Status of ICT Refresh, October 2011

At its July 13, 2011 meeting, the Access Board approved a motion to place the latest draft of the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) guidelines and standards in the rulemaking docket once the Board’s ad hoc committee completed its work on the draft, which was expected to be the end of September. The Board approved this motion to facilitate collecting cost information and promote harmonization with standards efforts in Europe. Unfortunately, our work was not completed when we expected.

However, work will be completed before the Board’s next meeting in November. Therefore, the staff will be asking the Board to approve the next version of the ICT rulemaking on November 9. The next version will be an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; a public comment period will be provided on the ANPRM. This ANPRM will make changes in content and structure from the first ANPRM that was issued in March 2010. If the ANPRM is approved by the Board on November 9, we expect that it will be published in the Federal Register and made available on our website and Regulations.gov in early December.