Saturday, August 14, 2010
Cognos8 Help: Part 6 -- “IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: Th...
Cognos8 Help: Part 6 -- “IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: Th...: "Part 6 -- “IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: The Official Guide” Conclusion The “IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence: The Official Guide..."
Monday, May 17, 2010
TECHNICAL STANDARDS
TECHNICAL STANDARDS
This section will highlight some of the key technical standards related to Section 508. For the full list be sure to reference the latest Section 508 standards from http://www.section508.gov.
Software applications and operating systems
When software is designed to run on a system that has a keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing a function can be discerned textually.
Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features of other products that are identified as accessibility features, where those features are developed and documented according to industry standards. Applications also shall not disrupt or disable activated features of any operating system that are identified as accessibility features where the application programming interface for those accessibility features has been documented by the manufacturer of the operating system and is available to the product developer.
A well-defined on-screen indication of the current focus shall be provided that moves among interactive interface elements as the input focus changes. The focus shall be programmatically exposed so that assistive technology can track focus and focus changes.
Sufficient information about a user interface element including the identity, operation and state of the element shall be available to assistive technology. When an image represents a program element, the information conveyed by the image must also be available in text.
When bitmap images are used to identify controls, status indicators, or other programmatic elements, the meaning assigned to those images shall be consistent throughout an application's performance. Textual information shall be provided through operating system functions for displaying text. The minimum information that shall be made available is text content, text input caret location, and text attributes.
Applications shall not override user selected contrast and color selections and other individual display attributes.
When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode at the option of the user.
Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast settings, a variety of color selections capable of producing a range of contrast levels shall be provided.
Software shall not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other elements having a flash or blink frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
Web-based intranet and internet information and applications.
A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).
Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.
Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.
Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.
Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.
Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.
Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.
When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.
When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
Telecommunications products
Telecommunications products or systems which provide a function allowing voice communication and which do not themselves provide a TTY functionality shall provide a standard non-acoustic connection point for TTYs. Microphones shall be capable of being turned on and off to allow the user to intermix speech with TTY use.
Telecommunications products which include voice communication functionality shall support all commonly used cross-manufacturer non-proprietary standard TTY signal protocols.
Voice mail, auto-attendant, and interactive voice response telecommunications systems shall be usable by TTY users with their TTYs.
Voice mail, messaging, auto-attendant, and interactive voice response telecommunications systems that require a response from a user within a time interval, shall give an alert when the time interval is about to run out, and shall provide sufficient time for the user to indicate more time is required.
Where provided, caller identification and similar telecommunications functions shall also be available for users of TTYs, and for users who cannot see displays.
For transmitted voice signals, telecommunications products shall provide a gain adjustable up to a minimum of 20 dB. For incremental volume control, at least one intermediate step of 12 dB of gain shall be provided.
If the telecommunications product allows a user to adjust the receive volume, a function shall be provided to automatically reset the volume to the default level after every use.
Where a telecommunications product delivers output by an audio transducer which is normally held up to the ear, a means for effective magnetic wireless coupling to hearing technologies shall be provided.
Interference to hearing technologies (including hearing aids, cochlear implants, and assistive listening devices) shall be reduced to the lowest possible level that allows a user of hearing technologies to utilize the telecommunications product.
Products that transmit or conduct information or communication, shall pass through cross-manufacturer, non-proprietary, industry-standard codes, translation protocols, formats or other information necessary to provide the information or communication in a usable format. Technologies which use encoding, signal compression, format transformation, or similar techniques shall not remove information needed for access or shall restore it upon delivery.
Products which have mechanically operated controls or keys, shall comply with the following:
Controls and keys shall be tactilely discernible without activating the controls or keys.
Controls and keys shall be operable with one hand and shall not require tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the wrist. The force required to activate controls and keys shall be 5 lbs. (22.2 N) maximum.
If key repeat is supported, the delay before repeat shall be adjustable to at least 2 seconds. Key repeat rate shall be adjustable to 2 seconds per character.
The status of all locking or toggle controls or keys shall be visually discernible, and discernible either through touch or sound.
Video and multimedia products
All analog television displays 13 inches and larger, and computer equipment that includes analog television receiver or display circuitry, shall be equipped with caption decoder circuitry which appropriately receives, decodes, and displays closed captions from broadcast, cable, videotape, and DVD signals. Widescreen digital television (DTV) displays measuring at least 7.8 inches vertically, DTV sets with conventional displays measuring at least 13 inches vertically, and stand-alone DTV tuners, whether or not they are marketed with display screens, and computer equipment that includes DTV receiver or display circuitry, shall be equipped with caption decoder circuitry which appropriately receives, decodes, and displays closed captions from broadcast, cable, videotape, and DVD signals.
