Choosing a Remediator for Section 508 Document Compliance Services

Increased monitoring of accessibility and enforcement of the regulations of Section 508 are driving health care organizations and government contractors all over the country to get "legal" with the ADA and avoid possible litigation and penalties. This often manifests itself in an executive directive to "find out what we should be doing and how much it will cost."

You may be the person in your organization tasked with this research job. How can you find out what is necessary and practical, not to mention legal? If you are a lawyer, you can certainly wade right into the statutes and interpret their intent and meaning, but how does a lay-person find good information, and the best advice possible?

It may be like being asked to find out how you might replace the foundation of your office building, and not knowing why you need to do it, or the first thing about construction. Where to do you start?

DO NOT assume that a "508 Services" offer on a website menu means the company actually does that kind of work, or that anybody in the company has more than a passing knowledge of both the regulation and the process for conformance. They may just be a pass-through in a related business (most often related to publishing and document preparation). You may fill out a form and request information, general, or specific to a document, hoping to learn something from the response.

You will get a reply from the company's 508 contact, and if your request was specific,  a bid and an "evaluation" of your document- certainly an invitation to tell them more about your situation. This may be helpful, but doesn't really tell you much about the most important piece of the puzzle, the remediator. That is the specialist who actually does the work. The remediator is not a salesperson trying to make a commission, but an expert who can answer questions about your documents and the process of making them compliant.

When doing 508 research, look for knowledgeable sources, beware of a sales pitch.

How do you buy a pig in a poke? A "poke" is a bag that obscures what's inside. You buy the bag, you may or may not get the pig. Section 508 compliance may seem like that: you send your document off, it comes back a few days later looking essentially the same, maybe with active TOC and bookmarks. You've been told that it passes this or that  508 checker- a machine check-- and it probably does. Did you get a compliant document? You hope so, and deliver the document to your client. But what happens then? The document may go straight to publication without further review, or your client may have reviewers (who may be other contractors, btw) that WILL know the difference. The good ones know what makes a document accessible, and that's what you want to deliver

Interview potential remediators, see if they can answer tough questions about your job. If they are just a sales person, realize that they are just a middleman adding their commission to the costs. Look for expertise, it's your only man.

Get References

This goes without saying, not sure why we are saying it. You may not know much about Section 508 or the process of compliance remediation, but any established remediator should be glad to put you in contact with satisfied clients. Look especially for repeat clients, which is a remediator's highest compliment.

A Long Road For the Disabled: Accessible Information and Ancient Regulation, a Brief History of Section 508 and the "Refresh"

Technology evolves at lightning speed- regulations for accessibility, not so much.

Section 508 became effective in 2000- how can 17 year-old regulations apply to today's enormous, ubiquitous electronic information flow? Smart phones, tablets, "always on" connectivity weren't part of life in 2000, and regulations written in the 20th century, essentially "pre-internet", can't be expected to be relevant. Add to that the proliferation of new devices to deliver information; the iPhone came out in 2007, the iPad in 2010-- were certainly not being considered when Section 508 was born. Those of us with "access" consume massive amounts of information electronically, a quantum leap in a few short years. But accessibility is far from universal. Are we getting anycloser to implementing sensible rules to ensure that technology today and in the future is accessible to all?

The original standards requiring electronic and information technology to be "accessible", the 1998 Section 508 amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, has an unarguably fair premise:  Universal access to the internet and electronic documents, with a mandate to "eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals."

It was "mandated" that the rules be regularly reviewed and updated, but guess what? There may have been some reviews, but no updates SINCE 1998. Different government agencies have interpreted the rules and created their own checklists, most notably the HHS checklist which has had no substantial changes since it was originally published in 2007. "Every man for himself" seems to be the guiding principle.

The Access Board has been meeting sporadically over the years, and finally agreed and published an update. Federal agencies will be required to comply with the revised Section 508 standards beginning on January 18, 2018 (unless budget cuts and de-regulation takes over...).

