Designing for Section 508: Users with disabilities

[larry98765]

Hi All,

I'm in the process of developing a web site with the goal of conforming to section 508 standards -- for users with disabilities.

I'd like to download and install some of the user agents (i.e. special web browsers) that most utilize these standards, but I can't seem to find any.

What's out there that can either emulate these devices or what -- specifically -- are the devices themselves?

Thanks,

LS

 

[DanTekGeek]

the only specialized browser i know about is lynx, which is a text only browser.

 

[Nummi_G4]

If you have a machine running Windows... you can try IBM's screen reader.
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html
They have a 30 day trial download.

What I usually do is turn off the style sheet(s) so the page is text only (good for older browsers with bad or no CSS support and agents that don't use style sheets at all.)

 

[larry98765]

Thanks both.

1) I'm already working on installing lynx (happens to be the topic of another one of my posts)

2) I'll definitely install the trial IBM screen reader (I do have a PC).

3) How do I turn off style sheets in Safari? (of course I could simply take the style sheet link out of my code, but the former would be simpler.) I tried creating an empty style sheet and setting prefs to use it, but it seems as though instead of replacing the style sheet, it simply overrides it, which is what I expected, since CSS is MEANT to do that.

 

[mdnky]

There isn't much if anything that I'm aware of on the Mac side. JAWS and most other similar apps are usually Windoze only. Lynx is a nice quick way to look at something, but it's not going to be very helpful in ensuring 508 compliance. Opera 7.5 does have some nice features in it, might be worth downloading the free version and checkin it out.

Your best bet is to simply read up on the subject and figure out what should and shouldn't happen to ensure compliance with the guidelines. Here's some links which might be of help to you.

• http://sage.macc.wisc.edu/accessibility/guideline/508guidelines.html
• http://www.happycog.com/lectures/access/
• http://web.mit.edu/atic/www/quickstarts/accessnav/
• http://old.alistapart.com/stories/tools/
• http://www.usablenet.com/
• http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp

I'm in the process of developing a web site with the goal of conforming to section 508 standards -- for users with disabilities.

I'd like to download and install some of the user agents (i.e. special web browsers) that most utilize these standards, but I can't seem to find any.

What's out there that can either emulate these devices or what -- specifically -- are the devices themselves?

 

[larry98765]

Thanks Mdnky! These links will be very helpful. Here are some other links for anyone interested in this topic:

http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility/
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm
http://www.webaim.org/standards/508/checklist-linearized