What You Need To Know About Accessible Links

Below is a link to some great,  common sense accessibility advice, fifteen rules to code by- thanks to Gian Wild.  Gian rightly focuses on practical accessibility  rather than compliance with mostly outdated regulations (like the 18 year-old Section 508!) A few excerpts:

Rule 6: Restrict the number of text links on a page

This is important because users see links as a form of navigation: they know they are not on the right page so they are looking for links that will take them to where they want to go.

If there are a lot of links on a page, it makes it that much harder to navigate a site.

And of course, screen reader users can pull out all the links in a page, so if there are hundreds of links then reading through them all is a nightmare.

Ok, so how many links are too many? That’s the ‘How long is a piece of string’ question, and depends on the type of site that you have.

Just bear in mind the users that are navigating from link to link when you’re constructing your pages.

Rule 11: The case for underlining links

People expect links to be underlined. When they see underlined text they expect it to be a link (which is why you should never underline text in the online world unless you are representing a link).

WCAG2 does recommend that you underline your inline text links, but also allows developers to meet the accessibility criterion if they use a contrast ratio of 3:1 with surrounding text and providing additional visual cues on focus for links or controls where color alone is used to identify them.

This requires that your text links contrast sufficiently with surrounding text (the W3C has a list of link colors that contrast appropriately with black text and a white background) and there is an additional visual cue when the link receives mouse or keyboard focus.

This visual cue can be an underline (go on, make those links underlined!), bold, italic or increase in font size or it can be the addition of a glyph or image. It can be implemented through CSS as this only needs to be a visual indicator.

But remember to add a:focus to a:hover!

The article:
https://www.sitepoint.com/15-rules-making-accessible-links/

Why Use Accessibility In Mind For Your Section 508 Remediation: The AIM Difference

#1: Accessibility In Mind is a dedicated Section 508 and PDF/UA compliance service.

We are not a design/print house that does remediation on the side- remediating PDF documents, making them accessible and compliant, is our ONLY service.  Look at the home page of our competitors if you want to know what their main business is, then come back to AIM for your Section 508 work!

#2: We are not a middle-man, taking a commission and passing the work on to contractors.

When you work with AIM you are dealing DIRECTLY with Section 508 expert remediators, and paying less-- often 30-50% less-- than through other vendors. Deal direct, SAVE TIME AND MONEY!

http://accessibilityinmind.com/

Estimating Costs for Section 508 Compliance Remediation

Here's a nice overview showing some real-world examples of what it takes to make documents accessible and compliant with Section 508:

Child Abuse Prevention Resource Guide for 2013 is over 80 pages (see https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/guide2013/guide.pdf). From design of this document to PDF conversion, this report required about 20 hours of work to ensure compliance. 

Child Maltreatment 2011 and 2012 reports (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/research-data-technology/statistics-research/child-maltreatment) are examples of ~250-page reports that required about 40–50 hours to fix Section 508 compliance issues and address any resulting formatting issues in the PDF.

Child Welfare Outcomes reports (http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/research-data-technology/statistics-research/cwo) are over 400 pages, with many data tables, and may take well over 80 hours and $6–8K to make Section 508 compliant.

Overall remediation budget for about 200–225 PDFs of various sizes and complexity, most in the 2–20 page range with perhaps a quarter in the 21–200 page range, is about $250K. If most of the documents are at the high end of these page ranges, the cost (assuming a loaded rate of $80/hour) would be upwards of $300K.

These are just examples- the variation is as broad as is the variation in documents. Consult with a knowledgeable 508 remediator to find out what it takes to make your documents accessible and compliant. 

http://508compliantdocumentconversion.com/

EDCS Levels of Service

Total accessibility is the goal of every EDCS remediation. Contrary to common belief, passing an automatic check alone does not ensure accessibility. Un-tagged content, inactive URLs, and incorrect reading order are examples of errors that are overlooked by Adobe Acrobat's autochecks. A document that is blank to a screen reader can be made to pass but is obviously not accessible or compliant.

Structured documents are accessible documents. Comprehensive remediation adds value to documents, for both sighted and sight-impaired users.

Bid Request Form

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Complete remediation includes these services:

• Determine if the PDF file has been properly tagged. Verify tagged elements are properly sequenced and applied. Ascertain that tag list follows document reading order exactly for optimum reading order and reflow for screen readers
• Style tags applied appropriately to all text
• Correct pagination added to thumbnails
• URLs checked/activated
• Bookmarks added (documents over 9 pages)
• Table of Contents made active
• All internal and external active links made BLUE (optional)
• Correct properties, initial view settings, correct tab order, "fast view" set, custom properties removed, language set
• Tables scoped (header and data cells appropriately tagged); all tabular data edited/tagged as tables with scoped columns and rows; tables created where absent
• Add Alternative Text. Add informative and concise alternative text and descriptions for all non-text elements
• Artifact all table PATH (border) tags (optional)
• Removal/artifact all background graphics
• Complete Adobe Acrobat Pro 11 accessibility report showing no errors or warnings
• Complete HHS checklist (optional)
• Spot check with screen reader (JAWS or equivalent)
• Complete Quality Check

Exclusions or additions to the listed services at client's request. Deliverables include remediated PDF and time-stamped validation reports from Acrobat Pro 11: "Accessibility Full Check", and agency checklist if requested. Please provide guidelines/requirements at time of bid request.

