Everyone who works with USA companies knows about Section 508. But what is it, anyway?

This is a special set of rules and recommendations, based on which developers of diverse software should create such a product that people with disabilities would have access to.

This document contains many important rules and practices for the development of information products. However, in this article, we will look at the basic things that must be observed when creating and testing desktop programs (regarding this section).

Section 508

Criteria 1194.21 Software Application and Operating Systems

Software must have keyboard operability.

What should be considered when testing such a product? Every control is available via keyboard, tab order is logical (top-down and left-to-right).

Software shouldn’t block the functioning of additional features that were activated by other programs.

This recommendation assumes that, for example, a running screen reader recognizes and reads the name of all controls of the software. Of course, you cannot choose the logic of interaction with all available programs of this kind, but you need to focus at least on the main ones. For comparison, you can use the following link – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screen_readers.

An application should apply the OS setting for the correct display of the controls’ color and font size.

What should web testing companies consider while testing such software? If a user manually edits the system settings for the color scheme and font sizes, the software should remain in the most readable form. It should not contain invisible fields, all controls should be displayed in the same color scheme, and their text should be visible.

The color used must not be represented as a control identifier.

It is strictly forbidden to use different color diagrams without additional textual explanation.

In Conclusion

This is only a small part of all the things that should be covered in the process of testing software that must meet the criteria of Section 508. Using this document not only reduces the time and money spent on testing but also greatly facilitates the work of the development department.

It is recommended to create a personalized test case template for each item from Section 508. In the future, it can be used by all testers to develop original test cases for diverse functionality.