Choosing the Right 508 Scanning and Test Tool for Accessibility Compliance

Ensuring digital content is accessible to everyone, including individuals with disabilities, is not just a matter of ethics—it’s a legal requirement under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. As organizations increasingly rely on digital platforms, the need for robust and reliable 508 Scanning And Test Tools becomes paramount. These tools are essential for validating conformance to the Revised 508 Standards, helping agencies and businesses create inclusive and compliant digital experiences.

Understanding Automated 508 Compliance Testing

Automated testing offers a vital first line of defense in the quest for 508 compliance. 508 scanning and test tools can rapidly analyze large volumes of digital content, identifying potential accessibility barriers. However, it’s crucial to recognize the strengths and limitations of these automated solutions.

Balancing Speed and Accuracy: While automated tools excel at quickly scanning for technical accessibility issues, they cannot replicate human judgment. This can lead to either a high number of false positives (incorrectly flagged issues) or, if configured too narrowly, miss subtle but critical accessibility violations. When selecting a 508 scanning tool, inquire about the vendor’s methodology for rule sets and their accuracy in aligning with your organization’s specific accessibility standards and expectations. Understanding this balance is key to effective implementation.
Accessibility Behind Barriers: Consider how server-based 508 scanning tools will access content protected by firewalls, passwords, or other security measures. Tools may require specific configurations or exceptions to effectively scan internal or secured content, impacting the comprehensiveness of your compliance checks.
Native Format Testing: Opt for tools that test documents in their native formats (e.g., Word, PDF, Excel, HTML) rather than converting them to HTML first. Conversion can reduce the accuracy of the testing process, potentially overlooking format-specific accessibility issues. Accurate 508 testing relies on analyzing the document’s true structure and properties.
Multi-Format Support and Reporting: Your organization likely uses diverse content types. You may need multiple 508 scanning and test tools to cover HTML, PDFs, Microsoft Office documents, and other formats. The challenge then becomes aggregating results from different tools into a unified view. Look for tools that offer robust reporting and data extraction capabilities to help identify trends and prioritize remediation efforts efficiently. Effective reporting is essential for demonstrating progress and guiding accessibility improvements.
Tool Adoption and Integration: The success of any 508 scanning and test tool hinges on its adoption across relevant teams, including UX designers and developers. The chosen tool should be user-friendly, provide clear guidance, and integrate seamlessly into existing workflows. Fostering buy-in across your organization is a critical success factor for achieving meaningful accessibility improvements.

Key Technical Requirements for 508 Scanning Tools

When evaluating 508 scanning and test tools, consider these crucial technical capabilities:

Content Type and Volume Handling: Ensure the tool can scan the variety and volume of electronic content your agency produces. Many tools specialize in web pages, but comprehensive 508 compliance requires support for PDFs and Microsoft Office documents as well.
Customizable Rulesets: The ability to customize scanning and test rule parameters is vital. Agencies may have unique interpretations of standards or specific compliance needs. A flexible 508 scanning tool allows for tailoring rulesets to match these requirements.
Centralized Ruleset Management: For consistency across an organization, the tool should allow for a centralized, custom ruleset. This ensures that all scans use the same standards, regardless of who is running the test.
Version Control: Centralized administration should include version control for rulesets. This enables consistent application of rules and simplifies updates across the organization, maintaining reliable 508 testing protocols.
Local PC Scanning: The tool should support scanning code on local machines. This is crucial for designers and developers in unit-testing environments, allowing for early detection of accessibility issues before content is deployed.
Synchronized Remediation Guidance: Consistent error and remediation messages are essential. The tool should control and synchronize these messages for customized rules, ensuring clear and uniform guidance for resolving accessibility issues identified by the 508 scanning tool.
False Positive Management: A robust tool should effectively flag and manage false positives, preventing them from reappearing in subsequent tests. This minimizes noise and allows teams to focus on genuine accessibility barriers.
Issue Categorization: Effective 508 scanning tools categorize issues by type, frequency, and severity. This prioritization helps teams focus on the most impactful accessibility improvements first.
Scan Configuration and Scheduling: Look for features to configure, schedule, suspend, and restart scans. Control over scan rates and the ability to manage in-process scans provides flexibility and efficiency in testing workflows.
Full Ruleset Customization: Complete customization of evaluation rule sets is necessary to address inaccurate interpretations of requirements or to reduce false positives. This fine-tuning is critical for maximizing the effectiveness of the 508 testing process.
Content Exclusion: The tool should support exclusion of specific domains, URL trees, pages, or even sets of lines of code. This is helpful for focusing scans on relevant content and excluding areas known to be compliant or out of scope.
Browser Emulation: The ability to emulate multiple browsers during scans ensures compatibility and accessibility across different user agents, providing a more comprehensive 508 compliance assessment.
Contextual Remediation Guidance: Effective tools provide remediation guidance that is contextually relevant to the identified error. This helps users understand not just what the problem is, but how to fix it, streamlining the remediation process.
Customizable Reporting: Reporting should be customizable to suit different audiences, from developers to executive managers. Summary and detailed reports should monitor conformance, analyze trends, and export data to external reporting tools.
Code Location Identification: The tool must direct users to the specific code location generating errors and provide contextually relevant remediation guidance directly within the code, accelerating the debugging and fixing process.
DevOps Integration: For seamless integration into development workflows, the 508 scanning and test tool should integrate with test automation environments (DevOps). This allows for automated accessibility checks throughout the development lifecycle.
Accessible Output: Paradoxically, the 508 scanning tool itself must produce accessible system and report outputs, ensuring that the tools used for accessibility are themselves accessible to all users.

