Accessibility

Policy Research Associates, Inc. (PRA) has a strong commitment to making our materials and the materials of our projects accessible. Accessibility is consistent with the mission of PRA, which aims to create positive social change for people and communities through technical assistance, research, and training. The nature of our work, which largely consists of distributing information to the field, mandates that we adhere to the underlying principles of accessibility. For example, PRA offers live captioning, ASL interpretation, written transcripts, and audio descriptions as accompaniments to multimedia products as standard practice (a full listing of accessible practices is listed in our Section 508 Evaluation Template, linked below).

Section 508

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that when Federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, people with disabilities (either Federal employees or members of the public) seeking information or services from that agency must have comparable access to and use of information and data provided to individuals without disabilities unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. Federal contractors must also adhere to these Section 508 guidelines.

In 1998, the Rehabilitation Act was updated to establish accessibility standards for access and use of electronic and information technology. In 2017, the U.S. Access Board published a final rule, which updated accessibility requirements to reflect technology’s evolution over the past 19 years. This rule went into effect in January 2018, and PRA products adhere to its stipulations.

Section 508 Evaluation Template

Recognizing the potential accessibility needs of its users, PRA voluntarily shares its completed Section 508 Evaluation Template (also known as the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or VPAT). This document provides an overview of PRA’s capabilities in providing accessible Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, web, and multimedia products.

Material Access

Download a free copy of NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) to access our materials using a screen reader.

Download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat Reader to access our PDF materials.

If you have a question about the accessibility of our products or our adherence to Section 508 standards, please e-mail our accessibility contact, Holley Davis.