The Ultimate Guide For Effective 508 Testing from adacompliancepros's blog

What is 508 testing?

If you are part of the federal ecosystem of organizations or agencies, or you are doing business with one or more of these organizations, then your organization or business is required to comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. This compliance entails 508 testing of all information and communication technology (ICT) products or services that you create, procure, maintain, or use. But what is this testing, and how does it look in practice?

508 testing is a service that provides one-time or ongoing accessibility support to ensure the Section 508 accessibility requirements are integrated into an organization's or business’ ICT products and services. It actually gets the edge over its competitors by ensuring that its products or services are Section 508-compliant.

Making all ICT products and services accessible to everyone is the ultimate goal of Section 508 testing. Indeed, it is not just ethical to ensure products and services are accessible to everyone, but a smart business move as well.

Non-compliance with Section 508 can lead to heavy fines for the non-compliant entities, and even the private entities that do business with the federal organizations risk losing their contracts on account of non-compliance with 508. That is why 508 testing is very important.

But while planning your 508 compliance testing, you should consider the credibility of the 508 compliance certification that you get. Contracting a Section 508 compliance tester who is not experienced and certified might place the credibility of your 508 testing at stake. A good 508 compliance tester professionally takes your ICT products or services through every stage of the 508 testing, which effectively interrogates every aspect of the product or service in light of the Revised Section 508 Standards.

Here is how Section 508 compliance testing can effectively be delivered.

There are three ways in which 508 testing is delivered: the manual testing method, the automated testing method, and the hybrid testing method.

• Manual 508 testing method

Manual 508 compliance testing is usually conducted by a professional 508 compliance tester who audits the targeted ICT product or service’s features and technologies against the established accessibility standards.

Given that this approach to 508 compliance testing relies on manual efforts, it tends to be more time-consuming but can also provide you with invaluable qualitative results. You can use the data obtained to create a plan on how to resolve the accessibility issues established.

When conducting a manual Section 508 audit, the compliance tester checks your ICT product or service to establish if it meets the relevant accessibility requirements or standards.

For digital products like websites, testers may use assistive technologies like screen readers to ensure the content on the site can be interpreted by the assistive technologies. They then explore the user experience for users with various disabilities.

An experienced 508 compliance tester will examine the compatibility of an ICT product or service with the major disability categories, including physical disabilities, hearing disabilities, visual disabilities, and cognitive disabilities.

• Automated Section 508testing 

Automated testing involves incorporating automated accessibility checkers or tools to assess the state of a digital asset’s 508 compliance. The effectiveness of automated 508 testing is felt when it comes to its advantages of speed and reduced cost.

If you have big websites or websites that have large volumes of data, as in the case of platforms for online shopping, automated testing can effectively deliver quick and cost-effective 508 testing results.

• Hybrid 508testing 

A hybrid testing approach for Section 508 compliance integrates both the manual testing approach and the automated approach. This approach to Section 508 compliance testing is mostly effective when you want to have an idea about the accessibility issues that you should focus on when contracting the services of a manual 508 compliance tester.

The automated testing process helps to flag out the accessibility barriers that are rampant in the ICT product or service, which can be used when discussing with an accessibility consultant the areas to focus on when undertaking a manual audit as part of a time-saving and cost-management measure.

Need help determining the most effective 508 testing approach to adopt?

The manual, automatic, and hybrid 508 testing approaches have their own unique niche areas where their effectiveness is most pronounced. It required an accessibility professional who has worked with each of them under various circumstances to help you decide on the most effective approach for testing your product or service.

ADACP is always ready to offer assistance to businesses that need help deciding on the best testing method for their unique circumstances. You can reach them by calling (626) 486-2201 to arrange a free consultation. They can also provide you with a quick Section 508 compliance testing quote if you are in need of one.