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The company that I work for is taking Section 508 pretty seriously. As far
as I understand it, everything has to be accessible to the public and
government employees. There may not be much in the way of legal requirements
that directly apply to software development, but expect the government to
demand that the software they buy meet certain accessibility requirements.
This has meant finding ways to make the documentation more accessible and
figuring out some of the common issues that make docs inaccessible. For
example:
If users have mobility problems and can't use a mouse, can users navigate
easily through your help with just a keyboard?
How well can users navigate an online help system if they are also blind and
using a screen reader?
Do your HTML pages adapt well to screen magnification and high-contrast
colour settings for people with low-vision?
Do you use diagrams that blind users can't see, or colours that colour-blind
users can't distinguish, to explain something without supporting text to
explain the same thing.
Good luck.
Andrea
-----Original Message-----
From: Tothscribe -at- aol -dot- com [mailto:Tothscribe -at- aol -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 9:48 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Section 508
I'm pulling together justifications for taking Section 508 training on the
company's tab. For the web part of my work, it's an easy sell - "508's the
law. You don't have any 508 experts on the web development staff."
But I'm a little unsure how to claim accessibility also impacts the classic
technical writing (read: writing documentation) side of my job.
So the general question is, how have accessibility issues and/or Section 508
impacted you? Are there any sweeping statements I can make about
accessibility and technical writing to defend my request to get the
EASI/University of Southern Maine certificate?
Nea
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