The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Customer Experience Directorate (CXD) has a mission to provide strategic direction, technical support, and training to ensure that agency employees and customers with disabilities have equal access to information and data. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 794d), requires that all federal departments and agencies ensure that their information and communications technology (ICT) is accessible to people with disabilities.
The following test processes are used by DHS to validate Section 508 conformance claims:
The ICT Testing Baseline was established by an accessibility subcommittee under the U.S. Federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council to provide a standard means to evaluate web-based electronic content for conformance to the Revised Section 508 Standards, which align with WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA Success Criteria.
The Baseline Tests:
- Provide a common set of unified tests to measure conformance to the Section 508 technical requirements for web based electronic content.
- Provide a foundation for establishing WCAG conformance test processes and to evaluate test processes and test tools for alignment.
DHS uses the Trusted Tester Conformance Test Process for Web to test web-based electronic content for conformance to the Revised Section 508 standards.
Learn more about Trusted Tester through these resources:
- Trusted Tester Overview
- Benefits, process, tools, reporting, training, and certification
- Trusted Tester Conformance Test Process (GitHub)
- Accessibility Compliance Reporting Tool (SCRT)
- This tool allows reporting of test results for web-based electronic content and generates an easy-to-read test report.
DHS does not currently offer a comprehensive test process to validate software for conformance against the Revised Section 508 standards. However, the previous version of the Trusted Tester Conformance Test Process, Version 4.0, supports partial test coverage. If you choose to use this test process, you will need to address test coverage gaps against the Revised 508 standards through additional test procedures.
- Trusted Tester Version 4 (TTv4)
- Trusted Tester Version 4 Conformance Test Process Checklist for Software Testing
- Trusted Tester Testing Tools
- Accessibility Compliance Reporting Tool (SCRT)
- This tool allows reporting of test results for web-based electronic content and generates an easy-to-read test report.
DHS follows rules for creating and fixing Microsoft Office and PDF documents that everyone can use. These rules come from the Accessible Electronic Documents Community of Practice (AED COP), a group of federal agencies that work together to develop accessibility standards for electronic documents. DHS leads this group and works directly with Microsoft and Adobe to create helpful guides for all users.
The guidance includes:
- Step-by-step instructions for creating accessible documents in Microsoft Office (versions 2010-2016) and Adobe Acrobat DC PDF
- Testing guides that help you check if your documents meet Revised Section 508 standards
- Technical guidelines that show how our testing matches both Section 508 standards and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0)
- Easy-to-follow testing checklists
- Training videos to help you learn the process.
To access the AED COP accessibility guidance, visit Accessibility Testing for Electronic Documents on GSA.gov.
DHS developed test processes for evaluating Section 508 compliance for iOS and Android applications, based largely upon Section 508’s Functional Performance Criteria (FPC). The test processes cover testing of “native” or “hybrid” apps. (Hybrid apps are native apps that integrate web content.) Web content designed for the browser should be tested using the DHS Section 508 Trusted Tester Process.
Please be mindful that the mobile testing process has not been updated since 2017. Although, there may have been platform-specific changes regarding access and use of accessibility features, the fundamentals of the test process have not changed.