Forum Discussion
CDC and 508 Accessibility
Hello,
We recently received the following message from the CDC:
Dear CDC Partners,
As federal grantees, you are aware of Section 508, an amendment to the United States Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which mandates that all electronic and information technology developed, procured, maintained, or used by the federal government be accessible to people with disabilities.
Many of you are developing e-learning courses. As you develop these courses, please be sure that you are using the CDC recommended software to make your courses 508 compliant. You can produce 508-compliant courses with both Lectora and Captivate software; however, Lectora software is most preferred. Due to compliance issues, Articulate should not be used to develop e-learning courses.
I have been sent to this page in the past: https://articulate.com/support/article/Articulate-Storyline-and-Section-508-Accessibility, but I'm curious why the CDC still won't recognize Storyline as an acceptable tool. Is this something that Articulate has discussed with a with the CDC? Any chance Storyline will ever make their list of acceptable authoring software for 508 compliance?
We are really hoping that we don't have to switch authoring tools.
16 Replies
I think we need some clarification on "Section 508". There is a composite that contains approximately 45 "guidelines" for 508 adherence (not necessarily compliance). Some federal agencies require total compliance/adherence to all of the guidelines while others are willing to accept what is called "Primary 508" which is about 15 of the guidelines. I believe that there are about 27 people across the federal agencies who act as the 508 watchdog team - they are the ones who may be more strict than say the training designers/developers who review all of our courses. So there are various reasons why one agency accepts a course while the same course may not be accepted in another agency. In terms of Captivate and Articulate tools, neither one adheres to the full 508 guidelines but does adhere to the "primary" guidelines. I offer this opinion so that we know the correct answers to ask federal agencies and to understand what their possible forthcoming answers will really mean. Some attachments.
