It will be a beneficial for those Web Developers who are not aware of Section 508 Compliance to hear my experience today. Today I had a job interview and one of the questions was regarding to 508 Compliance. I remember we had courses on similar subject when I was taking classes on Internet Web Professional Certification. This is a big deal for those people with disabilities able to equally access all the web contents.

As a Web Developer must do to make your web pages accessible according to the Section 508 standards.  Section 508 is an amendment to the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  President Clinton signed the amendment into law on August 7, 1998. Section 508 requires that electronic and information technology that is developed by or purchased by the Federal Agencies be accessible by people with disabilities. 

There are many WordPress PlugIns for compliance Section 508, such as WP ADA Compliance Check Basic, Accessibility Suite 2.0 ADA Plugin and other similar Plugins. These PlugIns help scan each area that needs to adjust for accessibility.

Also there are common practices for Web Developers to remember to follow for each website development. Those common practices are listed below to help.

• Make sure your site is able to navigate entirely with keyboard only
• Make sure add Alt text to all images
• Make sure label form elements
• Ensure your colors contrast meets accessibility for everyone easily
• Enable resizable text that doesn’t break your site
• If there is an input error by the user, it must be identified and described in the text to the user (Error handling).
• Provide skip navigation links so that users can skip repetitive content such as navigation menus, widgets.
• Use Headers to structure your content correctly
• Design your forms for accessibility
• Don’t use tables for anything except tabular data
• Avoid automatic media and navigation