Draft: Comparison of UAAG 1.0 and Section 508

Status of this document

This document has been produced as a tool for developers to understand where the requirements of Section 508 and the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 converge and depart. These are initial notes by the authors; this document does not represent UAWG consensus.

It is also important to note that the United States Access Board (or The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board) has not reviewed or sanctioned this document. The Access Board was the agency designated in (Section 508(a)(2)(A) to publish standards setting forth a definition of electronic and information technology and the technical and functional performance criteria necessary for accessibility for such technology, for the United States Government.)

This document is part of a series of accessibility documents published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). WAI Accessibility Guidelines are produced as part of the WAI Technical Activity. The goals of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group are described in the charter.

Summary of relationships between two documents

The two documents are sufficiently different that we attempt only a rough comparison here, limiting ourselves to these relationships: subsumes, roughly equivalent to, and has no equivalent.

Section 508 paragraph 1194.21 requirements

  1. (a) is subsumed by 1.1
  2. (b)
  3. (c)
  4. (d)
  5. (e) has no equivalent in UAAG 1.0. However, it is likely that the P2 checkpoint 7.3 relates (as it involves UI design and conventions).
  6. (f)
  7. (g) is subsumed by checkpoint 4.3.
  8. (h) has no equivalent in UAAG 1.0 since it seems to assume that the author has provided alternative content for a different display mode: "When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode at the option of the user." However, UAAG 1.0 requires that the user be able to turn animations off in 3.2.
  9. (i) subsumes parts of 10.2, 10.3, 10.4 (P2), 10.7.
  10. (j) is subsumed (for text) by 4.3, since 4.3 makes a broader color range requirement.
  11. (k) has no equivalent in UAAG 1.0 since UAAG 1.0 only talks about blinking text content (not UI controls). However, P2 checkpoint 7.3 is expected to cover this (related to UI design).
  12. (l) is subsumed by 6.1 and 6.2.

Section 508 paragraph 1194.24 requirements

  1. a-d have no equivalents in UAAG 1.0
  2. (e) is subsumed by 2.5.

Section 508 paragraph 1194.25 requirements

  1. (b) is subsumed by 2.4.
  2. (f) is subsumed by 4.13 (although specific decibel levels are not part of UAAG 1.0).
  3. g, h, and i are covered by 1194.21 requirements.
  4. Other requirements have no equivalent in UAAG 1.0.

Section 508 paragraph 1194.41 requirements

  1. (a) is subsumed by 12.1.
  2. (b) is roughly equivalent to 12.2.
  3. (c) has no equivalent in UAAG 1.0.

Conclusions