| Cognetics design staff is committed to the
creation of elegant and eminently usable interfaces for all individuals.
In keeping with Federal regulations, we follow the Section 508 guidelines. See our White Paper on Accessibility (PDF  )
What is Section 508?
You might hear people mention Section 508 or "508-compliance" when talking
about accessibility. Specifically, Section 508 is an updated section of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973, a federal law that establishes equal access for people with disabilities. The
purpose of the legislation is to ensure that everyone has equivalent access to the
information provided by federal agencies; Section 508 specifically addresses accessibility
standards for electronic and information technology. Digging even deeper, code § 1194.22
of section 508 contains the regulations that are specific to web technology.
Enforcement of Section 508 only applies to information provided by federal agencies,
not to most businesses, although many prefer to comply anyway.
What Other Accessibility Guidelines Exist?
The government is not the only organization interested in access for everyone. The
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international, vendor-neutral standards consortium
that has a strong Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). W3C formed in the early years of the
Web and is not a governing body; as such, the WAI is an influential set of guidelines but
not a set of enforceable regulations.
Technically, to be 508-compliant is to meet just the 508 regulations. However, the
general recommendation from the accessibility community is to meet Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Priority 1 from WAI in addition to Section 508. For the
remainder of this discussion, the term "508-compliant" or "accessible"
will refer to meeting both Section 508 regulations and WCAG Priority 1 checklist points.
Which user populations are affected?
Accessibility is often only associated with accommodating blind visitors using screen
readers, but the disabled community is broader than that. It includes:
People with permanent disabilities such as
- Visual Impairments - Blindness, color blindness, low vision (poor acuity, tunnel vision,
central field loss, and clouded vision). (NB: Accommodations for blind users are often
different than accommodations for low-vision users.)
- Motor Impairments - Partial or complete paralysis, nerve damage, tremors, carpal tunnel
syndrome, loss of arm/hand movement.
- Cognitive Impairments - Dyslexia, memory impairment, and other information processing
disorders.
- Auditory Impairments - Deafness, being hard of hearing.
- Neurological Impairments - Prone to seizures.
People with temporary disabilities - Not all disabilities are permanent. Accidents,
injuries, and diseases can make someone temporarily more prone to seizures, cause
temporary loss of hearing, or require a person to use the keyboard instead of the mouse
for navigation.
A significant number of people - The W3C says, "The percentage of people with
disabilities in many populations is estimated to be between 10% and 20%."
Accessibility vs. Design?
There is a misconception that accessible sites must be boring or text-only. This is not
the case. Images, audio, video, animation, scripts, etc. can be included so long as
equivalent accessible content is provided. It is not a matter of removing content from
sites to make them accessible, it’s a matter of taking additional steps to ensure
that the content you want to include is accessible. For example, provide closed-captioning
or a video transcription of multimedia content.
Guidelines
- A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via
"alt," "longdesc," or in element content).
- Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the
presentation.
- Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also
available without color, for example from context or markup
- Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style
sheet.
- 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.
- Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
- 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.
- Frames shall be titles with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.
- Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater
than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
- 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.
- 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.
- When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in 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 1194.21(a) through (l).
- 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.
- A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
- When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time
to indicate more time is required.
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