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Re: 508 compliant checkbox form controls

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From: Bevi Chagnon
Date: Aug 1, 2011 3:24PM

The difference between "accessible" and "Section 508 compliant":

"Accessible" refers to "generally accepted standards and guidelines." They
are neither laws nor regulations but instead are voluntary guidelines that
governments, entities, individuals, corporations, and institutions choose to
follow. These guidelines were developed and are maintained by the W3C's WAI
which produces WCAG.

"Section 508 compliant" refers to the U.S. legislation that requires all
federal ICT (information communication technology) be accessible to federal
employees and the U.S. general public. U.S. federal agencies must produce
accessible ICR: it is not voluntary but mandatory.

Sec. 508 does not affect these entities:
1. State and local governments unless they choose to adopt the federal
standards.
2. Corporations, educational institutions, and other entities unless they
choose to adopt the federal standards.
3. Individuals, private businesses, and organizations unless they choose to
adopt the federal standards.
4. Non-U.S. governments and entities, institutions, businesses, and
individuals. They are governed by their country's accessibility guidelines,
not the U.S. federal guidelines.

Current U.S. guidelines for Sec. 508 accessibility are outdated so they do
not match the international WCAG 2.0 guidelines. (Shame on us!) But the U.S.
Access Board is in the process of "refreshing" the U.S. requirements to
bring them up to date and match WCAG 2.0. Hopefully we'll have new
guidelines by the end of this year. See the Access Board's website
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/refresh/draft-rule.htm for the latest
draft of the revised guidelines.

Summary:
If something is Section 508 compliant, it is accessible according to the
current 508 standards, but not might be accessible according to the better
international WCAG 2.0 standards.

However, if something meets the current WCAG 2.0 standards, it will be
Section 508 accessible too.

WebAIM promotes the better WCAG 2.0 standards, so when in doubt trust their
guidance as you did regarding forms. I can't recall any techniques they
recommend that conflict with Section 508's federal requirements.

Hope this helps.

- Bevi Chagnon
(A Washington D.C. inside-the-Beltway type
who has to explain this distinction several times a day)

--
Bevi Chagnon | <EMAIL REMOVED>
PubCom - Trainers, consultants, designers, and developers
Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, and Federal Section 508
--
* It's our 30th Year! *

-----Original Message-----
I know that there are times when 'accessible" and "Section 508 compliant"
don't always mean the same thing.
A colleague and I are arguing over this regarding checkbox form controls.