Understanding the different accessibility standards

You may have heard of WCAG and be confused when someone references AS EN 301 549 (EN301) or even Section 508.

The purpose of this blog post is to explain these and hopefully eliminate some confusion.

The Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were created and are governed by the World Wide Website Consortium (W3C). This is a global standard of accessibility success criteria for websites.

In Australia the Government has created the Australian ICT procurement standard AS EN 301 549 (EN301) which adhere to the Disability Discrimination Act. The standard is mostly based off WCAG and specifies the accessibility standards required for the public procurement of ICT products within Australia.

In the United States they us a similar model and have Section 508 which is another standard largely based on WCAG. Section 508 is a law that requires federal agencies and some federal contractors to make their websites accessible.

In summary there are multiple standards in existence across the globe however they all are aligned with the W3C's WCAG. Essentially if you are meeting and exceeding WCAG standards then you are not breaking Section 508 and your AS EN 301 549 is good too.

Still confused? Contact us and we will be happy to have a consultation with you to discuss your accessibility requirements.

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