Television tuners, including tuner cards for use in computers, shall be equipped with secondary audio program playback circuitry.
All training and informational video and multimedia productions which support the agency's mission, regardless of format, that contain speech or other audio information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be open or closed captioned.
All training and informational video and multimedia productions which support the agency's mission, regardless of format, that contain visual information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be audio described.
Display or presentation of alternate text presentation or audio descriptions shall be user-selectable unless permanent.
Self contained, closed products.
Self contained products shall be usable by people with disabilities without requiring an end-user to attach assistive technology to the product. Personal headsets for private listening are not assistive technology.
When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
When biometric forms of user identification or control are used, an alternative form of identification or activation, which does not require the user to possess particular biological characteristics, shall also be provided.
When products provide auditory output, the audio signal shall be provided at a standard signal level through an industry standard connector that will allow for private listening.
The product must provide the ability to interrupt, pause, and restart the audio at anytime.
When products deliver voice output in a public area, incremental volume control shall be provided with output amplification up to a level of at least 65 dB. Where the ambient noise level of the environment is above 45 dB, a volume gain of at least 20 dB above the ambient level shall be user selectable. A function shall be provided to automatically reset the volume to the default level after every use.
Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast settings, a range of color selections capable of producing a variety of contrast levels shall be provided.
Products shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
Products which are freestanding, non-portable, and intended to be used in one location and which have operable controls shall comply with the following:
The position of any operable control shall be determined with respect to a vertical plane, which is 48 inches in length, centered on the operable control, and at the maximum protrusion of the product within the 48 inch length (see Figure 1 of this part).
Where any operable control is 10 inches or less behind the reference plane, the height shall be 54 inches maximum and 15 inches minimum above the floor.
Where any operable control is more than 10 inches and not more than 24 inches behind the reference plane, the height shall be 46 inches maximum and 15 inches minimum above the floor.
Operable controls shall not be more than 24 inches behind the reference plane.
This section will highlight some of the key technical standards related to Section 508. For the full list be sure to reference the latest Section 508 standards from http://www.section508.gov.
Software applications and operating systems
When software is designed to run on a system that has a keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing a function can be discerned textually.
Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features of other products that are identified as accessibility features, where those features are developed and documented according to industry standards. Applications also shall not disrupt or disable activated features of any operating system that are identified as accessibility features where the application programming interface for those accessibility features has been documented by the manufacturer of the operating system and is available to the product developer.
A well-defined on-screen indication of the current focus shall be provided that moves among interactive interface elements as the input focus changes. The focus shall be programmatically exposed so that assistive technology can track focus and focus changes.
Sufficient information about a user interface element including the identity, operation and state of the element shall be available to assistive technology. When an image represents a program element, the information conveyed by the image must also be available in text.
When bitmap images are used to identify controls, status indicators, or other programmatic elements, the meaning assigned to those images shall be consistent throughout an application's performance. Textual information shall be provided through operating system functions for displaying text. The minimum information that shall be made available is text content, text input caret location, and text attributes.
Applications shall not override user selected contrast and color selections and other individual display attributes.
When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode at the option of the user.
Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast settings, a variety of color selections capable of producing a range of contrast levels shall be provided.
Software shall not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other elements having a flash or blink frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
Web-based intranet and internet information and applications.
A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).
Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.
Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.
Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.
Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.
Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.
Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.
When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.
When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.
A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.
When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
Telecommunications products
Telecommunications products or systems which provide a function allowing voice communication and which do not themselves provide a TTY functionality shall provide a standard non-acoustic connection point for TTYs. Microphones shall be capable of being turned on and off to allow the user to intermix speech with TTY use.
Telecommunications products which include voice communication functionality shall support all commonly used cross-manufacturer non-proprietary standard TTY signal protocols.
Voice mail, auto-attendant, and interactive voice response telecommunications systems shall be usable by TTY users with their TTYs.
Voice mail, messaging, auto-attendant, and interactive voice response telecommunications systems that require a response from a user within a time interval, shall give an alert when the time interval is about to run out, and shall provide sufficient time for the user to indicate more time is required.
