What Is Section 508 Compliance Testing

Test for accessibility find an overview of testing methods and the tools to test websites software and electronic documents for conformance with the revised 508 standards.

What is section 508 compliance testing.

Most people are familiar with the americans with disabilities act ada the law that was passed in 1990 it was created to establish accommodations for individuals with disabilities in the physical world. 794d as amended by the workforce investment act of 1998 p l. Harmonized ict test baseline for section 508 compliance. If necessary to provide the person equal access to the information the agency must provide the report in an alternate format such as an audio file or braille.

All electronic communication and documentation created by cms employees and contractors must be 508 compliant. If you ve heard the terms section 508 or 508 compliance and wondered what they mean you re not alone. Briefly put section 508 is part of the rehabilitation act of 1973 and has undergone several strengthening refreshes over the years. Dhs section 508 compliance testing tools this information is based on the latest status of the federal accessibility community of practice working group.

As use of information technology has greatly increased within the workplace and out in recent years and additional legislation has required ever more access to government information there is a great need for strong effective action to ensure compliance across the department. A brief history of accessibility laws will be a helpful starting point. 105 220 requires federal agencies to develop procure maintain and use information and communications technology ict that is accessible to people with disabilities regardless of whether or not they work for the federal government. More information on the latest web testing methodology is contained in the resource trusted tester section 508 conformance test process for web version 5 0.

A person who is blind requests an audio or braille version of a publicly available report that is posted on an agency s section 508 compliant website. Ict testing baseline github the ict testing baseline was established by a subcommittee under the us federal cio council to provide a standard means to evaluate web based electronic content for. The following test processes are used by dhs to validate section 508 conformance claims. Automated scanning tools cannot apply human subjectivity and therefore either produce excessive false positives or when configured to eliminate false positives test for only a small portion of the requirements.

What is section 508 compliance testing. This includes but is not limited to the following. Section 508 is only one segment of the accessibility field. Take advantage of high volume automated 508 compliance scanning tools but be aware of their limitations.