HHS Home > Web Communications & New Media > Policies & Standards

Accessibility (508) Accommodation

Classification:

[x] Standard

Categories:

[x] Accessibility/508

Standard:

HHS allows the use of an accessibility accommodation with approval where the application of current Section 508 standards is not feasible, not helpful and/or not practical.

General categories and examples of content that may be appropriate for an Accessibility Accommodation (see the Guidance for interpretation) include:

Excel computational spread sheets containing program modules and macros developed to perform automated analysis or to draw in data sets from external or legacy databases.
Password-protected sites
Third-party licensed PDF documents from medical and scientific journals (and conference proceeding documents)(if no-cost accessible versions cannot be linked to elsewhere on the Web)
Multilingual PDF documents using non-Western characters
Complex images and PDF tables, including static images and those supported and detailed narratives
Complex math, physics, and chemical notations
Large or complex tables, given a waiver based on consideration of:
- Importance of the document
- Size and nature of intended audience
- Expectation that disabled persons would need access
- Complexity of the table
- Size of the table
Complex dynamic visualizations, including: medical diagnostic and research imaging technologies, 3d-models, CAD, virtual environments
Scanned written or poor quality historical publications/materials scanned to a digital archive
Archived legacy files.
Translated files (presented in a language other than English).

Rationale:

The use of an accommodation is not intended to relieve organizations of their responsibility of making electronic information accessible. An accommodation is a means of providing users with disabilities access to information in situations where the application of current Section 508 standards is not feasible, helpful or, in certain cases, practical. In these instances, an effective accommodation is an accessible statement that acknowledges an accessibility issue and offers assistance in helping to determine the needs of disabled users and working with them to respond to queries in a reasonable time frame, typically no longer than 48 hours.

Sources:

N/A

Exemptions:

N/A

Requirements (content & style):

Approval to use the accommodation provision may, based on formal guidance, be granted on a case-by-case or categorical basis by the OPDIV’s Section 508 Official. The granting of categorical accommodation waivers should not be delegated. All approvals must be submitted in advance to WCD, which has final right of approval.

The accommodations statement must appear:

In close proximity to any link to a non-accessible file.
At the front or the top of the non-accessible file itself (so as to be visible to visitors delivered directly to the file by a search engine).

Organizations that employ accommodation statements must have a mechanism in place to provide accommodation in a timely fashion, ideally within two business days. Accommodation mechanisms may include:

In-house response and/or
Contracted accommodation services

Organizations utilizing accommodations waivers must ensure that accommodation requests are processed quickly. Requests for accommodations should be reported to WCD for tracking purposes using the Accommodations Tracking Form at (URL TBA)

Organizations that abuse the accommodations provision or fail to provide adequate accommodation services will be prohibited from using accommodation statements.

Model Accommodations Statement:

Persons using assistive technology may not be able to fully access information in this file. For assistance, [provide contact means: may be email or a phone number].

Related Standards:

Related Guidelines:

Accessibility Accommodations Guidelines (PDF - 2.29MB)

Checklist:

Provide accommodation (with approval) for access to files or content that are not Section 508 compliant.