Essential Support Services for 508 Test Tools

Beyond the technical features of 508 scanning and test tools, consider the support services offered by vendors:

Installation, Configuration, and Customization: Support for initial setup, including ruleset customization, scan configuration, and report setup, is crucial for a smooth implementation.
Integration Services: Assistance with integrating 508 test tools into existing test automation environments is vital for efficient workflows.
Training: Comprehensive online self-paced training for various roles (web content managers, developers, QA testers, project managers, and tool administrators) ensures effective tool utilization across the organization.
Ongoing Support and Maintenance: Operations and maintenance support, including ongoing configuration, customization, and updates, are essential for long-term tool effectiveness and staying current with evolving accessibility standards.

Validating Rulesets for Accurate 508 Testing

Validating rulesets in 508 scanning and test tools is a critical step in ensuring accurate and reliable results. A ruleset defines the criteria against which content is evaluated for accessibility conformance. Validation ensures the tool accurately reflects your agency’s 508 testing methodology, reduces irrelevant errors, and minimizes false positives and negatives.

Follow these steps to validate rulesets:

Assess Predefined Rulesets: Determine if the tool offers separate rulesets for different content types (web pages, applications, Office documents, PDFs). Different technologies require specific rules for comprehensive 508 compliance testing.
WCAG and Section 508 Alignment: Look for predefined settings indicating “WCAG 2.0 Level AA Success Criteria” or “Section 508.” These settings should ideally test all relevant WCAG Level A and AA criteria included in the Revised Section 508 requirements. Be aware that some tools may include tests beyond Section 508, such as WCAG 2.X or AAA, which may flag issues not strictly required for 508 compliance.
Review Tool Documentation: Thoroughly review vendor documentation to understand the purpose, scope, and applicability of each rule within the ruleset. Understand that some rules may not fully test a Success Criterion. For instance, a tool might check if alt text exists but not if it’s equivalent for meaningful images.
Explore Customization Options: Verify the tool allows ruleset customization – adding, modifying, or disabling rules. This flexibility is crucial for adapting the ruleset to agency-specific needs and refining 508 testing.
Assess Ruleset Reliability and Accuracy: Evaluate each ruleset for reliability, accuracy, and alignment with your agency’s testing methodologies.

a. Identify the Ruleset: (e.g., Section 508, WCAG 2.0 AA).
b. Identify Agency Testing Criteria: (e.g., Image testing).
c. Identify Tool Rules: Find all rules in the tool related to the agency criteria (e.g., rules for alt text and title attributes on images).
d. Select a Rule to Test: (e.g., the rule for alt text).
e. Create Test Cases: Develop or select test cases (code snippets) to assess the rule. These don’t need to be complex, but should clearly demonstrate pass, fail, and “not applicable” scenarios. Include various ways to pass and fail a test.
f. Document Test Cases: For each test case, document:
i. Ruleset name and version.
ii. Agency testing methodology/criteria.
iii. Rule name and version.
iv. Test case description and expected outcome (pass/fail/NA).
v. Test case code (or link).

