COBOL/CICS Development and Section 508

Using Extended Attributes

The current COBOL/CICS accessibility options include keyboard controls and colors. Let's take a look at each.

Keyboard Controls—Keyboard controls are implemented primarily to provide shortcuts for application functions. Navigation is controlled via the application and is generally straightforward (i.e. via the Tab key, normally navigation is from left to right and top to bottom of the screen).

Highlighting and Color—Intensity can be either normal or bright and colors can be blue, white, green, or red. With extended color, a developer can specify blue, red, pink, green, turquoise, yellow, or white for a field. In addition to intensity, extended highlighting provides three ways to highlight data (i.e. blinking, reverse video, and underlining). The extended color and highlighting options are included in the Common User Access (CUA) guidelines¹ for creating easy-to-use screens.

Although the use of the extended attributes can provide an application with additional features that conform to Section 508, extended attributes work only if the terminal accepts the extended attributes (which is not always the case). The developer must check the extent to which the current terminal accepts extended attributes.

¹ Common User Access SAA (System Application Architecture) specifications for user interfaces, including character-based formats of 3270 terminals. It is intended to provide a consistent look and feel across platforms and between applications.