Web Browsers And Section 508

Federal government Web sites must comply with Section 508 to ensure they’re accessible to individuals with disabilities. As reported in this article, they’ve taken an interest in browsers especially since they have choices. Firefox and IE developers are working to build browsers that meet Section 508 guidelines as well as improve Web accessibility for those with disabilities.

To help with the effort, the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template has been created. It’s a checklist that’s a statement of compliance for vendors to identify what parts of Section 508 their products meet. Here’s Microsoft’s statement on the topic as well as Macromedia (Adobe) (here, too), Mozilla, and Adobe (PDF file). You can probably find the VPAT for any product by going to the search engine and entering “VPAT” (or its full name) along with the company or product name.

It’s good to be familiar with this as using the VPAT can gain goodwill with businesses and help you be prepared if you get contracted to work with the government.

Meryl K. Evans is the Content Maven behind meryl.net, helping companies get better results through simple words that make a big impact. You can visit her blog or drop her a line.

[tags]browsers,federal government,vpat,web sites[/tags]