Asp.Net and Accessablity
I'm working on a brand new project for a state government agency that we are going to be using Asp.Net MVC3 as our framework.
My question is I cannot find any guidance on how to make our web app Section 508 (and similar accessibly requirements). This is my first project where this is a requirment. So to implement this do I - For example -
- Is MVC3 compliant out of the box just by adding some properties?
- Extend the standard controls for this functionality?
- Write my own controls?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. We don't really care about how this is implemented as long as it is clean in our Razor view.
Section 508 compliance doesn't have so much to do with the technology as it does the implementation of that technology. If you look at the guidelines, they're (for the most part) implementation details:
- Having alt tags for images
- Captioning audio presentations
- Verifying that information is displayed with cues beyond just color
- Documents readable without a stylesheet
- Having row and column headers for your tables
- Frames (if you're really still using them) must be titled and labelled
- Don't add any content that flashes or flickers
- When using javascript have descriptive information that identifiers to the user what is happening
The rules go on a bit more, but you get the gist of it. It's not in the technology, it's in the implementation details. You can do all of these things with standard HTML (captioning videos may be a bit trickier)
One other thing I can recommend: The Web Developer toolbar for Firefox (and I'm guessing the Chrome version as well) has a 508 validator option built right in. It will get your up and running on what the reqs really are.
