An Official Website of The United States Government
Thursday, February 14, 2013
You are here: Accessibility Policy

Accessibility Policy

Introduction
The General Services Administration (GSA) is committed to making all of our Internet documents accessible to everyone. To ensure that we meet or exceed the requirements of the 1998 Amendment to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, we continually review our site and modify pages to remove accessibility problems for people with disabilities.

The documents on our site are in many formats. Many are in ASCII or HTML format, accessible to people who use screen reading software and to those with other vision or mobility impairments. Generally, we use Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to create pages and documents that are accessible to that segment of our customer base. In creating HTML documents, we follow Section 508 standards; for example, we include alternate text to describe graphics.

Currently, our website contains documents in Adobe Acrobat PDF file format. Most PDF files will be accessible to those who use assistive technology such as screen readers. Some legacy or software created PDF files may not be accessible. If you are experiencing difficulty reading any PDF files please contact the Help Desk at 202-208-7420 and we will be happy to send you an alternate version.

All applets, plug-ins, or other applications required by GSA webpages that are not included on the specific page are found as links from this page.

Most of these links are to non-government sources. GSA does not endorse any of these products; they are listed below for the convenience of our visitors. Address questions about the particular plug-in or file viewer to the respective vendor.

Accessibility Aids: Plug-ins and File Viewer

  • Adobe Reader
    Use Adobe Acrobat to read Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
    Download Adobe Reader
  • Flash Player
    Use Adobe Flash player to view Video.
    Download Macromedia Flash Player
  • Microsoft Word
    Microsoft offers Word file viewer and converter programs to enable those who do not have MS- Word or have another version of MS-Word to open and view MS-Word files.
    Download Word file Viewer
  • Microsoft Excel
    Microsoft offers Excel file viewer and converter programs to enable those who do not have MS-Excel or have another version of MS-Excel to view MS-Excel files.
    Download Excel file viewer
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
    Microsoft offers PowerPoint file viewer and converter programs to enable those who do not have MS-PowerPoint or have another version of MS-PowerPoint to view MS-PowerPoint files
    Download PowerPoint file viewer
  • Accessible FormNet Software
    GSA's forms server uses the Accessible FormNet Software.
    Download Accessible FormNet software
  • “Unzip” Utility
    Some large documents on this site may be compressed using a utility called WinZip. These files may be uncompressed using one of the utilities available for download. Since there are many options, this link takes you to a list of possible viewers at download.com.
    View list of zip utilities
What to do if you have trouble
If you have a problem viewing any material on this site, please contact the help desk at 202-208-7420 or by email at section.508@gsa.gov

If your problem is a broken link, a link that goes to the wrong page, or other technical problems, please tell us where it is and what happened.

If you have questions about our accessibility policy, send an e-mail to our help desk, at section.508@gsa.gov