Developer's Responsibility

The impact of Section 508 on you the software developer is primarily one of understanding software accessibility, and integrating the applicable provisions of Section 508 into your entire software development life cycle.

The technical provisions of Section 508 are a subset of the more general concept of software accessibility. Software accessibility is a more wide-ranging term and can mean different things to different people. The provisions of Section 508 provide a framework to use as real requirements to be applied across multiple projects.

As a developer, you have two methods to ensure your software conforms to Section 508. First, you can make the software compatible with assistive technology. Second, you can make the software product completely accessible without the aid of other assistive technology. You should make sure that whichever method you choose, your product does not interfere with adaptive equipment. For example, do not make your software product use a certain size font, which will not allow a piece of adaptive equipment such as a screen magnifier to efficiently increase the font size.

During development, if alternate implementation methods that provide equal accessibility to the technical and functional provisions of Section 508 are discovered, they are fully supported in the law. Section 508 focuses on the technical aspects of the software development lifecycle. The business requirements that are part of the software application do not need to be modified to conform to Section 508.

In this training course, you'll see specific coding examples for a few of the most commonly used software languages. For now, let's get a general view of how to make software accessible.

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