Meeting Section 508 Accessibility Standards
In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible technology interferes with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ‘ 794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others.
Section 508 provides minimum accessibility standards for:
- Software applications and operating systems
- Web-based intranet and internet information and systems
- Telecommunication products
- Video and multimedia products
- Self contained, closed products (e.g., information kiosks, calculators, and fax machines)
- Desktop and portable computers
Categories of disability types:
- Visual: blindness, low vision, color-blindness
- Hearing: deafness
- Motor: inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control
- Cognitive: learning
What are the Section 508 requirements for websites?
Web-based intranet and internet information systems must meet 16 technical standards found at:
http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=12#Web
What is the University’s policy?
University of Utah Web Policy (Policy 1-16) regarding web accessibility: The University of Utah is committed to the principle of universal access to official information and
encourages Web page design for accessibility to audiences using alternate communication channels (e.g.,
text-to-speech or text-to-Braille browsers). Resources for designing and validating accessible Web pages
are available through links on the University Webmaster Resources site.
ADA Notice and Alternative Delivery: If Web page accessibility for an Institutional University Web site is not feasible, then alternate methods should be made available for access to the non-accessible Web page content. Institutional University Web sites containing non-accessible pages must include on their home page, in a prominent location, the following notice: "In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the information in this site is available in alternate formats upon request."
How do I know if my website meets the standards?
There are free validation tools you can use to check if your website meets section 508 standards:
- WAVE 3.0 http://www.wave.webaim.org/index.jsp
- WEBXACT http://webxact.watchfire.com/
There are also commercial products available:
- SSB Technologies http://www.ssbtechnologies.com/solutions/software.html
- HiSoftware http://www.hisoftware.com/
What resources are available to help make my department’s website accessible?
- http://www.webaim.org/ Webaim at Utah State University provides tutorials, checklists,
examples, educational materials, and webcasts.
- http://www.catea.org/grade/index.php GRADE - Georgia Tech Research on Accessible Distance
Education. Provides on-line tutorials, course design examples, fact sheets and guidelines.
- http://www.w3.org/ World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides checklist, validators, and
tutorials.
- http://www.utah.edu/uwebresources/ provides reference links to sites providing accessibility
information
- http://www.section508.gov/ provides the history and specifications of Section 508 plus tutorials
and training materials.
- http://joeclark.org/book/ Building Accessible Websites, a book by Joe Clark
- http://www.scotconnect.com/webtypography/ Accessible Web Typography, by Jim Byrne
The University Web Resource center provides once a year forums on web accessibility.
Major Software Vendors (Microsoft, Adobe, Macromedia, etc.) have extensive information on their websites regarding how their products meet section 508 accessibility.