Example Fail Test Case:
- Tool ruleset: WCAG 2.0 AA v 8.2
- Agency criteria: Images: Meaningful images need equivalent text descriptions.
- Rule name: ImgAlt_title_111 v8.2
- Fail case: Meaningful image missing alt text.
- Code: <img alt="" src="image.jpeg">
Example Pass Test Case:
- Tool ruleset: WCAG 2.0 AA v8.2
- Agency criteria: Images: Meaningful images need equivalent text descriptions.
- Rule name: ImgAlt_title_111 v8.2
- Pass case: Meaningful image with alt text.
- Code: <img alt="Description of image" src="image.jpeg">
g. Perform Tool Test: Run the selected 508 scanning tool against your test cases.
h. Compare Results: Compare the tool’s results to manual testing results, validated by accessibility experts. If the tool’s outcome aligns with the expected test case, the rule is likely valid for inclusion. Test against all pass, fail, and NA techniques before including a rule.

i. Handle Misaligned Outcomes: If the tool’s outcome doesn’t match the test case, flag the rule for disabling or customization to avoid false results.
Test Against Multiple Sites/Applications: After building an initial ruleset, test it against various sites or applications to identify false positives and negatives and refine rule detection accuracy.
Iterate and Refine: Repeat steps 5a-5h until you achieve a ruleset with acceptable accuracy for your environment, ensuring reliable 508 compliance validation.
Integrate into Development: Once reliable, integrate the ruleset into automated developer unit testing and relevant IT lifecycle activities for continuous 508 testing.
Evaluate Ruleset Coverage: Determine gaps in Section 508 requirements that the automated tool cannot test. These must be addressed through manual testing to achieve full compliance.
Regularly Review and Update: Continuously review and update the ruleset to align with evolving agency methodologies, technologies, and best practices. Stay informed about tool updates and changes to accessibility standards to maintain effective 508 scanning and testing.
Provide Training: Train your accessibility testing team and tool users on the tool’s rulesets and settings for effective and accurate use of the 508 scanning tool.
Document Rulesets: Create comprehensive documentation detailing the rulesets and settings used in your automated testing tool. Include instructions on usage, customization, and result interpretation.

Configuring Scans and Reports for Effective 508 Compliance Monitoring

Proper configuration of scans and reports is crucial for maximizing the value of 508 scanning and test tools.

Configure Scans:

Firewall Restrictions: Address any firewall restrictions that might prevent the tool from accessing all content.
Scan Depth: Define the scan depth to control how deeply the tool crawls and tests your website or application.
Results Aggregation: Determine how scan results should be aggregated for comprehensive reporting and analysis.
Server Capacity and Scan Time: Consider server capacity and the expected duration of scans, especially for large websites.
Scan Management: Establish procedures for aborting and restarting scans as needed.
Rule Exclusion: Utilize the ability to exclude rulesets that generate only warnings, if appropriate for your compliance goals.
Safe Harbor Provision: Configure the tool to identify content potentially subject to the safe harbor provision (legacy content not requiring updates to Revised 508 Standards).

Configure Reports:

Target Audiences: Tailor reports to different audiences (web managers, program managers, executives) with varying levels of detail.
Reporting Scope: Define the scope of reports to include issue descriptions, categories, impact, priority, solution recommendations, and code locations.
Reporting Format: Choose report formats that best suit your needs, such as single scan views, comparisons against previous scans, trend highlighting, and identification of significant changes.

Manual Testing: An Indispensable Complement to Automated Tools

While 508 scanning and test tools provide essential automated checks, manual testing remains indispensable. Follow established manual testing guidelines to thoroughly evaluate aspects of accessibility that automated tools cannot assess, such as usability, context, and the effectiveness of alternative text. Manual testing ensures a deeper level of 508 compliance.

Hybrid Testing: Combining Strengths for Comprehensive Accessibility

A hybrid approach, combining automated and manual testing, is often the most effective strategy for managing large volumes of digital content and achieving robust 508 compliance.

Accessibility in Development: Emphasize building accessibility directly into code during development to minimize issues later.
Prioritize Manual Testing: Whenever possible, conduct manual testing before publishing new content to catch and resolve complex accessibility issues proactively.
Automated Tools for Efficiency: Use standalone 508 scanning and test tools to quickly identify obvious errors and augment manual testing efforts, especially for large content repositories.
DevOps Integration for Scalability: Integrate automated rulesets into developer operations to scale 508 validation for applications before release, ensuring continuous accessibility checks.
Strategic Hybrid Approach: Employ automated scanning across as much content as possible, and periodically conduct focused manual testing on high-priority content, especially content with poor automated test results or high user traffic.

By strategically combining automated 508 scanning and test tools with manual testing methodologies, organizations can efficiently and effectively achieve and maintain Section 508 compliance, creating truly inclusive digital experiences for all users.

Related Resources

This guidance is informed by resources developed by the U.S. Federal Government Revised 508 Standards Transition Workgroup, including the U.S. Federal CIO Council Accessibility Community of Practice, the U.S. Access Board, and the General Services Administration.

Reviewed/Updated: September 2023