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JSngry

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Re: ADA-508 B-)

Within section 508 of the ADA there is a portion of the law that covers web design. It is this portion of the law that could directly effect how a web design business will operate. In many businesses the main customer is a federal agency or a school system or maybe a state agency that receives federal funds. In all of these situations and many more the business that sells web content must comply with ADA 508 guidelines.  

    In the web design world we really don’t give much thought to those web users who are partially sighted or blind. It is this audience that that the law is designed to help. Most computers have the ability to read a web page to an unsighted user. This ability is part of the operating system in the form of a utility called Narrator. There are other software products that do this same thing that have other features to make the experience easier for the user. It is this software that the designer of the web page must take into consideration when designing the web. There are some design techniques that page reader software has serious problems with and these techniques should be avoided. 

    A simple example of how a page reader could be helped to do its job is the use of the alt attribute to add text for the reader to read when using images. Images are the part of the web that adds excitement and interest to the page. The image for the sighted user is self-explanatory. For the unsighted web user the image is only as interesting as the alt attribute text that was added by a knowledgeable web designer. This is just one simple example of changes that need to be incorporated into the design of a web for it to be in compliance with ADA 508. 

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