Section 508 Compliance - Have You Been Sued Yet?
Have you been sued yet? Well Target.com has, and if you are even somewhat concerned about your site then you need to understand section 508 compliance.
“Section 508 refers to a statutory section in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (found at 29 U.S.C. 794d). Congress significantly strengthened section 508 in the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Its primary purpose is to provide access to and use of Federal executive agencies’ electronic and information technology (EIT) by individuals with disabilities.”
The issue mainly boils down to the use of alt text on images which are used to describe what that image or link is about. The reason for using these are so that visually impaired individuals can navigate and use Websites by utilizing programs called screen readers that will read the alt text out loud to them. Essentially the screen reading programs vocalize what is on a site. I also feel that one needs to use hyperlink title tags on all text links on a site, this is the equivalent of image alt text, so that screen readers can tell users where text links go.
This is a pretty big deal considering the lawsuit that Target is going through, but this is by no means new news. Savvy SEO professionals have been using alt text and hyper link title tags for years! The reason is that it is yet another place to add your targeted keywords in the code. I have even seen the mention of section 508 compliance seal the deal on very large and competitive SEO pitches to fortune 500 companies. You really get the two fold benefit of making sure that your site is compliant and also getting to slip your keywords into the page a few more times.