Accessibility and 508: A Guide to Web Standards and Government Regulations ![[Registration never required for free content]](/images/free.gif)
By: Bevi Chagnon on Friday, July 6, 2007
Reader Level: 
The buzzwords flying around this topic seem endless...usability...accessibility...Web standards...WCAG...WAI. Add government regulations to the mix — such as US Section 508 and Access Board Standards, Canadian CLF Standards, and the European Commission's e-Inclusion policy — and it's enough to drive you crazy!
This comprehensive overview clears up the confusion by reviewing what the standards are, who's affected by the government regulations, and what you must do — or are encouraged to do — to be compliant.
Although the Web standards are voluntary international standards, Section 508 regulations are only for US Federal government web sites and are required by federal law. And Canada's Content Look and Feel Standards affect only Canadian government websites. WCAG standards are not quite the same as US 508-accessibility standards, but this article shows were they converge...and where they don't.
Links to other US Federal, state, and local regulations are included, as well as several international government regulations, and relevant CMX articles and tutorials.
This article is for:
- web developers and designers
- audio, video, and animation developers
- web masters
- project managers
- usability specialists
- GUI (interface) designers
- government contractors
- government contracting officers, procurement specialists, and FAR specialists
Topics covered in this article:
- Web standards, regulations, and entities: what's what and who's who.
- When must you adhere to the standards
- And when it's "smart" to meet the standards
- WCAG guidelines and checkpoints
- Comparison of WCAG guidelines and US Federal 508-accessibility requirements
- Resources: Catalog of CMX articles and tutorials on building accessibility into your websites
- Resources: Links to US Federal, local, state websites on accessibility
- Resources: Links to international websites on accessibility
