Just a quick reminder. Hope to see you next week.

JZ

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The Tuesday, March 8th meeting of the Rocky Mountain
Internet Users Group (RMIUG) will discuss "Section
508: the Good, the Bad, and the not-so-Ugly"

In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act,
commonly called "Section 508," to require Federal
agencies to make their electronic and information
technology accessible to people with disabilities. The
law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop,
procure, maintain, or use electronic and information
technology.

Section 508 doesn't mandate that all websites follow
these rules: it only requires that websites developed
for the US government comply.

So if Section 508 doesn't really affect most websites
should we care?

Or are there inherent benefits to everyone when you
design a website that blind people can use? How can
complying with Section 508 be better for everyone?

During our next meeting we will explore Section 508
and attempt to answer the following questions:

-What is Section 508?
-Which companies really need to comply?
-Even if a company doesn't should they?
-How can adhering to Section 508 guidelines make your
website more usable to the average, non-disabled
person?
-How expensive is it to comply with Section 508?

To answer these questions, RMIUG will bring in an
expert speaker on the topic:
Erika Noll Webb (ewebb@...), is a
principal of Quintus Design: A consulting firm that
specializes in the design of high-technology products
and systems using proven customer experience research
methodologies. Erika has a background in
neuropsychology and earned a Ph.D. in Cognitive
Neuropsychology from the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, with a minor in Human Factors.
Following graduate school, she spent 5 years as a
faculty researcher at the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center where she worked primarily with
the elderly in a series of research studies of
patients with Alzheimer's Disease and dementia. Erika
uses this unique combination of skills and experience
to the design or redesign of products for
accessibility for such companies as Hewlett Packard,
Compaq, and Qwest.


URL's of interest:
-------------------
Quintas Design: http://www.quintusdesign.com
Section 508 website: http://www.section508.gov

The meeting is Tuesday, March 8th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm
(with optional 6:30 pm start for refreshments and
informal networking). The meeting will be held at The
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at
1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from
the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take
Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for
approximately 2.5 miles into the foothills. NCAR is at
the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving
directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/),
click on Driving Directions, enter your starting
address, NCAR's address, and voila! Park in the NCAR
lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point
you to meeting, which is held in the main auditorium,
right off the lobby. The meeting is free and open to
the public, but we may pass the hat to help defray
expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is
usually enough room to accommodate all attendees, but
it's impossible for us to predict how many people will
show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of
more attendees than seats, we won't be able to admit
additional people into the auditorium after all seats
are filled.

The January 11 meeting is a joint effort with the
Rocky Mountain chapter of ACM SIGCHI-- the Special
Interest Group for Computer/Human Interaction, part of
the Association for Computing Machinery professional
group. Learn more about SIGCHI at
http://www.acm.org/sigchi, or contact local
chairperson Laurie Lamar, rm-chi@....

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG
meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides
Creative and Technical talent for Web, Interactive
Media, Marketing Communications and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of food and
beverages for RMIUG meetings.

ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based
software company that provides semi-custom web-based
applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting minutes.

Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides
marketing project management, marketing communications
consulting, and web content development is the AV
sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring
Internet-related Product information, brochures, and
business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, see
http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html You can also reach
the RMIUG "Executive" Committee at
rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/


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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are
their guests. NCAR has security regulations in effect
that we must follow in order to use the facility. If
any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and
instead read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be
followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing
ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy
are expected when dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this
policy, please contact me directly. Thanks, Josh Zapin
(josh@...).
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JZ

Joshua D. Zapin

E: mail@...
W: http://www.jzapin.com
(303) 506-8262