Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires federal agencies to give disabled employees and members of the public access to electronic and information technology that is comparable to the access available to others. Perceptive Software is dedicated to providing enterprise document management, imaging and workflow technology that is accessible to people with disabilities. The following Voluntary Product Assessment Template (VPAT) outlines in detail how ImageNow supports Section 508 criteria.
| Criteria | Supporting Features | Remarks and Explanations |
|---|---|---|
| (a) When software is designed to run on a system that has a keyboard, product functions shall be executable from a keyboard where the function itself or the result of performing a function can be discerned textually. | Supported through pre-defined quick keys, menu options and customizable quick keys. This covers the majority of the functionality, with minimal exceptions | Almost all of the ImageNow functionality that is used in daily tasks supports this requirement through defined quick keys and menu options. There are a few isolated areas of the application that do not meet this criteria. However, most of these isolated areas can be made compliant by using customizable quick keys that were introduced in the 6.1.2 release. Specific areas where this isn't yet supported are scheduled for updates in the next major release. |
| (b) Applications shall not disrupt or disable activated features of other products that are identified as accessibility features, where those features are developed and documented according to industry standards. Applications also shall not disrupt or disable activated features of any operating system that are identified as accessibility features where the application programming interface for those accessibility features has been documented by the manufacturer of the operating system and is available to the product developer. | Support | ImageNow maintains the functionality of accessibility features set outside of ImageNow via assistive technology products or through the operating system. ImageNow does not change the activation or functionality of any accessibility settings. |
| (c) A well-defined on-screen indication of the current focus shall be provided that moves among interactive interface elements as the input focus changes. The focus shall be programmatically exposed so that Assistive Technology can track focus and focus changes. | Support | Perceptive Software uses standard windowing focus techniques used by products running on Microsoft Windows to show the current focus for all windows and dialog boxes. We support this through our coding standards. However, we have not actively verified focus tracking through the actual use of assistive technology tools. |
| (d) Sufficient information about a user interface element including the identity, operation and state of the element shall be available to Assistive Technology. When an image represents a program element, the information conveyed by the image must also be available in text. | Support | Support All interface elements present text through tooltips and associated menu items. Buttons and icons that appear in the interface always display associated tooltips, presented as the selection tool hovers over the element. |
| (e) When bitmap images are used to identify controls, status indicators, or other programmatic elements, the meaning assigned to those images shall be consistent throughout an application's performance. | Support | Perceptive Software implements unique images to represent actions that are consistent to ImageNow. Images such as slidebars and status bars are familiar and consistent within software that runs in the Windows environment. |
| (f) Textual information shall be provided through operating system functions for displaying text. The minimum information that shall be made available is text content, text input caret location, and text attributes. | Support | All text provided in the ImageNow system, such as text size and appearance in windows, is configurable through the operating system. |
| (g) Applications shall not override user selected contrast and color selections and other individual display attributes. | Support | ImageNow registers the operating system settings and applies them without any overrides. |
| (h) When animation is displayed, the information shall be displayable in at least one non-animated presentation mode at the option of the user. | Support | Animation is turned on by default when the ImageNow system is installed. The use of animation can be turned off by the customer as needed. There is one feature that is animated that cannot be turned off (the message center marquee); however the user can hide this feature. |
| (i) Color coding shall not be used as the only means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element. | Support | Where color is used in the interface, it is not the only means of conveying an action. |
| (j) When a product permits a user to adjust color and contrast settings, a variety of color selections capable of producing a range of contrast levels shall be provided. | Support | Color for interface elements can be adjusted via the operating system, which is limited only by the capability of the user's hardware. |
| (k) Software shall not use flashing or blinking text, objects, or other elements having a flash or blink frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz. | Support | Perceptive Software does not implement blinking text, objects, or other elements within the specified frequency. |
| (l) When electronic forms are used, the form shall allow people using Assistive Technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues. | Support | Electronic forms are presented as worksheets and leverage standard HTML technology. However, worksheets are customizable. So, customers who build their own worksheets must write the code to run correctly with assistive technology |
| Criteria | Supporting Features | Remarks and Explanations |
|---|---|---|
| (a) A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content). | Supports with Exceptions | WebNow interface elements present text equivalents through tooltips, element content, or associated menu items, with the following exceptions: Message Center icon does not display alternate text. If the user changes the default settings of their browser to disable Java, the picture on the WebNow login page does not display alternative text. However, if Java is enabled in the browser, the picture does contain alternative text. These exceptions will be addressed in the next major release. |
| (b) Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation. | Not Applicable | WebNow does not contain multimedia presentations. In WebNow, color is used in the interface but is not the only means of conveying an action, with the following exception: If a user changes the default selection color for rows in the data grid to the same color as the grid background, the selected row may not be visually distinguishable from the rest of the grid. This exception will be addressed in the next major release. |
| (c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup. | Supports with Exception | In WebNow, color is used in the interface but is not the only means of conveying an action, with the following exception: If a user changes the default selection color for rows in the data grid to the same color as the grid background, the selected row may not be visually distinguishable from the rest of the grid. This exception will be addressed in the next major release. |
| (d) Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet. | Not Applicable | WebNow does not use stylesheets as the basis for interface settings. |
| e) Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map. | Not Applicable | WebNow does not use server-side image maps. |
| (f) Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape. | Not Applicable | WebNow does not use client-side image maps. |
| (g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables. | Supports with Equivalent Facilitation | WebNow displays column headers for each data table. The type of grid (for example, workflow) is the context that defines the row content. |
| (h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers. | Not Applicable | Data tables within WebNow only contain a single level of column headers. |
| (i) Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation | Supports | WebNow product help uses frames. These frames are titled by frame for navigation. |
| (j) Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz. | Supports | Perceptive Software does not implement blinking text, objects, or other elements within the specified frequency. |
| (k) A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes. | Not Applicable | WebNow is implemented as a Java applet so this criterion does not apply. |
| (l) When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by Assistive Technology. | Not Applicable | WebNow is implemented as a Java applet so this criterion does not apply. |
| (m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l). | Supports | WebNow uses the <OBJECT> tag in its HTML source to identify itself an as applet. |
| (n) When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using Assistive Technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues. | Supports | Electronic forms are presented as worksheets and leverage standard HTML technology. However, worksheets are customizable. So, customers who build their own worksheets must write the code to run correctly with assistive technology. |
| (o) A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links. | Supports through equivalent Facilitation | WebNow contains a set of menu-based buttons that facilitate the navigation of its embedded grids. In addition, a user can assign default actions to each button to optimize navigation. |
| (p) When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required | Not Applicable | WebNow does not contain any timed responses within its interface. |
Note: To 1194.22: The Access Board interprets paragraphs (a) through (k) of this section as consistent with the following priority 1 Checkpoints of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) (May 5 1999) published by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium: Paragraph (a) - 1.1, (b) - 1.4, (c) - 2.1, (d) - 6.1, (e) - 1.2, (f) - 9.1, (g) - 5.1, (h) - 5.2, (i) - 12.1, (j) - 7.1, (k) - 11.4.