WebSurvent surveys can be created to comply with disability accessibility standards.

These standards include using formatting that allows software interpreters to process html without confusion, such as proper use of table headers and data tags. These standards also include things like supplying alternate text with audio and visual content.

compliance guidelines

There are two major standards for accessibility compliance. The first is WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines). It is maintained by the same group that defines the html standards, the Web Accessibility Initiative.

You should also consider the U.S. government guidelines. If you meet these guidelines, your site is said to be Section 508 compliant. Meeting these guidelines also enables your survey to meet the requirements of most U.S. government contractors.

Validating Compliance

Instead of going through the checklists manually, the easiest way to check a page for compliance is to use a validator, such as Bobby. Simply enter the URL of your page, choose your desired compliance standard, and get a report about your page.

There are other tools available, some which run on windows and some which run on UNIX:

HTML-Kit for Windows

HTML Tidy for UNIX

 

Section 508 Checklist

Here are serveral selections from the U.S. goverment guidelines for handicap accessibility. Please see the U.S. Government guidelines for the most up to date guidelines

• A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt","longdesc", or in element content).
• Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.
• Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
• Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.
• Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.
• Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.
• Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.
• Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.