Section 508 Checklist

A.J. McClary — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:33:02 +0000

The following checklist covers all aspects of Section 508. Use this as a guide to ensure your application is in compliance.

Multimedia

Designing content accessible to those with audio or visual disabilities

For all pages that contain audio or video:

o Does it address auditory issues for those with hearing disabilities?

¨ If not, create a detailed transcript describing the presentation.

o Does it address visual issues for those with visual disabilities?

¨ If not, create voiceovers for the presentation.

Color

Designing content accessible to the color blind

For all pages that use color to emphasize important text:

o Are hyperlinks styled with a significantly different color than regular text?

¨ If not, change the text color to show a strong contrast between hyperlinks and regular content.

o Is color used to describe numbers?

¨ If so, use symbols or labels to clearly distinguish the characteristic of the number.

o Are you using color to signify a special meaning? For example, using red to denote a required field.

¨ If so, clearly describe what the meaning. If a field is required, use an asterisk “*” and describe at the top the meaning of the symbol.

Accessibility without Style Sheets

Designing content that is readable without a style sheet

For all pages that use a style sheet:

o Is all content readable when the style sheet is removed?

¨ If not, rewrite the HTML code using standards compliant techniques so that all of the information renders correctly.

o Does your page use CSS for positioning?

¨ Consider using relative positioning only. Utilize headers, paragraphs, lists, and tables to ensure that the content is readable if a style sheet were not present, rather than using frequent

and tags that are confusing if a style sheet isn’t available.

o Does your page use CSS to describe something?

¨ CSS, by itself anyways, should never be used to describe the importance of content. If the style sheet were to be removed, the user should be able to distinguish the importance of what was being styled. To emphasize content with CSS, consider using or tags to describe the information and then style those tags in CSS.

Image Maps

Designing content that describes the geometric shapes within an image map

For all pages that utilize image maps:

o Does the page use server-side image maps?

¨ If so, convert your server-side image maps to client-side image maps.

o Does the tag contain an ALT attribute?

¨ If not, describe the appearance of the image map in the ALT attribute.

o Does the tag contain an ALT attribute?

¨ If not, describe the hyperlink of the geometric shape in the ALT attribute.

o Does the page include an alternative text link for those who cannot handle image maps?

¨ If not, create a counterpart for every hyperlink within the image map.

Tables

Designing content that describes header and data cells for tables

For all pages that utilize tables:

o Does your table contain actual data?

¨ If not, consider moving the content into a

rather than using it as a layout mechanism.
o Does your table utilize column headers to describe the data?
¨ If not, change the cells that describe data from tags to tags. Use ID and HEADER attributes to associate the headers with content.
o Does your table utilize row headers to describe data
¨ If not, use and tags to show a relationship with the content. While you cannot use the tag as a row header, you can use ID and HEADER attributes to describe the relationship within the table.
o Does your table have two or more logical levels of row or column headers?
¨ If so, use ID, SCOPE, and HEADER attributes to describe the data in each column and row. Also, utilize , , , and tags to better describe and format the content.
Frames
Designing content that properly uses frames
For all pages that utilize frames:
o Does your page clearly define the purpose of each frame and are frames even necessary?
¨ If not, either (1) remove frames entirely because most assistive technologies do not support frames, or if absolutely necessary (2) add text to the body of each frame that clearly identifies its purpose.
o Do the and tags include a TITLE attribute?
¨ If not, detail what type of content is included within each frame.
o Do the hyperlinks within each frame properly target the correct frame?
¨ If not, be sure to add the TARGET attribute within every hyperlink that isn’t intended to open in the current frame.
o Is your page available in a format that doesn’t require frames?
¨ If not, give the user the option to break out of frames and include (within the