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Accessibility at Fresno State

Accessibility Standards for Web

2017 Refresh of Section 508

The 2017 refresh of the Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 replaced  the existing standards used to determine conformance and in its place incorporated the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) - Level AA.

WCAG Guiding Principles

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are organized under four guiding principles:

  • Perceivable - Information and user interface components must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive. This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented (e.g. it can't be invisible to all of their senses.)

  • Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable. This means users must be able to operate the interface (e.g. the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.)

  • Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable. This means that users must be able to understand the information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding.)

  • Robust - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technology. This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (e.g. as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible.)

Source: Introduction to Understanding WCAG 2.0

WCAG Conformance Levels

Each WCAG success criteria is assigned one of three levels of conformance, with each level being defined by the impact non-conformance has for persons with disabilities:

  • Level A: Failure to satisfy this success criteria will have a high impact on most users and affect multiple disability groups

  • Level AA: Failure to satisfy this success criteria will have a high impact for some users and affect specific disability groups

  • Level AAA: Meeting these success criteria will improve access for specific users or groups