Accessibility

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

Government Departments and businesses are faced with accessibility issues and requirements. All electronic and information technology purchased by Government Departments, or provided to the public by those departments, must be accessible as measured by the Section 508 Standards.

This fact has a lot of companies concerned and departments worried. But the issues are not as overwhelming as they might at first seem. With guidance and assistance a smooth transition to accessible information technology is possible.

We can help design your site to accessible standards or evaluate and redesign your present site to meet the standards. Our experience stems from the (Canadian) Federal Government aspect of accessibility and the Common Look and Feel Policy, The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines and Techniques, as well as private and personal web sites.

 

The following has been reprinted in part WITH permission from James W. Thatcher, JimThatcher.com Accessibility Consulting

What Does it Mean to be "Accessible?"

Basically, technology is accessible if it can be used as effectively. How can that "definition" of "accessible" help a Web developer or a hardware designer know what to do to make his or her products comply with Section 508 so as to compete for federal bids? The answer is it doesn't help very much. Companies don't have the resources to have all their products tested by people with all disabilities; it is good to do some of that testing, but hopeless to do all of it.

Instead, Section 508 required that the Access Board establish standards for accessibility. To do that the Board impaneled the Electronic and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee (EITAAC) in October of 1998.

Standards Make the Job Easier

The final Section 508 rule includes so-called functional standards that require, for example, that there be a way for a person who is mobility impaired or blind to use your product or Web site. In addition, and more importantly, the Section 508 standards say your Web site has to satisfy sixteen specific items for Web accessibility. These are specific things you must do during Web site development to ensure that a person who is mobility impaired or blind, for example, can use your site. These standards are the basis of the subject matter for this course.

For example, the standards say you must use alternative text for images and use client side image maps instead of server side maps. These are fairly simple and clear requirements.

There have been a number of different efforts establishing guidelines for Web accessibility. All of them, and the 508 standards as well, draw on the work of the Web Accessibility Initiative that has crafted a set of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The WAI guidelines are grouped by priority; the thirteen priority 1 guidelines or checkpoints are very similar to those in the final Section 508 rule. In fact, eleven of the sixteen 508 Standards are drawn directly from the WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), in some cases using language more consistent with enforceable regulatory language. Five of the 508 standards do not appear in the WAI checkpoints and require a higher level of access or give more specific requirements. On the other hand, there are four priority 1 WAI checkpoints that were not adopted by the Access Board. The differences between The WAI and Section 508 are discussed in the Access Board document and here in a Side-by-side comparison of WCAG and Section 508.