Section 508 Refresh and the WCAG
4/19/2018 12:00:00 AM
On January 18, 2017, the United States Access Board published an updated Section 508 rule. In the making for nearly a decade, the rule updated the federal procurement requirements designed to ensure that all information and communications technology (ICT) is accessible.
A year later, on January 18, 2018, that rule became enforceable. Federal agencies who failed to appropriately apply it in their purchasing decisions could be held liable.
The /mnit/government/policies/accessibility/index.jspState of Minnesota accessibility standard was designed to automatically update whenever Section 508 refreshed. A work group took a close look at the refresh and recommended formally updating the standard with some specific references to Section 508. For example, Section 508 itemized what types of documents constituted “official business” and were therefore covered under the rule. The work group felt the list was more confusing than helpful. The updated state standard omits that itemization and simply references official business.
For more information on the standard and how to apply it to your work, review the /mnit/assets/accessibility-guidelines-2018_tcm38-336072.pdfaccompanying guidelines (PDF). The guidelines, unlike the standard, will update regularly with feedback from agencies and employees. To review the latest version, look for it on the same web page as the standard.
The state accessibility standard comprises two sources, Section 508 and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), 2.0. Section 508 has refreshed, so what about WCAG? The Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has submitted a “candidate recommendation” for version 2.1. Public comments closed March 30. Committee members hope to release it as an approved version later this summer.
A key challenge to creating an update is that some of the success criteria are aspirational – criteria they think technology should follow but for which there are currently no known implementations. In order to make these criteria qualify for the guidelines, the writers had to prove that such criteria were feasible and possible with current tools and resources (such as current browsers).
Before Minnesota formally enforces 2.1, the Office of Accessibility will work with its agency partners to develop guidelines and recommendations on how to best support the new criteria.
The W3C is not stopping there. There’s a new version of WCAG, code-named “Silver.” But instead of creating an updated group of success criteria to add to the existing set, Silver is an attempt to reimagine accessibility guidelines from the ground up. The current guidelines were written with a focus on accessing information through a browser. Today, many people access information on the internet without a browser – such as through mobile apps or computer programs. So the Silver Task Force and W3C Silver Community Group are developing the framework for a successor to the WCAG.
The W3C welcomes anyone who wants to be involved. If you’re interested, check out the above links and join the community group!
Accessibility
