Section 508

Section 508 Accessibility

On December 21, 2000, The Access Board, a federal agency committed to accessible design, issued Final Standards for electronic and information technology under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The Section 508 Facts-Brochure and the Summary of Standards provides a good overview of Section 508.

Effective June 21, 2001, all information technology purchased by the Federal Government, or provided to the public by the government, must be accessible as measured by those Section 508 Standards.

How Section 508 Relates to Web Sites

"508" is shorthand for section 508 of the amended Rehabilitation Act of 1998.
Section 508 identifies standards for accessible Web pages.
Date for mandatory compliancy for accessibility guidelines was June 21, 2001.
This law extends to the World Wide Web the same legal guarantees of access that all physical public amenities must provide.
Mandatory law which requires that Federal Web sites (Internal and External) must make their content and function available to people with motor, visual or auditory disabilities.
As government agencies build, development, procure, and/or enhance their current website, they must comply with these guidelines.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) - About Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.
A consolidation of Section 508 acquisition-related FAQ's that have been posed by agencies, contractors, and members of the disability community.

Additional Help, Information, & Resources

508 Accessibility Reference List

Section 508 Tutorial

Section 508 Checklists

A "Pass" "Fail" Checklist
A "Quantitative (Algorithmic)" "Qualitative (Judgment)" Checklist: "Quantitative" items are ones that could be checked with a computer program. "Qualitative" items require human involvement
IBM Web Accessibility: Checklist and links to detailed explanations, techniques and test strategies for each checkpoint.

Other Resources

W3C HTML 4.01 Specification

Testing Tools

Automated testing methods are generally quick and convenient but cannot identify all accessibility issues. Therefore, it is advisable to use more than one validation tool. Human review is essential to help test various Section 508 Guidelines. Currently, automated accessibility tools cannot verify every standard listed in the Section 508 Guidelines. Testing of some 508 Standards, such as Standard "b" that states, "Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation" requires human intervention.

WebXACT:
Analyzes web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities as well as their compatibility with various browsers.
The Lynx Viewer:
Generates an HTML page that emulates how much of the content of your page would be available to a text-only browser.
Go the Lynx Viewer Web and enter the URL of the Web page you want to view.
The Wave:
A tool to help perform tasks that require human judgment
Displays the ALT text of images and AREAS on the page for comparison with the images.
Provides numbered arrows to show the reading order and the HTML equivalent (if any) provided for applets.
Helps determine how useful your Web content would be for a visually impaired person.
Good indicator for how the page may appear to a user with older technology.
The WAVE provides the means to place a validation button" on the button bar of your browser. Mouse click on the button to obtain an immediate validation report for the page being viewed.
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI):
Evaluation, Repair, and Transformation Tools for Web Content Accessibility