On February 18, 2015, the United States Access Board published Proposed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards and Guidelines – the long-awaited update to U.S. Federal Government’s “Section 508″ requirements for electronic document and website accessibility. The proposed new regulations are expected to be implemented in the near future.
The new 508 will require compliance with WCAG 2.0 and PDF/UA:
- The latest World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines; and
- The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard 14289, Portable Document Format Universal Accessibility.
This is a historic leap forward for electronic document accessibility! Consistent application of WCAG 2.0 and PDF/UA is the way to optimize the reading experience of electronic documents for the widest possible audience.
The PDF Association provides an excellent summary of the new 508 rules in PDF/UA featured in the 2015 Section 508 Refresh.