Here's a brief timeline of how we finally got here:

February 3, 1998 –Original Telecommunications Act Accessibility Guidelines
December 21, 2000 –Original Section 508 Standards
July 6, 2006 –Members named to Advisory Committee (TEITAC)
April 3, 2008 –TEITAC presents final report
March 22, 2010 –Draft proposed rule (ANPRM) to update the Section 508 standards and Telecommunications Act guidelines
December 8, 2011 –Revised draft proposed rule (2nd ANPRM)
February 27, 2015 –Proposed rule (NPRM) published in Federal Register
January 18, 2017 –Final rule published in FR

"Only" 7 years passed from the first drafts of an update to publication in the Federal Register, but 18 years will have passed between the original standards and this much-needed update. Whew....makes me tired to think about it.

Head over to Section508.gov for their toolkit for the refresh, and let's get accessible and compliant!!! One tiny step in the right direction, I guess we should be cheering.

Let's Stop With the Stupid.

"An accommodation is a means or method outside of Section 508 standards designed to assist users with disabilities in cases where the application of current Section 508 standards is neither feasible nor helpful."

Look here, https://www.hhs.gov/web/section-508/accessibility-accomodation/index.html, a sensible approach to documents that should NOT be "remediated" for compliance with Section 508. You are wasting your time and yours or your client's money.

Example: A map. How are you going to describe a map in words that in any way is "equivalent" to what a sighted user gets. 

Example: Documents with large tables."It is unreasonable to expect a person using a screen reader to sit through the audible reading of a long table."

Much as we would like accessibility to be universal, we can't climb every wall, no one can. 

WCAG and Section 508: PDF Requirements

PDF/UA clarifies and simplifies the PDF-specific technical requirements to meet WCAG 2.0.

WCAG 2.0 is regarded as the primary standard for web accessibility by national governments around the world, and is referenced in the U.S. Access Board's new rules that updates accessibility requirements for information and communication technology (ICT) in the federal sector covered by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The six-year process of updating these requirements constitutes the first refresh since Section 508 was created in 1998. The rule is slated to go into effect in March, 2018, and references WCAG 2.0 and PDF/UA as the standard for compliant PDFs.

Creating PDFs that meet the WCAG 2.0 success criteria requires specific PDF authoring and remediation techniques. WCAG 2.0 was developed as a technology-independent standard and provides individual (normative) success criteria for accessibility which are general enough to apply across technologies, including a growing set of techniques for HTML, CSS, Scripting, PDF, Flash, and more. The Access Board's update states that all electronic documents must "conform to all Level A and AA Success Criteria in WCAG 2.0 or ISO 14289-1 (PDF/UA-1)." This proposal for accessible electronic support documentation is derived from the existing guidelines, but would newly require PDFs to comply with PDF/UA.

WCAG  does not presently represent a complete set which encompass all technical requirements for accessibility in all PDF documents. This is where PDF/UA provides help. PDF/UA provides normative technical specifications for the use of the PDF format, defining proper structure and syntax to enable reliable access. This includes identification of necessary tagging structures, how to specify alternative text for images, how to ensure correct Unicode mappings for character glyphs, and many other file, page and object-level specifications, as well as how Reader applications and assistive technologies can fully process PDF/UA conforming files to maximize accessibility.

PDF/UA defines the technical specifications to enable PDF documents to meet WCAG 2.0, but WCAG 2.0 has additional requirements which require an author’s attention. The areas where WCAG 2.0 has additional requirements include time-based media (guideline 1.2), scripting and actions (e.g. success criteria 3.2.1 and 3.2.2), and certain types of content (e.g. success criteria 2.4.4). For these and other additional requirements, the W3C’s technique documents (both general and PDF-specific techniques) provide guidance for authors interested in complying with WCAG 2.0.

