Section 508

Logins are critical to the digital world. We need them to keep the bad guys out of our stuff. This includes everything from our email, bank, social media, and e-commerce accounts. And that necessarily creates barriers, which can sometimes present accessibility issues. UX, engineering, and security professionals designing login systems have the difficult task of balancing ease of use with safeguards to keep bad actors out. Following accessibility principles and best practices, including new success criteria for accessible authentication in the brand new WCAG 2.2 release, can ensure that login systems don’t lock out people with disabilities.

This past week, the W3C finally published a new version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as its official recommendation. This new version, WCAG 2.2, has been a long time coming.

Digital accessibility is addressed in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act to be exact. It requires all federal agencies and departments to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities, including both employees and members of the public. This includes websites, PDFs, and digital kiosks. The requirements also apply to federal government digital procurement as well as some bodies that receive federal funding.

PDFs are commonly used for sharing information and documents, but they have limitations and drawbacks that make them less than ideal for use on the web, especially when compared to good old HTML.

If you are working in the digital space, you may have heard references to a VPAT and wondered whether you need one. The answer to that question depends on what kind of digital experience you are producing as well as who your intended customers are.