| Standards |
| Support Web Standards |
|
- Different: Section 508 does not have
any requirements for supporting web standards. In general, valid
HTML and CSS should be used to support interoperability and the
separation of content from rendering styles. Other web standards
like SVG and MathML should be used wherever possible
|
| Styling |
| Liquid Design for Content Reflow |
|
- Different: Section 508 does not have
any requirements for content reflow. Use CSS
float and clear properties
for creating columns
|
| Layout/Linearization |
|
- Same: Section 508 requires documents
to be readable without style sheets
- Same: If HTML table markup is
used for graphical layout then the table markup should considered
part of the style of the document for the purpose of Section 508
conformance
- Different: CSS should be used for layout
and stylistic graphics
|
| Colors |
|
- Same: Section 508 requires that color
not be the only way to convey information. Therefore, if author color
styling is ignored or changed to a different color the page should
still convey the same information
|
| Fonts |
|
- Different: Section 508 has no requirements
for fonts, but CSS should be used for specifying font size, font
family and other font variations like underlining, bolding, italics
and capitalization. CSS has many font styling capabilities that
are supported on major browsers. Images in general should not be
used to stylize text except in limited situations like logos or
icons used to brand a website or indicate the purpose of a control
|
| Navigation and Orientation |
| Unique Titles |
|
- Different: Section 508 does not have
a requirement to uniquely title web resources. The Best Practices document
requires that pages have unique titles using the
title
and h1 elements
|
| Headings |
|
- Different: Section 508 has only a minimal
"skip navigation" requirement. The Best Practices requirement that
major topics use HTML
heading (
h1-h6) and that navigation bars be indicated
in HTML markup
|
| Menus and Navigation Bars |
|
- Different: Section 508 has only a minimal
"skip navigation" requirement but does not require using markup
to indicate navigation bars. The best practices requirements that
navigation bars be identified through the use of unordered lists
(
ul element) and the title attribute to
give the navigation bar a human readable label that indicates the
purpose of the navigation bar
|
| Forms |
|
- Same: Section 508 requires that form
controls use the
label
and fieldset
element to indicate relationships between form controls and their text labels
|
| Language |
|
|
| Tabular Data Tables |
|
- Same: Section 508 requires:
- The
caption
element must be used to give the table a title
- The
th
element must be used to indicate which table cells are used
as headers with the id
attribute used to uniquely identify each header cell
- The
td
element must be used with the headers
attribute to indicate the table header cells in tables where
more than just the first column or first row are needed to indicate
the header information
- The
summary
attribute can be used to provide a short text summary of what
the author wanted the user to understand from looking at the
table data
- The
scope
attribute is useful to define whether the first cell in a data
table should be considered a header for the first row or first
column of a web resource
|
| Lists |
|
- Different: Lists of information or
links should be coded using unordered (
ul), ordered
(ol) or definition list (dl)
|
| Links |
|
- Same: Section 508's only requirement
for links is that server side image maps must have redundant
text links. However, this technique for image maps is rarely used now
- Different: Any image map (server or
client side) needs redundant text links since none of the mainstream
browsers support the rendering of
ALT for AREA elements
- Different: Text associated with a link
needs to indicate the target of the link
|
| Accesskeys |
|
- Different: Limited numbers of
accesskey's
can be useful for static web resources to help people navigate to
search boxes, the main navigation bar and main content
|
| Frames |
|
- Same: Frames are required to be
titled with text that describes the content of the frame
|
| Automation |
| Scripting |
|
- Same: Section 508 requires text interface
elements and operation instructions that are compatible with assistive
technologies and that can be restyled to suit user preferences
|
| Keyboard |
|
- Same: Any interactive web resource
must provide keyboard support. This includes device independence
for
onMouse events, typically with the onFocus and onBlur events
that can be triggered with the keyboard
|
| Objects and Applets |
|
- Same: Since embedded objects and applets
are not currently accessible, Section 508 requires that an alternative
that complies with 1194.21(a)-through-(l) be available to the user.
|
| Animations (Flicker) |
|
- Same: Section 508 resources must be designed
to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater
than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz
|
| Timed Responses |
|
- Same: Section 508 requires that resources
using a required timed response give the user an alert and
sufficient time to indicate that more time is required
- Different: In systems that require user
authentication, users can configure the system to provide them with
the extra time they need to respond to timed operations
|
| Text Descriptions |
| Text Equivalents for Images, Pictures, Charts and
Diagrams |
|
- Same: Section 508 and the Best Practices
both require text descriptions for images
- Different: If an image is used to stylize
text, it should be replaced with text markup and CSS
- Different: If an image is used for
positioning or styling, it should be replaced by CSS positioning and styling
|
| Text Equivalents for Audio |
|
- Same: Both require text captions for
audio
|