Where provided, caller identification and similar telecommunications functions shall also be available for users of TTYs, and for users who cannot see displays.
For transmitted voice signals, telecommunications products shall provide a gain adjustable up to a minimum of 20 dB. For incremental volume control, at least one intermediate step of 12 dB of gain shall be provided.
If the telecommunications product allows a user to adjust the receive volume, a function shall be provided to automatically reset the volume to the default level after every use.
Where a telecommunications product delivers output by an audio transducer which is normally held up to the ear, a means for effective magnetic wireless coupling to hearing technologies shall be provided.
Interference to hearing technologies (including hearing aids, cochlear implants, and assistive listening devices) shall be reduced to the lowest possible level that allows a user of hearing technologies to utilize the telecommunications product.
Products that transmit or conduct information or communication, shall pass through cross-manufacturer, non-proprietary, industry-standard codes, translation protocols, formats or other information necessary to provide the information or communication in a usable format. Technologies which use encoding, signal compression, format transformation, or similar techniques shall not remove information needed for access or shall restore it upon delivery.
Products which have mechanically operated controls or keys, shall comply with the following:
Controls and keys shall be tactilely discernible without activating the controls or keys.
Controls and keys shall be operable with one hand and shall not require tight grasping, pinching, or twisting of the wrist. The force required to activate controls and keys shall be 5 lbs. (22.2 N) maximum.
If key repeat is supported, the delay before repeat shall be adjustable to at least 2 seconds. Key repeat rate shall be adjustable to 2 seconds per character.
The status of all locking or toggle controls or keys shall be visually discernible, and discernible either through touch or sound.
Video and multimedia products
All analog television displays 13 inches and larger, and computer equipment that includes analog television receiver or display circuitry, shall be equipped with caption decoder circuitry which appropriately receives, decodes, and displays closed captions from broadcast, cable, videotape, and DVD signals. Widescreen digital television (DTV) displays measuring at least 7.8 inches vertically, DTV sets with conventional displays measuring at least 13 inches vertically, and stand-alone DTV tuners, whether or not they are marketed with display screens, and computer equipment that includes DTV receiver or display circuitry, shall be equipped with caption decoder circuitry which appropriately receives, decodes, and displays closed captions from broadcast, cable, videotape, and DVD signals.
Television tuners, including tuner cards for use in computers, shall be equipped with secondary audio program playback circuitry.
All training and informational video and multimedia productions which support the agency's mission, regardless of format, that contain speech or other audio information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be open or closed captioned.
All training and informational video and multimedia productions which support the agency's mission, regardless of format, that contain visual information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be audio described.
Display or presentation of alternate text presentation or audio descriptions shall be user-selectable unless permanent.
Self contained, closed products.
Self contained products shall be usable by people with disabilities without requiring an end-user to attach assistive technology to the product. Personal headsets for private listening are not assistive technology.
When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
When biometric forms of user identification or control are used, an alternative form of identification or activation, which does not require the user to possess particular biological characteristics, shall also be provided.
When products provide auditory output, the audio signal shall be provided at a standard signal level through an industry standard connector that will allow for private listening.
The product must provide the ability to interrupt, pause, and restart the audio at anytime.
When products deliver voice output in a public area, incremental volume control shall be provided with output amplification up to a level of at least 65 dB. Where the ambient noise level of the environment is above 45 dB, a volume gain of at least 20 dB above the ambient level shall be user selectable. A function shall be provided to automatically reset the volume to the default level after every use.
Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast settings, a range of color selections capable of producing a variety of contrast levels shall be provided.
Products shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.
Products which are freestanding, non-portable, and intended to be used in one location and which have operable controls shall comply with the following:
The position of any operable control shall be determined with respect to a vertical plane, which is 48 inches in length, centered on the operable control, and at the maximum protrusion of the product within the 48 inch length (see Figure 1 of this part).
Where any operable control is 10 inches or less behind the reference plane, the height shall be 54 inches maximum and 15 inches minimum above the floor.
Where any operable control is more than 10 inches and not more than 24 inches behind the reference plane, the height shall be 46 inches maximum and 15 inches minimum above the floor.
Operable controls shall not be more than 24 inches behind the reference plane.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Validation Resources and Articles
Validation Resources and Articles
Writing Code in Your Posts
Fixing Your Website
Mark Freeman's Many Links to Validation Resources
Squarefree's Bookmarketlets (JavaScript for web page testing)
Walidator.com
Understanding How HTML Validators Work
You Call That Web Site Testing?
