Section 508 Compliant Spam
May 26th, 2006
My new employment in mostly working on websites, with varying degrees of standards compliance. XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS 2.1 are the norm.
Then, there are the “E-mail Solicitations”. Spam. Spam for governmental institutions. That must work in everything from Netscape Composer to Google Mail to a Palm Pilot.
Tech Requirements:
- HTML 4.01 Transitional is the norm.
- CSS 1 is OK. This means most text styling works, but most positioning does not.
- All CSS must be inline. Everything outside and inclusive of the >body< tag may be stripped.
- Tables for layout are expected for anything with complexity.
- 508: All images have alt attributes. All Alt atributes must describe what is in the picture, esp. text.
- 508: All objects - text or graphics - will be interpreted the same way when read sequentially.
So here is my testing list:
- Program in Firefox 1.5 with Web Developer Toolbar installed.
- Test in IE 6
- Test in Netscape 7.2
- Validate HTML with Developer Toolbar >> Tools >> Validate Local HTML
- Check ALT attributes with Developer Toolbar >> Images >> Replace images with Alt Attributes
- Check without CSS with Developer Toolbar >> CSS >> Disable Styles >> All Styles
- Table breakout with Developer Toolbar >> Miscellaneous >> Linerize Page
(refresh) - Small Screens with Developer Toolbar >> Miscellaneous >> Small Screen Rendering
- Test in IE 6
Repeat cycle as needed.
Also, if I were developing outside of a firewall, Developer Toolbar >> Tools >> Validate Section 508would be helpful. However, I can’t usually access this tool. It does give some very good discriptions of requirements - and a automated check can’t pick up everything a person can.
-Sud.
Posted in XHTML |