Everything You Need to Know About Section 508 Compliance, Part 2

Per our last article, we discussed the basics of Section 508 Compliance. Another aspect includes establishing a minimum level of accessibility.

To do this, technology-specific provisions were developed for six different areas by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. They include:

• Software applications and operating systems
• Web-based information or applications
• Telecommunications products
• Video or multi-media products
• Self-contained, closed products such as information kiosks and transaction machines
• Desktop and portable computers

In response, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) created the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which helped determine guidelines for accessible technology, including Web authoring and browsers.

On May 5, 1999, the first version of the authoring guidelines, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, became a W3C Recommendation. Since that time, version 2.0 has been developed, but widely criticized for its lack of evolution.