Looking for a Section 508 compliant HTML5/javascript Framework (UI Controls)

Hello,
I was taking a look at Kendo UI, but it appears to not be fully Section 508 compliant. Does anybody know of any UI frameworks that are?

Thanks!

I don’t know of a framework that works to an American law section, however jQuery’s UI set have integrated aria-roles for many of the widgets, which really helps for some basic widgets like sliders, tabs and expanding menus.

Wish 508 would update to WCAG2…

I’ll spread your question around, might be something with eye on American law.

I would say there is no JavaScript framework that is 508 compliant out of the box. This is due to the fact you can make the same thing happen, but write it 5 different ways. As Poes said, jQuery’s UI framework integrates a lot of the accessibility stuff in. Kendo may as well, but I never evaluated it.

Section 508 is all about the UI, not the back end, so if you want to spend 10 lines of JS to make a text box with some words next to it, go ahead. All 508 cares about is that you have a label corresponding with the text box, and navigate to it via the keyboard. But I am assuming you want to do more fancy stuff. Since you are discussing fairly heavy-duty scripting, a lot of agencies will say you should check the output (or application) against the software standards as well. If you are familiar with the Standards, you should be complying with 1194.21, .22, .31, and .41. If you are working with an agency currently, speak to either the Section 508 Coordinator or their designee (many agencies have a help desk) to see how they test web apps/heavily scripted pages. If you are not working with an agency, but want to market your product to the US Federal Government, test your product against the standards I outlined. Also, it would be good to create a VPAT for your product.

Thanks for the input guys! Here’s a reply I ended up receiving from one of the guys at Kendo UI

[I][FONT=Century Gothic]"… To paraphrase my colleague, the reason that Kendo UI doesn’t claim 508 compliance today is because 508 is based on the WCAG 1.0 specification, which is out-of-date and has been subsumed by the WCAG 2.0 specification, to which we are compliant. There’s talk of Section 508 being updated/amended to reflect the need for WCAG 2.0 support, but since this has not yet been done, we can’t actually claim full, certified support of it.

Essentially, because we target the latest WCAG standard, we are “spiritually compliant” with Section 508."[/FONT][/I]

That is an interesting reply from KendoUI. Their claim is partially correct, but also incorrect.

  • YES. The current Section 508 Standards follow the guidelines in WCAG 1.0 for the most part.
  • YES. Section 508 is being updated to adopt WCAG 2.0 versus mimicking it.
  • NO. You cannot faithfully say X is WCAG 2.0 compliant therefore WCAG 1.0 compliant therefore Section 508 compliant.
  • YES. You can test against each set of standards (508) and guidelines (Wcag) individually and claim compliance of all.

Section 508 has been being worked on to adopt fully or use as a baseline since 2006. I attended a presentation by a very reliable source; TL;DR: Depending on how fast OMB moves, Section 508 will be updated by 2015. I cannot comment how fast agencies will make the switch thereafter. The Federal CIO council is making resources in light of quicker adoption. That being said, some Section 508 Coordinators are accepting stuff that are labeled WCAG 2.0.

You didn’t specify the scope of this project, which is very important.

  • if you are building this in hopes to market to the government (Software as a Service), I would say sure use it, but test it against the Standards I mentioned in my other reply, and document, document, document!
  • If you are currently working for an agency under a contract. Please speak with the agency’s Section 508 Coordinator, or designee for consideration prior to use. Include the statement from KendUI