Fillable Form PDFs- add these services:

• Creation/edit of form fields
• Tool tips added to form fields.
• Formatting applied to form field (date, currency, etc.)

Note: Remediation limited to form documents created in Acrobat.

Minimum specifications:

• No character encoding errors present
• Document created with editable fonts
• Alternate text descriptions of graphics/figures included or provided by client
• Document properties (Title, Author, Subject, Keywords) provided by client

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Terms and Conditions

All bid requests will include expected time frame for the job, date of document delivery from client to EDCS and date of remediated document delivery from EDCS to client. Bids provided by EDCS are valid for 30 days. EDCS will evaluate documents requiring remediation and deliver a quotation of price per page for desired level of remediation  and any additional charges that may be incurred to complete the remediation. Our evaluations are thorough, but there are sometimes issues that do not show in our evaluation that may make some documents impractical or impossible to remediate into accessible documents. EDCS reserves the right to inform client of any documents that fall into this category prior to document remediation; documents will not be remediated and remediation charges for these documents will be subtracted from final invoice. At client’s request, and upon agreement from EDCS, documents not remediated due to aforementioned issues, or any pre or post-remediation document processing or editing, will be charged at $100 per hour. Services not specifically required for compliance may be excluded from remediation, at client's request. Documents 50 pages or less are subject to a $50 short-document administrative fee.  

 Bid Request Form

Terms effective 12/11/2013

Learning About Section 508 Document Compliance: "Tagging" a PDF

Learn about document compliance and how it is achieved:

 Electronic documents come in many formats, but most are converted to PDF for publication on the Web. Invented by Adobe Systems over 20 years ago, Portable Document Format (PDF) is now an open standard for electronic document exchange maintained by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). When you convert documents, forms, graphics, and web pages to PDF, they look just like they would if printed. But unlike printed documents, PDF files can contain clickable links and buttons, form fields, video, and audio — as well as logic to help automate routine business processes.

 This underlying structure is not inherent in the PDF, but must be planned for during the source document creation, or added to the document during PDF "remediation".  The process ensures that the published document is accessible for users with disabilities as well as more valuable to all users, with logical document structure, internal navigation, and active bookmarks, URLs, and functional forms. This document structure is contained in the document's "tags" that live behind the scenes and allows assistive technology like screen readers to interpret the document as intended by the authors. Similar to the HTML code that defines how Web pages display, PDF document tags define how a document is read aloud using programs such as JAWS, and the quality and organization of the tags determine just how accessible the document will be, and how close to an equivalent experience the audio version of the document is compared with reading. They are labels that help the screen readers inform a sight-impaired user how the document is structured, and allow navigation through the document with the same functions available to a sighted user.

Proper tagging is the first step. Depending on how a document is converted, and what the source is, documents may be close to accessible with minor editing. Proper conversions from late versions of Word or InDesign give the best results, but this, too, is dependent on how the document was "styled" ; the most common example is font selection- the document creator may not have followed best practices using CSS "styles", and the tags created during the conversion will need extensive editing. The document remediator's job is to ensure the tags will tell the story as the author intends, that there is a logical underlying structure. As a programmer writes the underlying code for a Web page, the remediator builds (or renovates) the foundation that holds the content and correctly "displays" the final document for assistive technologies like JAWS.

Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology; advances in this technology have made it possible to significantly reduce these barriers, or even eliminate them completely.  Electronic Document Compliance Services (EDCS) is dedicated to helping  fulfill this promise.  We do one thing, and we do it well: Documents certified compliant  by EDCS are guaranteed to be accessible and compliant with Section 508.

FAQ: What is the price per page to remediate a document and make it compliant with Section 508?

Every document is unique, and every client has different requirements, so there is no set cost per page to make a document compliant with Section 508 of the ADA. A 10 page document with numerous tables, charts and graphics may require more remediation than a 200 page mostly text document. Many of our clients have special compliance specifications– we are prepared to handle the most stringent requirements.

A typical job for a health insurance organization with 80-100 documents totaling 2000-3000 pages may be as low as $2 a page, depending on the state of the documents.  A typical single document remediation of 20 pages may cost between $2-20 per page.

We never quarrel with those who sell for less, as they know what their service is worth.  EDCS remediated documents are guaranteed accessible, not merely error-free according to an automatic check.

We will be glad to evaluate your documents, give you a report on their compliance needs and  a firm bid including turnaround time, please contact us for more information.