Section 508 Refresh Overview & Resources

[Sarah Deighan]

This is a quick overview of the resources available on the Section 508 refresh which, according to current estimates, will be finalized in Fall/Winter of 2015. Fortunately, the US Access Board will require compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 rather than trying to maintain their own unique set of standards. WCAG 2.0 Level AA will be the minimum to comply with Section 508 once the new standards come into effect. So that we don't need to completely overhaul Ozone in order comply, we are trying to take some steps to ensure compliance as we go forward with Ozone Next Gen.

There are naturally pros and cons to every change. The primary change is that the new standards are largely functionality focused and specific, which means that they are actually testable. Many criteria can even be checked through automated, free tools. However, having specific standards means that there are significantly more of them. It may be a little overwhelming at first, try not to be discouraged.

W3C has also created a development language supplement called the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) Suite. It helps to identify and describe elements and how they relate to each other. This is a framework for adding attributes to complex applications that would otherwise be inaccessible because the native development language doesn't have certain capabilities. This enables technologies that have been inaccessible in the past to communicate more effectively with screen readers and other assistive technology. However, you don't need to double up. For example, if you are using an <h1> tag, there is no need to use ARIA to define the object's role as "heading". ARIA is only a supplement to help if a development language can't support identifying or describing elements in the application.

Please feel free to voice any questions, comments, or concerns and I will do my best to address them.

Thank you,
Sarah Deighan
UX Engineer on the Ozone project

Resources

WCAG 2.0

·         Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview
This is a short introduction page for WCAG as a project and it contains links to the resources that I will be describing in a moment and more.

·         WCAG 2.0 Checklist
This is all of the criteria within WCAG 2.0 in a checklist format.
Criteria marked as L1 (i.e. Level A) and L2 (i.e. AA) are going to be required for 508 refresh compliance, while L3 (i.e. AAA) criteria will be optional.

·         How to Meet WCAG 2.0
This is a customizable reference document that can help identify techniques for meeting the criteria.

ARIA

·         What is WAI-ARIA, what does it do for me, and what not?
Very useful article on WAI-ARIA, what it's for, and how to use it

·         Mozilla Developer Network – ARIA resource area
A huge variety of resources on ARIA

·         Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0
The W3C WAI-ARIA standards and details

 

Free Testing Tools
**Not all criteria can be automatically tested, but these will provide useful, baseline feedback about many criteria

·         WAVE Toolbar for Firefox
Great testing tool for many WCAG 2.0 compliance criteria

·         Juicy Studio Accessibility Toolbar for Firefox
Useful for checking ARIA, Live Regions, and data tables

·         Paciello Group Colour Contrast Analyser
Grab colors using eye droppers and check color contrast ratios