Section 508 Compliance: Ensuring Accessibility to Web-Based Information

Transcription

1 Section 508 Compliance: Ensuring Accessibility to Web-Based Information UGPTI Transportation Seminar Series Fargo, ND November 17, 2009 David Ripplinger & Patrick Nichols Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute North Dakota State University

2 Overview Part I: Background Disability Civil Rights Federal Law Industry Standards Part II: Making Web-based Content Accessible

3 Civil Rights and Civil Rights Accessibility Class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression. Accessibility the "ability to access" the functionality, and possible benefit, of some system or entity

4 Categories of Disability The Americans Disabilities Act (ADA) defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity Visual Hearing Motor Cognitive

5 Federal Law Civil Rights Act of 1964 Made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin as they pertained to education, employment, and housing illegal The U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by Federal agencies, in programs receiving Federal financial assistance, in Federal employment, and in the employment practices of Federal contractors. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) Prohibits discrimination based on disability

6 Section 508 of the Purpose Rehabilitation ACT Requires that Federal Employees with disabilities have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to the access and use by Federal employees who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency. Requires that individuals with disabilities, who are members of the public seeking information or services from a Federal agency, have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that provided to the public who are not individuals with disabilities, unless an undue burden would be imposed on the agency.

7 Section 508 cont. Technical Standards Software applications and operating systems Web-based information Telecommunications products Video and multimedia products Desktop and portable computers Functional Performance Criteria At least one mode of operation and information retrieval for users with vision, hearing, speech or fine motor limitations

8 Section 508 Implications Information technology, the size and role of the federal government and organizations that receive federal funding has grown tremendously in the past 35 years Consequently, the implications of Section 508 have grown as well

9 Industry Standards Standards: established norm or requirement that may pertain to criteria, methods, processes, and practices. Standards organizations: an entity that develops and maintains standards that address the interests of a wide base of users outside the standards development organization. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Content Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines User Agent Accessibility Guidelines

10 Section 508 and W3C s WCAG Section 508 is currently based on WCAG 1.0 Recommendation released by the W3C on May 1999 Note that WCAG 2.0 released on December Web-based intranet and internet information and applications

11 A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided Example solutions Describe in the adjacent text Add alternative text Link to a separate page Decorative graphics do not need to be described E.g. background images, border images, etc (a)

12 Percentage of Total U.S. Noninsitutionalized Population Age Declaring One or More Disabilities Alt text Total declaring one or more disabilities: 18.6%; Sensory (visual and hearing): 2.3%; Physical: 6.2%; Mental: 3.8% (a) Source: WebAIM.org

13 (a) Directions for Microsoft Word 2007

14 (a) Directions for Microsoft Word 2007

15 Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation Example solutions Video files need synchronized captions Audio files need captions and/or transcript (b)

16 Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color Example solutions Make sure important information is properly conveyed (c)

17 (c) Section 508 Standards

18 Names listed in red are new employees. First Name John Nate James Last Name Smith Jones Ryan First Name Last Name John Smith * Nate Jones James Ryan * New employees (c)

19 Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet Example solutions Make sure document is understandable when style sheet is turned off (d)

20 Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape (e) and (f)

21 Example solutions Use a client-side image map instead Duplicate all the links (e) and (f)

22 Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables Example solutions Appropriately identified data table headers Tables used strictly for layout purposes do NOT use headers (g)

23 Classification Actual Class Class Responses Survey Distribution Number Distribution Number Freshmen 19.70% % 85 Sophomores 18.79% % 86 Juniors 18.95% % 119 Seniors 32.08% % (g)

24 Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers Example solutions Data tables use the appropriate headers using id, headers, scope, and/or axis attributes (h)

25 id= delay id= sb id= s1 id= sbound Delay/Vehicle (sec/veh) Southbound Northbound Base Scenario 5 75 Scenario Scenario Scenario id= nbound headers= delay sbound sb headers= delay nbound s (h)

26 Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation Example solutions Each frame is given a title that describes the frame s purpose or content Avoid frames (i)

27 Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz Example solutions Don t use elements that flicker at a rate of 2 to 55 cycles per second (j)

28 A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes (k)

29 Create a text-only version If there is no other way to make content accessible If there is a significant advantage of doing so Text-only version needs to provide equivalent content and be as up-to-date as the main version (k)

30 When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology Example solutions Information within the scripts need to be text-based or provide an alternative Content must be accessible to assistive technology and keyboards (l)

31 When a web page requires that an applet, plugin or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with (a) through (l) (m) Example solutions Link to necessary plug-in pages Files are required to be 508 compliant If you developed the plug-in/applet, it must comply with Section 508

32 When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues (n) Example solutions All form controls need text labels Text labels need to be associated with the form controls

33 A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links Example solutions Provide a link to skip navigation links (o)

34 When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required Example solutions Notify user when time is almost up Provide a way to override the timeout (p)

35 Additional Standards WCAG 1.0 checkpoint 3.1 When an appropriate markup language exists, use markup rather than images to convey information Example solutions Heading level 1, 2, etc. Bulleted lists

36 Resources WebAIM s Section 508 Checklist W3C s WCAG Side by Side (WCAG vs. Section 508) W3C s WCAG Official Government 508 Website

37 Resources WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) W3C s Markup Validation Service Web Developer Toolbar (Firefox Add-on)

38 Questions?