The following information is provided for Web site managers as resource material to assist in meeting the DOC Web Site Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities. This page contain links that will take you outside of the WAG Webresources website, please review the Privacy Notice of the new sites as their information collection practices may differ from ours.
General:
- An HTML version of the full text of the accessibility regulations, including the lengthy preamble, may be found at
http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm - Section 22 is modelled on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 1.0, which may be found at
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/ - W3C's Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility is at
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html - NIST Accessibility Requirements and Checklist
- "Web Design Techniques for 508 Compliance" by Doug Wakefield, U. S. Access Board.
- ALA Editions - Open Stacks - Inside the Covers
http://www.ala.org/editions/openstacks/insidethecovers/mates/mates_toc.html
This is the Online Version of "Adaptive Technology for the Internet: Making Electronic Resources Accessible to All", by Barbara T. Mates. As with any book on this subject, parts of it are becoming dated, but there are some good chapters on basic document design, accessible technology, e.g. what a screen reader does, and topics like "making sounds visual". - Web Review's excerpts from WEB accessibility for People with Disabilities.
- HTML Writers Guild's AWARE (Accessible Web Authoring Resources
and Education) Center - IBM's accessibility guidelines help developers and content providers understand why and what they need to do to make all of their technology and information accessible to people who have disabilities.
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/guidelines.html
This is a resource for Lotus Domino Web developers since it covers both Lotus Notes 4 and Lotus R5 accessibility issues. This page also addresses hardware accessibility. This is IBM's take on what works for accessibility, not necessarily Section 508 compliant. - DoD's Computer/Electronic Accomodations Program web page w/ links to regs and other resources. http://www.tricare.osd.mil/cap
- A complete listing of Military and other major Federal Government Program accessibility resources is on the CAP web site at
http://www.tricare.osd.mil/cap/resources/resources.htm That page also lists links that provide guidance on how to create accessible WWW pages.
Specific Topics
- Use of Alt texts in IMGs.
http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/%7Eflavell/alt/alt-text.html
This is an excellent explanation of the principles of alt-tagging. The "howlers" section is especially good. - VisiBone - Resources for Web design for the colorblind. http://www.visibone.com/colorblind/
Also tools (charts, reference lists, articles) for using the 216 "Web safe" palette. http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/ - Safe Web colors for color-deficient vision. http://innovate.bt.com/people/rigdence/colours/
- Adobe and pdf http://access.adobe.com/access_email.html
- An alternative web site filter program used by the British Broadcasting System in the UK that creates an automatic text-only version of websites on the fly. http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie/index.html
- Making Your Web Site Accessible to the Blind by Curtis Chong, Director of Technology National Federation of the Blind This article describes how blind people surf the web and how to design pages for them. http://www.nfb.org/tech/webacc.htm
- Screen reader to give you an idea what pages "sound" like:. This software reads your text, e-mail, Web pages, and documents aloud. http://www.real.com/accessories/textaloudmp3/?src=accessories-home
TextAloud MP3 http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description.asp?fid=7409 - Also see DoC Web Advisory Group Best Practice on Accessibility Testing which has a listing of testing resources.
Department of Commerce Web Advisory Council (WAC)
U.S. Department of Commerce
Send questions and comments about this page to WAC@doc.gov
Page last updated October 12, 2010
- Alicia R. Sowah
Deputy Director of Digital Engagement
Gregory Johnson
Co-Chair, Web Advisory Commmitee
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