Research & Ideas >> What is Section 508?

You need to be Section 508 compliant.

The Year 2000 US Census states there are 49.7 million Americans that have a disability. That is 19.3% of the population. These disabilities can affect vision, hearing, speech, motor skills, and cognitive functions. As a result, many disabled Americans may not be able to use the Internet to obtain information needed for their work or personal life.

To help alleviate this problem, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that all internal and external web sites used by Federal agencies be accessible to people with disabilities (section508.gov, n.d.). This ruling guarantees that Federal workers with disabilities will be able to access the same information as others whom do not have disabilities. The technical standards outlined in Section 508 help make web sites accessible to people who are using screen readers or screen magnifiers. Using this equipment, people who are blind or have low vision can still use a web site to collect information or complete a transaction. Although this mandate does not apply to commercial web sites, it is also important for commercial web sites to be accessible to people with disabilities.

The web site and intranet standards outlined in Section 508 are applicable to most sites. Moreover, by following these standards, commercial web sites are able to increase their audience size by providing users with disabilities a way to access and use their site. Most often, these standards only require a little extra development effort. The result is a more usable site for people with and without disabilities.