Thread Subject: Re: intro for 8.1?

Note

This archival content is maintained by WebAIM and NCDAE on behalf of TEITAC and the U.S. Access Board . Additional details on the updates to section 508 and section 255 can be found at the Access Board web site.

From: Andrew Kirkpatrick
Date: Mon, Sep 24 2007 10:00 AM

> So, for example, I buy a credit reporting service which
> provides daily reports in IDF (inaccessible document format),
> and another vendor offers that information in (adf),
> accessible document format. Now, you might infer section 3
> applies, but almost nobody will in the acquisition side of
> things. Without this being an explicitly described item it
> will, and has gotten lost and overlooked.

Whoa. So you're saying that no one will evaluate the reports that are
generated in IDF or ADF based on Section 3? Are you suggesting that
they won't be evaluated at all or that the messaging to the procurement
people related to what sections apply to what kind of products? In my
view, of course they will and should be evaluated in Section 3, that's
where we've put the requirements that the reports need to meet!

> Much of the Access-Board's initial question of
> how does Section 508 apply to "content" is based around
> exactly this problem in the end.

The questions of "content" being accessible has to do with people not
knowing where to evaluate specific types of or aspects of products.
Creating a content format requirements section isn't going to solve this
concern - if I have a web-based tool that creates PDF files and emails
them in HTML format emails to other users, I need to know where to
evaluate the different aspects of my application. If I look and
determine that the PDF format can support everything that is specified
in section 8, am I any closer to verifying that the PDF and HTML output
from my app meet section 508? Not a bit. I can't assume that my output
meets section 3 without going and checking that the rules of my
application create compliant output.

AWK

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