What Every Web Site Owner Should Know About Standards: A Web Standards Primer
Writing Code in Your Posts
Fixing Your Website
Mark Freeman's Many Links to Validation Resources
Squarefree's Bookmarketlets (JavaScript for web page testing)
Walidator.com
Understanding How HTML Validators Work
You Call That Web Site Testing?
What Every Web Site Owner Should Know About Standards: A Web Standards Primer
Usability is achieved by
Usability is achieved by:
• Focusing on understanding users; their tasks, goals, models and context
• Clearly define success; organizational goals and user goals
• Design to meet specific and measurable goals
• Design iteratively
• Evaluate early and often
• Focusing on understanding users; their tasks, goals, models and context
• Clearly define success; organizational goals and user goals
• Design to meet specific and measurable goals
• Design iteratively
• Evaluate early and often
Progressive Enhancement
Progressive Enhancement
People have the right to obtain information and services from web sites regardless of the technologies they use. The key to effective implementation of universal accessibility lies in designing sites to serve the widest possible audience and the broadest possible range of hardware and software platforms, from adaptive technologies to emerging technologies.
In the past, the graceful degradation approach was used to ensure the widest possible audience was being served. The graceful degradation approach involves designing a Web site for one or more target configurations, then including functional but degraded support for other configurations. The graceful degradation approach works well when designing a basic template, but it can be problematic since it tends to limit the introduction of emerging technologies and enhanced interface options to ensure compatibility with adaptive technologies and other configurations.
As a result of these limitations, there has been a shift in recent years away from the graceful degradation approach towards the progressive enhancement approach for embedded multimedia and other Web page enhancements. The progressive enhancement approach involves designing Web content for the least capable configurations first, and then introducing a series of enhancements based on the capability of each client’s configuration. This approach is an improvement over graceful degradation because it encourages the introduction of emerging technologies and enhanced interface options without compromising the support for less capable configurations.
People have the right to obtain information and services from web sites regardless of the technologies they use. The key to effective implementation of universal accessibility lies in designing sites to serve the widest possible audience and the broadest possible range of hardware and software platforms, from adaptive technologies to emerging technologies.
In the past, the graceful degradation approach was used to ensure the widest possible audience was being served. The graceful degradation approach involves designing a Web site for one or more target configurations, then including functional but degraded support for other configurations. The graceful degradation approach works well when designing a basic template, but it can be problematic since it tends to limit the introduction of emerging technologies and enhanced interface options to ensure compatibility with adaptive technologies and other configurations.
As a result of these limitations, there has been a shift in recent years away from the graceful degradation approach towards the progressive enhancement approach for embedded multimedia and other Web page enhancements. The progressive enhancement approach involves designing Web content for the least capable configurations first, and then introducing a series of enhancements based on the capability of each client’s configuration. This approach is an improvement over graceful degradation because it encourages the introduction of emerging technologies and enhanced interface options without compromising the support for less capable configurations.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
INDUSTRY STANDARDS
INDUSTRY STANDARDS
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
The (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C's primary activity is to developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web. W3C's standards define key parts of what makes the World Wide Web work.
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guideline)
WCAG defines the requirements for making Web content accessible to a wide range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning difficulties, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech difficulties, and others. Adhering to WCAG will make your Web content more usable to many other users, including older users. It will also enable people to access Web content using many different devices - including a wide variety of assistive technologies and mobile technologies.
WCAG 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. The guidelines do not include standard usability recommendations except where they have specific impact on accessibility.
WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications)
WAI-ARIA is a technical specification that provides a framework to improve the accessibility and interoperability of web content and applications.
Aspects of traditional HTML make accessible support of dynamic content difficult:
Accessibility relies on abstracting semantics from both content and presentational information. Extracting semantic cues from current HTML content is typically unreliable as the cues are limited to tag elements names.
HTML allows content to be repurposed for presentational formatting without providing a way to convey semantic information. A common example of this content formatted with tables rather than style sheets.
When combined with script and CSS, HTML can be repurposed to create dynamic custom components without providing a means to convey semantic information to native accessibility architectures designed to support dynamic GUI content.
HTML lacks the ability to attach meaningful metadata about document structure.
HTML elements commonly used for repurposing produce custom components that are not keyboard accessible.
