and data comparable to those who do not have disabilities, unless an undue  burden would be imposed on the agency. The Section 508 Standards are the  technical requirements and criteria that are used to measure conformance within  this law. More information on Section 508 and the technical standards can be  found at GSA, Section 508 and the US Access Board.   

Our web pages are designed to meet or exceed the Section 508  standards, which are the technical requirements that ensure we’re complying  with federal Section 508 law. We also conform to  the World Wide Web  Consortium (W3C) and their industry standard Web Content  Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 .  We meet Level AA  standards, which means our content is accessible to most people in most  circumstances. We continually modify our websites to ensure the information,  features and content are accessible to persons with disabilities.

## Our Section 508 Program Manager

Denise McGland can answer any questions about our implementation of 508 policy or guidelines.

## Available complaint processes

If you experience difficulty accessing any resources or content  on this site, please contact us via email and include:- The nature of your accessibility problem,
- The URL of the page the inaccessible content was found on,
- The preferred format in which you want to receive any materials, and
- Your contact information (email, phone or address).

We will work diligently to provide you with accessible content  that addresses your issues.
Requesting Reasonable Accommodations
We offer reasonable accommodations for federal employees and job  applicants, consistent with Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act.  Please  contact Kenton Stalder, Reasonable  Accommodations Program Manager.
Use of the telecommunications relay service
Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) allow persons who are  deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or have speech disabilities to communicate by  telephone in a manner that is functionally equivalent to telephone services  used by persons without such disabilities. List of TRS services (FCC.gov)
Organizational policies or procedures on digital accessibility
Our agency exists to support other agencies in achieving their  missions by providing policy, services, workspace, and contracting vehicles for  procuring products and services. This is our approach to leveraging the  capabilities of the internet and world wide web.

Information Technology Accessibility Program - pending 
Accessibility aids: plug-ins and file viewers
Links to applets, plug-ins, or other applications required to  access content provided on our web pages are available and linked below. Most  of these links are to non-government sources. We do not endorse any of these  products; they are provided for your convenience. Address questions about a  particular plug-in or file viewer to the respective vendor.
- Adobe Acrobat - Use  Adobe Acrobat  to read Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
- Microsoft Word - Microsoft  offers  Doc Viewer  and other converter programs to  enable those who do not have Word to open and view Word files.
- Microsoft  Excel - Microsoft offers  XLS Viewer Free  to enable those who       do not have Excel to view Excel files.
- Microsoft PowerPoint - Microsoft  offers  PPTX Viewer  to enable those who do not have  PowerPoint to view PowerPoint files.
- WinZip - Zip files  are single files, sometimes called “archives,” that contain one or more  compressed files. Files with this extension (.zip) require  WinZip  to open and extract them.
Architectural  Barriers Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. && 4151--47)
The  Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) requires access to facilities that are  designed, built, altered, or leased by or on behalf of the Federal government.  The Access Board is the federal agency responsible for enforcing the ABA. The  Access Board's accessibility standards are available on their website at www.access-board.gov/aba/ufas.html and  information about filing a complaint may be found at www.access-board.gov/enforcement.   
  Last Modified: 03/14/2024