Using This Site
Accessibility Page
Although the standards set up for websites under section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act are specific to federal sites, state and local sites are strongly encouraged to take the provisions of section 508 into consideration when developing their own sites. New Mexico Developmental Disabilities Supports Division (DDSD) has undergone steps in our development to incorporate these standards into this site to allow accessibility to the widest variety of web visitors and those with disabilities.

Section 508
These provisions of the standards provide the requirements that must be followed by federal agencies when producing web pages. These provisions apply unless doing so would impose an undue burden.

Many agencies have purchased assistive software to test their pages. This will produce a better understanding of how these devices interact with different coding techniques. However, it always should be kept in mind that assistive technologies, such as screen readers, are complex programs and take extensive experience to master. For this reason, a beginning user may obtain inaccurate results that can easily lead to frustration and belief that the page does not comply with the standards. For example, all screen reading programs use special key combinations to read properly coded tables. If the beginning user of assistive technology is not aware of these commands, the tables will never read correctly no matter how well the tables have been formatted.

A web site will be in compliance with the 508 standards if it meets paragraphs (a) through (p) of Section 1194.22. Please note that the tips and techniques discussed in the document for complying with particular sections are not necessarily the only ways of providing compliance with 508. In many cases, methods of 508 compliance are techniques developed by the 508 Standards Board, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice that have been tested by users with a wide variety of screen reader software. With the progress of technology, other techniques may become available or even preferable.

See http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm for more information.





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