Authors of JavaScript-generated content do not want to limit themselves to using standard tag elements that define the actual user interface element such as tables, ordered lists, etc. Rather, they make extensive use of elements such as DIV tags in which they dynamically apply a UI through the use of style sheets and dynamic content changes. HTML DIV tags provide no semantic information. For example, authors may define a DIV as the start of a pop-up menu or even an ordered list. However, no HTML mechanism exists to:
• Identify the role of the DIV as a pop-up menu
• Alert assistive technology when these elements have focus
• Convey accessibility property information, such as whether the pop-up menu is collapsed or expanded
• Define what actions can be formed on the element other than through a device-dependent means through the event handler type (onMouseover, onClick, etc.)
• In short, JavaScript needs accessibility architecture to write to such that a solution can be mapped to the accessibility frameworks on the native platform by the user agent.
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
The (W3C) is an international community where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C's primary activity is to developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web. W3C's standards define key parts of what makes the World Wide Web work.
WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guideline)
WCAG defines the requirements for making Web content accessible to a wide range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning difficulties, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech difficulties, and others. Adhering to WCAG will make your Web content more usable to many other users, including older users. It will also enable people to access Web content using many different devices - including a wide variety of assistive technologies and mobile technologies.
WCAG 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. The guidelines do not include standard usability recommendations except where they have specific impact on accessibility.
WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications)
WAI-ARIA is a technical specification that provides a framework to improve the accessibility and interoperability of web content and applications.
Aspects of traditional HTML make accessible support of dynamic content difficult:
Accessibility relies on abstracting semantics from both content and presentational information. Extracting semantic cues from current HTML content is typically unreliable as the cues are limited to tag elements names.
HTML allows content to be repurposed for presentational formatting without providing a way to convey semantic information. A common example of this content formatted with tables rather than style sheets.
When combined with script and CSS, HTML can be repurposed to create dynamic custom components without providing a means to convey semantic information to native accessibility architectures designed to support dynamic GUI content.
HTML lacks the ability to attach meaningful metadata about document structure.
HTML elements commonly used for repurposing produce custom components that are not keyboard accessible.
Authors of JavaScript-generated content do not want to limit themselves to using standard tag elements that define the actual user interface element such as tables, ordered lists, etc. Rather, they make extensive use of elements such as DIV tags in which they dynamically apply a UI through the use of style sheets and dynamic content changes. HTML DIV tags provide no semantic information. For example, authors may define a DIV as the start of a pop-up menu or even an ordered list. However, no HTML mechanism exists to:
• Identify the role of the DIV as a pop-up menu
• Alert assistive technology when these elements have focus
• Convey accessibility property information, such as whether the pop-up menu is collapsed or expanded
• Define what actions can be formed on the element other than through a device-dependent means through the event handler type (onMouseover, onClick, etc.)
• In short, JavaScript needs accessibility architecture to write to such that a solution can be mapped to the accessibility frameworks on the native platform by the user agent.
Section 508 Introduction
Section 508 is a part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which requires that electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the Federal government be accessible to people with disabilities. On August 7, 1998, the President signed into law the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which includes the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. Section 508 was originally added to the Rehabilitation Act in 1986; the 1998 amendments significantly expand and strengthen the technology access requirements in Section 508.
Section 508 applies to Federal departments and agencies. Because the Section 508 standards will be incorporated into the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), agencies' procurement of accessible technology will be subject to the same stringent compliance and enforcement mechanisms as other parts of the FAR.
There is an administrative complaint process which becomes effective six months after the Board issued its final standards. It enables any individual with a disability to file a complaint alleging that a Federal department or agency has not complied with the accessible technology standards in a procurement made after that date. The complaint process is the same as that used for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, for complaints alleging discrimination on the basis of disability in Federally-conducted programs or activities. It provides injunctive relief and attorney's fees to the prevailing party, but does not include compensatory or punitive damages. Individuals may also file a civil action against an agency.
Federal agencies which provide information to the public or to their employees through Web sites must ensure that such sites are available to all persons with internet or intranet access, including persons with disabilities.
Section 508 in no way replaces or otherwise limits the rights or remedies available under any other existing Federal law that protects the rights of people with disabilities. As part of the Rehabilitation Act, it clarifies and strengthens the Federal government's existing obligation to ensure that technology is accessible to people with disabilities.
The principles of Section 508 are also enforced within other countries. For example, Ireland New Zealand
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)