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. It is recommended that you review the laws and regulations to further your understanding about Section 508 and how you can support implementation.
http://www.section508.gov/ --Official Section 508 web site.
Accessibility Checklist:
(Accessibility, Usability and SEO work together to make an optimized web site)
web page title - All web pages should have clear titles. Screen readers use the <title> attribute of web pages to let the user know what window he or she is currently in and lets them know when they have navigated to a new window.
Keywords - <META name="keyword" Content="">All HTML pages should contain keywords that are clear and simple.
Good description - HTML pages should have a <META name="description" Content=""> with a good description of the information on the web page. This should be a statement and not keywords. This also elevates Search Engine Optimization.
Page author - <META name="AUTHOR" content="UT Southwestern Medical Center - Internet Services"> Tells the user who created the page.
Page language on each page - <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> The main language of the page should always be designated so that the browser can interpret the HTML accurately.
Use relative sizes instead of absolute-The use of pixels and other absolute sizes should be avoided on web pages. When setting the size of a table or the width of a page, percentages and "em" should be used as often as possible. This allows monitors set to different resolutions to correctly display the pages.
Text only pages - HTML pages should be set up so that text only browsers can logically display content to the users without the use of images, javascript or tables.
Tables-If possible, tables should only be used for sorting data.
Table summary and caption - <table summary= "..."> and/or <td caption="..."> Should be included in tables. The summary tag should describe what content is held within the table, whether it is a data table or a table used strictly for formatting. It is only used by screen readers. The caption tag tells a user information about what is inside of the cell and should only be used in a data table.
Table row and column headers should only be used with data tables. These are tables such as calendars and statistic baring tables (<table><tr><th scope="column"></th><th scope="column"></th</tr><tr><th scope="row"></th><td></td></tr></table>). The code tells the reader that either this is a column or a row header.
Tab order - tab orders should be set in a logical order. Usually the natural tab set up reads from left to right, but in a table that may denote a schedule or statistics it may be necessary to change the order to read from top to bottom. <input value="firstname" id="firstname" tabindex="1"> or <td tabindex="1">
Keyboard shortcuts - Allows a user to access frequently visited links on your web page by giving them keyboard shortcuts that are accessed by "alt shortcut" on PCs or "ctrl shortcut" on Macs (<a href="homepage.html" accesskey="1"). Screen readers let a user know that there is a shortcut for that link so that when they return they do not have to tab through the entire page to get to the link. They can just use the shortcut and go directly to the needed page.
Link titles - Links should contain a clear concise title that displays when a mouse hovers and will be spoken when a screen reader reads over it (<a href="" title="">). Beware, using too many title tags may slow a user down and be redundant if the link text is already clear and concise. The reader will read the text and note that it is a link.
Avoid duplicate link text that points to different URLs users will assume if they are titled the same and are the same text that they will go to the same page. Make sure that the text is descriptive of where the link is going, not just using the words "Click Here." Many people tab straight to links and by not using a good description they are unable to tell where the link will take them.
Applets or plug-ins-When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, a link should be provided to a page where the plug-in can be downloaded (i.e., Acrobat Reader, Visio Reader, Real Media Player).
Alt tags (longdesc tags can be added but not widely supported at this time) - All images should have an alt tag (<img src="" alt="">). This alt tag should contain a clear description of what the image is and/or how it relates to the HTML page it is on. If you are using a spacer or using an image just as a place holder and it does not directly tie to the content of the page, use the alt tag but leave the description blank so that readers can parse out the non critical information on a web page.
Forms - There should always be an "id", "label" or "for" tags to identify form fields. The "label" tag and the form field "id" should always match. This allows for those who tab through the form to know that they are in the right form field when entering the information. The reader will state the label as well as the form field id.
All form elements and script elements should be operational without using a mouse.
Running scripts - Information within scripts is text-based, or a text alternative is provided within the script itself.
Users should be notified when a link will open a new window.
Avoid using styles within the body of a web page. Styles should be set up (when possible) using CSS or inline styles. Avoid using the <font></font>, <b></b> and <i></i> tags in the body of html unless it is strictly for style. If you want text emphasized by a screen reader, you should always use the <strong></strong> or <em></em> tags so that the reader will recognize to stress this information as important.
Animation-When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode at the option of the user.
