Re: Sec. 508 vs. WAI

Hy,

Section 508 is a law that applies to Federal agencies while the WAI 
guidelines are an industry standard.

Section 508 overlaps a portion of the WAI guidelines albeit with some 
differences.

Section 508 speaks of compliance while the WAI guidelines speak of 
conformance, a subtle but possibly important distinction. I'm not a 
lawyer.

WCAG conformance may but need not imply Section 508 compliance.

More specifically, the Access Board says,

"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:

  (please view the following table in a monospaced font)

Section 1194.22 Paragraph	WCAG 1.0 Checkpoint

	(a)				1.1

	(b)				1.4

	(c)				2.1

	(d)				6.1

	(e)				1.2

	(f)				9.1

	(g)				5.1

	(h)				5.2

	(i)				12.1

	(j)				7.1

	(k)				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."

Larry (all comments are mine and may not represent views of my agency)

>Good morning everyone,
>
>What are the differences between Sec. 508 and WAI guidelines?
>
>If I am WAI compliant am I also 508 compliant, or visa-versa?
>
>Thanks,
>
>Hy
>
>--------------------------------
>Hy Cohen and Guide Dog, "Layla",
>hy@miplet.com


-- 
Larry G. Hull                      Larry.G.Hull@nasa.gov
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NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center       301/286-1768 (FAX)      
Greenbelt, MD 20771                  <std disclaimer here>
Accessibility Engineer and Lead, Technology Intelligence Center

Received on Wednesday, 26 March 2003 14:45:26 UTC