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Federal Regulations

• Per the direction of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Memorandum 99-18) and OMB Memorandum 03-22 all USAID-funded web sites must contain a Privacy Policy. For the specific requirements and a sample statement, please see the USAID Policy Notice (ADS Series 500, Interim Update #24), available here in Adobe Acrobat format.
• The Privacy Policy of any USAID-funded standalone web site must be translated into a machine-readable format. See ou Privacy Policy Guidance for information on how to implement this.
• Cookies and other similar technologies are prohibited on USAID-funded web sites, also per the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Memorandum M-00-13).
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that USAID-funded web sites are accessible to users with disabilities. Please view these mandatory standards here.
• Contractors are not allowed to advertise their participation in the creation of a web presence on the USAID site. No symbols or attribution will be allowed. For example, if XYZ Corporation created a site, there will be no links to XYZ on the page, no references such as "This page was authored by XYZ Corp.", and no logo. The following is an excerpt from the Joint Committee on Printing, Government Printing and Binding Regulations:

Title III: General Provisions

13. Advertisements, Commercial_No Government publication or Government printed matter, prepared or produced with either appropriated or non-appropriated funds or identified with an activity of the Government, shall contain any advertisement inserted by or for any private individual, firm, or corporation; or contain material which implies in any manner that the Government endorses or favors any specific commercial product, commodity, or service.

The Committee is of the opinion that commercial advertising is not a proper or authorized function of the Government. Such advertisements are unfair to those who do not so advertise in that, whether intentionally or not, they are frequently made to appear to have the sanction of the Government. Furthermore, the publication of such advertisements is unjust to the public in that the advertisers profit thereby at the expense of the Government, particularly as a considerable number of the publications are circulated free, at least in part, under Government frank. Advertising in Government publications is also unfair to the publishers of other periodicals in that they generally cannot meet such competition, owing to the great advantage possessed by a Government publication. Another reason for objecting is that advertisers are apt to use Government periodicals for the purpose of currying favor with the officers issuing the same or the special class among whom such publications are circulated. This is a temptation that the Government ought not to encourage.

Government Printing & Binding Regulations
Published by the Joint Committee on Printing
Congress of the United States February 1990

Section 508

In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology for people with disabilities. The law applies to all federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others.

Before reading these federal requirements, it may be helpful to read "Disabilities and internet use".

Listed below are the Section 508 guidelines as they apply to web-based intranet and internet applications. Additionally the Federal Requirements contain a section on video and multimedia products (§ 1194.14). The mandates themselves are vague, so we attempted to elaborate on some of the items, please see the italicized sections below each item for additional information.

For addittional information on web accessibility, please read The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. These guidelines, developed by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities.

Section 1194.22 Web-based intranet and internet information and applications

1. A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content).

Non-text elements such as photographs, icons and other graphics need to contain a text description. Also, this provision requires that when an image is used to represent page content, the image must have a text description accompanying it that explains the meaning of the image. Commonly, the "ALT" attribute is used to provide a text description of a non-text element. An example HTML source code example is <img src="usaid.gif" alt="USAID Logo">.

2. Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.

Multimedia files that include videos, audio and flash need to provide alternate text. This can be accomplished by providing synchronized captions. Synchronized captioning allows someone to read the captions or watch the speaker and associate relevant body language with the speech. Text-based transcripts are an acceptable alternative for audio presentations but should not be used as an alternative for multimedia presentations that contain audio and video.

3. Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.

This provision means that when color is used to emphasize important information you should also use some type of non-color indicator, such as an asterisk (*) or other symbol. Also, when designing a page, remember to use colors that provide good contrast. A good way to test for good contrast is to print a test page on a black and white printer.

4. Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.

The safest and most useful form of style sheets is to use "external" style sheets, in which the style rules are set up in a separate file as opposed to using internal style codes. Some users may set up their own user-defined style sheets to be able to view pages and to compensate for their disabilities. Style sheets are typically used for color,indentation and other presentation effects. When a page that utilizes a style sheet is turned off, it should still be readable and understandable. If information is missing or information is confusing, then the style sheet should be updated.

5. Redundant text links shall be provided for each active regions of a server-side map.

You should be able to accomplish most of your image maps on the client-side; however, if a server-side image map is used you must provide separate text links outside of the server-side image map that allows the same access to the image map hotspots.

6. 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.

This provision suggests that you should not use a server-side image map if a client side image map will suffice. Also, remember to use the "alt" attribute to describe all non-text elements.

7. Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.

Data tables must have the column and row headers properly identified, using the <th> tag

8. 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.

Table cells should be associated with the appropriate headers, i.e with the use of "scope" or "id" tag. See Creating Accessible tables for more information

9. Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.

Note: USAID has an existing policy against the use of frames which subsumes this requirement.

10. Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

Some graphics or video presentations can flicker at very high rates (an example may be a banner ad that is trying to get your attention) and can induce optical seizures in some individuals with photosensitive epilepsy.

11. 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.

If, for some reason, you cannot make your site content accessible, you must provide a text-only version. The text-only version should be the functional equivalent of the "main" version and should be updated with the "main" version. This means you must provide text equivalents for any component that is not accessible in the "main" site.

12. 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.

When scripts, such as javascript, are used on a page it must be able to be detected by a browser with assistive technology. Providing keyboard accessibility is a good measure of this. Also, information within the scripts should be text-based, if they are not, then a text alternative should be supplied.

13. 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).

The Adobe Acrobat reader is an example of a typical plug-in. If you provide PDF files on your site, then you must provide a link so that the Acrobat Reader can be downloaded.

Note: USAID has an existing policy against the use of applets which partially subsume this requirement. Content providers for the USAID site should provide links to Adobe Reader at http://www.adobe.com/readstep.html on all pages that have links to PDF files. According to the comments about this section of the regulations, "This provision places a responsibility on the web page author to know that a compliant application exists, before requiring a plug-in." In addition, content providers should provide descriptive text and file size of any downloadable documents that indicates the format of the document and approximate download time. This will allow the user to ensure that it is a format type they will be able to open once downloaded and that the download will not tie-up their machine for an unacceptable period of time.

14. 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

Note: In conjunction with this requirement, USAID will start to require that when a web page contains dropdown boxes, radio buttons, checkboxes or similar functionality coded in HTML, the author of the page provide the following text alerting the user of those features. It has been found that various screen readers and browsers interpret these features differently. In order to alert the user that these features are on the page, the following text should be provided:

"This page contains [dropdown boxes, radio buttons, checkboxes] which may be ignored by some forms of web browsing technology. In these cases, this information can be accessed by using the keyboard instead of the mouse (i.e.: Tab key, Enter key, Arrow keys, Spacebar, etc.)."

USAID Developers should not use select options that will automatically send a user to a page upon selection. Provide the user with a "submit" button that will allow them to confirm a selection once made.

15. A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.

The USAID site currently provides a method to skip the top navigation bar using white text above the links. Content providers should consider using a second option to skip redundant or repetitive left-hand navigation that will allow users to skip over the links in the left-hand navigation to the content of the page on the right. See "Skipping Repetitive Navigation" for more information.

16. When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.
The user should not be required to act quickly, within a restricted time period. Alerting a user via a prompt box is an acceptable alternative as opposed to a timeout or page expiration.

Section 1194.14 Video and Multimedia Products

3. All training and multimedia productions which support the agency’s mission, regardless of format, that contain speech or other audio information necessary for the comprehension of the content shall be open or closed captioned.
4. All training and informational video and multimedia productions which support the agency’s mission, regardless of format, that contain visual information necessary for the comprehension of the content, shall be audio described.
5. Display or presentation of alternate text presentation or audio descriptions shall be user-selectable unless permanent.

This will affect any multimedia that is posted to the USAID web site from this point forward. The intent of the regulation is to provide simultaneous access to whatever alternate mode the user requires. For example, when a deaf user is watching a video, that user should have access to simultaneous captions rather than a script that exists on another page.

Helpful Hints and other information

1. Currently the tag "longdesc" is not fully browser supported, use the "alt" tag instead.
2. Text-only and accessible are not synonymous terms. Text-only sites are not always helpful to those with
3. At this time, many elements of client-side scripting, such as JavaScript, cannot be made directly accessible to assistive technologies and keyboards. An example is the use of the "onMouseOver" command. If the scripted event reveals important information, then some type of keyboard alternative is required.
4. At this time, it is recommended that HTML versions of PDF files be included as an alternative. Acrobat reader 5.0 allows screen readers to access PDF documents; however, Not all users have this version installed. Also, some PDF documents may not be text-based.
5. PowerPoint files are not currently directly accessible unless the user has a full version of the PowerPoint program. It is recommended that an accessible HTML version be provided as well.

Section 508 Links

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