January 7, 2003
Side-stepping section 508 on plastic purchases
The US Federal Government has extended a rule that allows governmental purchases of software that may not be Section 508-compliant for another 22 months. The rule was introduced to enable ‘micropurchases’ - any software purchases under $2,500 - on credit cards as it was deemed too difficult or lengthy a process to identify whether small purchases such as this were complaint. For larger purchases, US governmental departments do still need to satisfy the Section 508 requirements. The extension of the rules means that credit card purchases for potentially non-compliant software will continue until October 1, 2004.