WCAG 2.0 summarizes web accessibility using four broad design principles:

1. Content must be perceivable.
2. Interface elements in the content must be operable.
3. Content and controls must be understandable.
4. Content must be robust enough to work with current and future technologies.

These concepts are refined and delineated in the PDF/UA specifications; please refer to this article on PDF/UA for more information: http://508compliantdocumentconversion.com/pdfua-and-section-508/

AIIM, the governing body for ISO standards, published a document that shows how to achieve WCAG 2.0 through the use of the PDF/UA standard. It can be found here: http://www.aiim.org/Research-and-Publications/standards/committees/PDFUA/WCAG20-Mapping

Do You Use Assistive Technology?

You mean I have a visual disability? Whenever I ask a large group of people whether or not they have a visual disability, very few of them answer that they do. Then I ask whether or not anyone uses any assistive technology to overcome their visual disability. Most people are unsure what I mean. Invariably, though, as I look out across the group, I see many of them, often a majority, using an assistive technology for their vision at that very moment.

"How many of you have perfect vision?" I ask. At this point, at least a couple of people catch on to what I am about to say. A voice in the audience says, "I wear glasses," "Yes," I say. "You wear glasses, and glasses are...?" "An assistive technology!" says someone in the audience, and that is exactly what they are.

http://webaim.org/articles/visual/

FINALLY! U.S. Access Board Updates Interpretation of Section 508!

The U.S. Access Board has released a final rule that updates accessibility requirements for information and communication technology (ICT) in the federal sector covered by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The rule also refreshes guidelines for telecommunications equipment subject to Section 255 of the Communications Act. The six-year process of updating these requirements constitutes the first refresh since Section 508 was created in 1998.

"This update is essential to ensure that the Board's Section 508 standards and the Communications Act guidelines keep pace with the ever-changing technologies covered and continue to meet the access needs of people with disabilities," states Sachin Pavithran, Chair of the Board's ICT ad hoc committee. "The Access Board is grateful for the input it received from the public and stakeholders throughout the rulemaking process which greatly enhanced the final product."

The rule jointly updates and reorganizes the Section 508 standards and Section 255 guidelines in response to market trends and innovations, such as the convergence of technologies. The refresh also harmonizes these requirements with other guidelines and standards both in the U.S. and abroad, including standards issued by the European Commission and with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), a globally recognized voluntary consensus standard for web content and ICT. In fact, the rule references Level A and Level AA Success Criteria and Conformance Requirements in WCAG 2.0 and applies them not only to websites, but also to electronic documents and software.

"Throughout this process," according to Access Board Executive Director David M. Capozzi, "the Board worked very hard to ensure consistency with other consensus guidelines and international standards to promote global harmonization and facilitate compliance." He noted that, "ICT requirements that are closely aligned remove ambiguity, increase marketplace competition, and lead to better accessibility features and outcomes."

The updated requirements specify the technologies covered and provide both performance-based and technical requirements for hardware, software, and support documentation and services. Access is addressed for all types of disabilities, including those pertaining to vision, hearing, color perception, speech, cognition, manual dexterity, and reach. The rule, which will be published later this month in the Federal Register, restructures provisions so that they are categorized by functionality instead of by product type due to the increasingly multi-functional capabilities of ICT products. Revisions are also made to improve ICT usability, including interoperability with assistive technologies, and to clarify the types of ICT covered, such as electronic documents.

The Board released a proposed version of the rule for public comment in February 2015 and, before that, earlier drafts of the rule. The rule is based on recommendations from an advisory panel the Board chartered, the Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee which included representatives from industry, disability groups, government agencies, foreign countries, and other stakeholders.

The rule will take effect in one year. The Section 508 standards, which are incorporated into the federal government's procurement regulations, apply to ICT procured, developed, maintained, or used by federal agencies. The Communications Act guidelines cover telephones, cell phones, pagers, computers with modems, switching equipment and other telecommunications equipment.

The Board will conduct a webinar on the rule on February 2.