Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d) requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and members of the public.
According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Accessible Information Technology, is technology that can be used by people with a wide range of abilities and disabilities. It incorporates the principles of universal design, where each user can interact with technologies in ways that work best for the patron.
In the following subsections we will discuss website accessibility, accessibility within DML resources, and Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs).
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the gold standard for electronic resources accessibility. Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can: perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web. The guidelines are broken into four different principles.
Each principle has many sections. There are different levels of success in meeting these four principles and the sections within.