Making Accessibility a Priority: Understanding Section 508, FMP’s Accessibility Evolution, and Must-Have Checklists for Accessible Documents

What Is Section 508 and Why Is It Important?

As of July 2024, the CDC estimates that more than 28% of adults in the United States have some type of disability. The United States Federal Government has passed several laws relating to disability policy, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Sections 501, 503, 504, 505, and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

In this blog, we will focus on Section 508. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (or “Section 508”) applies to all federal agencies and states that they must ensure that electronic and information technology “is accessible to employees and members of the public with disabilities.”  

Even without the requirements of Section 508, there is a great business case for digital accessibility, which can benefit everyone. Digital accessibility tools, such as closed captioning and voice control, provide universal benefits beyond their original purpose of assisting people with disabilities. For example, closed captioning is used by many with no hearing disability in noisy places or when they can’t use their speakers. Likewise, voice control on mobile devices was designed for people with physical impairments but is useful for everyone, like when driving and needing hands-free operation.

FMP’s Accessibility Journey

FMP strives to create a culture of inclusion and belonging; ensuring that all employees can access content and fully participate in projects is critical to that goal. We also want to make sure that our deliverables are fully accessible to our clients, especially when some of them are shared across the Federal Government and with the public.

Ensuring all products are accessible requires specialized skill sets. In 2020, two FMP employees completed extensive training and achieved their DHS Trusted Tester certification, allowing them to test websites and eLearning courses for Section 508 compliance. FMP next moved our focus to document accessibility (e.g., MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Adobe PDF). While some of our colleagues had on-the-job training and experience making documents accessible, FMP wanted to ensure that we understood all the best practices to not only meet the requirements for Section 508 but to ensure that all deliverables were fully accessible. In late 2022, the two of us (Amanda and Kayla, the authors of this blog) completed training and took the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) IAccessible Document Specialist (ADS) certification exam. We both have been IAAP ADS certified since January 2023. Additionally, our team has grown to welcome another employee who has the DHS Truster Tester certification as well as the IAAP Web Accessibility Specialist (WAS) certification.

With a cohort of employees trained in accessibility, we turned our focus to educating the rest of FMP on accessibility best practices. In 2023, we created an eLearning course titled “Accessibility 101: Accessibility Basics at FMP” that all employees completed, and new employees complete upon hire. The course discusses many topics, including “What is Disability?”, “What is Accessibility”, and “Assistive Technology”. The final lesson, “Accessibility at FMP,” talks about the intrinsic behaviors and mindsets we expect our employees to cultivate and provides basic tips for making meetings and deliverables accessible. Additionally, we developed a Section 508 Resources and Tools page on our internal SharePoint site that provides links to trainings on making deliverables accessible, tools to test for accessibility (e.g., screen readers and color contrast checkers), and links to general information about accessibility.

While automated tools and accessibility checkers have come a long way, delivering fully accessible content still involves manual steps that require specialized knowledge that we can’t expect all staff to possess. Therefore, in early 2024, FMP launched an internal Accessibility/508 Shared Service. The shared service model allows anyone within the company to submit a shared service request for accessibility/Section 508 support on their project.

The staff who are part of the shared service offer consultations with project teams at the beginning of projects to help them understand, scope, and plan for any Section 508 requirements; provide reviews of draft deliverables and feedback to enhance accessibility; and complete full remediation of documents to ensure they are Section 508 compliant. Our shared service also offers accessibility consulting and customized training, both to FMP staff and to our client teams. We’ve delivered live training sessions on color contrast, creating accessible Word documents, and creating accessible PowerPoint presentations.

Accessibility Resources

Finally, our shared service is continually developing resources to empower staff who don’t necessarily have a specialized Section 508 skillset to make their own Section 508-compliant materials. We recently released a series of checklists that staff can use to get their deliverables 90% of the way to accessible, only calling on the Accessibility/508 Shared Service for a final review. We also have created a detailed guidebook for employees, which explains several common accessibility best practices.

FMP is dedicated to promoting accessible practices across our industry, so we are sharing these checklists below to make Section 508 compliance a little less intimidating. The checklists incorporate both Section 508 requirements and general accessibility best practices that you can integrate into your workflow.

• Checklist for Microsoft Word documents
• Checklist for Microsoft Word documents preparing to become a PDF
• Checklist for Microsoft PowerPoint presentations
• Checklist for Microsoft PowerPoint presentations preparing to become a PDF

Do you have any accessibility or Section 508 needs or questions? Would you like to schedule a customized training session for your team? Our accessibility/Section 508 specialists would love to provide support. You can contact us any time at [email protected].

Amanda Palla is one of less than 200 certified IAAP Accessible Document Specialists worldwide. She also leads FMP’s Learning and Development Center of Excellence. Amanda loves to combine these two skillsets to design and deliver training and resources on accessibility and Section 508 compliance. She resides in Orlando, FL with her husband and two children.

Kayla Reid is also one of less than 200 certified IAAP Accessible Document Specialists worldwide. She loves finding creative solutions to document accessibility and sharing this information through bespoke training sessions. Outside of the office, you’ll find Kayla working on her latest DIY project or gardening.