WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Section 508 Testing/Section 508 Refresh

for

From: Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E]
Date: Jun 6, 2011 1:36PM

The issue of Federal-only obligation did surprise me or catch my attention in the initial posting! To my knowledge, Section 508 still only applies to Federally-conducted programs, and not even Federally-funded programs. We don't, for example, advise our grantees that they must comply with Section 508 (only the other Sections of the Rehab Act that they've long been required to follow), though we encourage it where we can. Not sure what the "Section 508 Refresh" will say about this.

I think I was assuming (ok, not a great action, I admit) that they were adopting the Sec. 508 standards as their working standard. I think one of the other responses, from Angela, was Who did the notifying? If Jennifer's work is done on behalf of the Dept. of Education - are they funded or contracted to provide websites that are owned by Education (which, then, do need to be Section 508-conformant) or is Jennifer's organization being funded by Dept of Education but to work their own work (e.g., their websites are not *.gov)? Is the work being done for a federally-conducted project or solely a federally-funded one? Why is testing for Section 508 conformance being done? As a requirement or simply benchmarking?

* The company that I work for has been notified that our website and web-based applications will be tested to determine "how well it complies with the standards of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended in 1998". We do work on behalf of the Department of Education. Has anyone been through this before? While we feel confident that we're indeed accessible, we're wondering which standards they'll use to test by. I've been performing all of my analysis based on WCAG 2 - and I've been researching Section 508 Refresh. Do they use real people to test objectively? Or do they run it through a validator?
* If anyone has had any experience with a government accessibility review I would love to hear about it.

I only mentioned the audio-description and the media player accessibility since captioning was mentioned. Clearly, if there is no multimedia, none of those apply.

Gary M.



-----Original Message-----
From: Ritz, Courtney L. (GSFC-7500) [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 3:22 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List; Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E]
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Section 508 Testing/Section 508 Refresh

This is indeed very interesting.
When I do Section 508 testing, I usually stick with the checkpoints in 1194.22.
But when we were filling out the recent DOJ Section 508 survey, in the section pertaining to 2 Web sites and 2 Web applications to be tested, there were definitely more than the 16 checkpoints listed. I believe the extra ones came from 1194.24, including those pertaining to captioning and audio description. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, though. (grins)

Courtney

-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of John E Brandt
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 3:01 PM
To: 'Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E]'; 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Section 508 Testing/Section 508 Refresh

Gary,

Are you saying that the "testing" that Jennifer's group will be experiencing will include all parts of the Section 508 Standards? She specifically referenced "... our website and web-based applications will be tested ..."

There are a number of subsections in Subpart B: Technical Standards which includes the Video and multimedia products (substandard 1194.24) - where the reference to audio descriptions is made. Subsection 1194.22 that deals with Web-based intranet and internet information and applications does not appear to have the audio description requirement.

I am curious since I've always heard that Section 508 only really applies to federal agencies and the Post Office. Many states and organizations have adopted the Subsection 1194.22 for the accessibility standard for their websites, but not the other standards.

If the Fed is now auditing all of their contractors for full compliance to all of standards of Section 508 - that would be BIG news.

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
<EMAIL REMOVED>
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA


-----Original Message-----
From: Morin, Gary (NIH/OD) [E] [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 2:11 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Cc: 'McDonald, Jennifer'; ' <EMAIL REMOVED> '
Subject: RE: [WebAIM] Section 508 Testing/Section 508 Refresh

Videos and multimedia need Audio-Description, in addition to captioning (transcriptions being provided only for audio-only files). And the multimedia players need to be tested - rarely are they accessible to those of us who use speech recognition, as well as to screen readers, from what I've heard. Audio Description is no less required, just less provided.

Gary M. Morin, Program Analyst
NIH Office of the Chief Information Officer
10401 Fernwood Rd, Room 3G-17
Bethesda, MD 20892, Mail Stop: 4833

(301) 402-3924 Voice, 451-9326 TTY/NTS
Videophone (240) 380-3063; (301) 402-4464 Fax

NIH Section 508 Team: mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ?subject=Section 508 Help or, for Section 508 Guidance, http://www.hhs.gov/web/508/index.html

WHAT IF THE FIRST QUESTION WE ASKED WAS, "WHAT IS SO UNIQUE ABOUT THIS SITUATION THAT IT JUSTIFIES EXCLUSION? INSTEAD OF, "HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE?"


-----Original Message-----
From: John E Brandt [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ]
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 1:40 PM
To: 'WebAIM Discussion List'
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Section 508 Testing/Section 508 Refresh

Don't forget to make sure all videos are captioned and all audio file transcribed.

If you use animations or Flash, you are going to have to ensure these are also accessible.

John E. Brandt
www.jebswebs.com
<EMAIL REMOVED>
207-622-7937
Augusta, Maine, USA


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of McDonald, Jennifer
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2011 12:20 PM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] Section 508 Testing/Section 508 Refresh

The company that I work for has been notified that our website and web-based applications will be tested to determine "how well it complies with the standards of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended in 1998". We do work on behalf of the Department of Education. Has anyone been through this before? While we feel confident that we're indeed accessible, we're wondering which standards they'll use to test by.
I've been performing all of my analysis based on WCAG 2 - and I've been researching Section 508 Refresh. Do they use real people to test objectively? Or do they run it through a validator?

If anyone has had any experience with a government accessibility review I would love to hear about it.

Thanks,

Jennifer McDonald
Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation Ecommerce - Assistant Web Producer Web Design and User Experience



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
The information contained in this communication may be confidential, is intended only for the use of the recipient(s) named above, and may be legally privileged. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication, or any of its contents, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify the sender immediately and destroy or delete the original message and any copy of it from your computer system. If you have any questions concerning this message, please contact the sender.
===============================================================================