RE: Section 508 Standards are available

Synopsis of 508 and greg I did not reply all and send to webwatch.

I found the two notes to be a good way to explain the compliance and here is
the extract for Subpart B, Technical Standards:

1. Section 1194.21, Software applications and operating systems, and
2. Section 1194.22,  Web-based intranet and internet information and
applications.

By the way, the notes are at the end of this email

Start Snippet for 1194.21

Section 1194.21, Software applications and operating systems.

     (a) When software is designed to run on a system that has a keyboard,
product functions shall
be executable from a keyboard where the function itself or the result of
performing a function can be
discerned textually.

     (b) Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features of
other products that are
identified as accessibility features, where those features are developed and
documented according to
industry standards.  Applications also shall not disrupt or disable
activated features of any operating
system that are identified as accessibility features where the application
programming interface for those
accessibility features has been documented by the manufacturer of the
operating system and is available
to the product developer.

     (c) A well-defined on-screen indication of the current focus shall be
provided that moves
among interactive interface elements as the input focus changes.  The focus
shall be programmatically
exposed so that assistive technology can track focus and focus changes.

     (d) Sufficient information about a user interface element including the
identity, operation and
state of the element shall be available to assistive technology.  When an
image represents a program
element, the information conveyed by the image must also be available in
text.

     (e) When bitmap images are used to identify controls, status
indicators, or other programmatic
elements, the meaning assigned to those images shall be consistent
throughout an application's
performance.

     (f) Textual information shall be provided through operating system
functions for displaying text.
The minimum information that shall be made available is text content, text
input caret location, and text
attributes.

     (g) Applications shall not override user selected contrast and color
selections and other
individual display attributes.

     (h) When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable
in at least one non-
animated presentation mode at the option of the user.

     (i) Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying
information, indicating an
action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.

     (j) When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast
settings, a variety of color
selections capable of producing a range of contrast levels shall be
provided.

     (k) Software shall not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other
elements having a flash or
blink frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

     (l) When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow people using
assistive technology to
access the information, field elements, and functionality required for
completion and submission of the
form, including all directions and cues.

End snippet


Start Snippet for 1194.22

Section 1194.22  Web-based intranet and internet information and
applications.

     (a) A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided
(e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or
in element content).

     (b) Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be
synchronized with the
presentation.

     (c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with
color is also available
without color, for example from context or markup.

     (d) Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring
an associated style
sheet.

     (e) Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a
server-side image map.

     (f) Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side
image maps except where
the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.

     (g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.

     (h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for
data tables that have two
or more logical levels of row or column headers.

     (i) Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame
identification and navigation.

     (j) Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with
a frequency greater than 2
Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

     (k) A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality,
shall be provided to make a
web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be
accomplished in any other
way.  The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the
primary page changes.

     (l) When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to
create interface elements, the
information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text
that can be read by assistive
technology.

     (m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other
application be present on the
client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a
plug-in or applet that complies
with 1194.21(a) through (l).

     (n) When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the
form shall allow people
using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and
functionality required for
completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.

     (o) A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive
navigation links.

     (p) When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and
given sufficient time to
indicate more time is required.

     Note to 1194.22: 1.  The Board interprets paragraphs (a) through (k) of
this section as
consistent with the following priority 1 Checkpoints of the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
(WCAG 1.0) (May 5, 1999) published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of
the World Wide Web
Consortium:


Section 1194.22 Paragraph (a) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint  1.1
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (b) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint  1.4
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (c) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint  2.1
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (d) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint  6.1
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (e) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 1.2
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (f) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 9.1
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (g) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 5.1
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (h) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 5.2
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (i) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 12.1
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (j) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 7.1
Section 1194.22 Paragraph (k) WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint 11.4

     2.  Paragraphs (l), (m), (n), (o), and (p) of this section are
different from WCAG 1.0.  Web
pages that conform to WCAG 1.0, level A (i.e., all priority 1 checkpoints)
must also meet paragraphs
(l), (m), (n), (o), and (p) of this section to comply with this section.
WCAG 1.0 is available at
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505.

Received on Thursday, 21 December 2000 01:59:54 UTC