What is US Section 508 and why is it important?
If you work for the US government, or in any other 508 compliant organization, all public-facing content you publish must be accessible as defined in section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Additionally, Section 508 applies to nine categories of “non-public-facing” content if that content is communicating agency official business. Publishing 508 compliant dashboards can seem intimidating, but Tableau makes it easy to create and publish accessible dashboards.
When
thinking about web content, accessibility requires things like
- Ensuring text has enough contrast for users with low color
sensitivity - Supporting screen-reader functionality on a web page
- Allowing users to navigate a web page using a keyboard instead
of a mouse
There
are many more accessibility requirements under Section 508. With few
exceptions, all published content must adhere to the level A and level AA
standards set by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, a
globally-recognized and technologically-neutral set of accessibility guidelines
for Web content.
The
WCAG standards define four principles as the foundation for its guidelines:
- Perceivable
- Operable
- Understandable
- Robust
Coming up in this series, we’ll look at the ways Tableau can support you in building accessible dashboards.
