Doc-To-Help NetHelp (2.0 and Classic) and Mobile Help projects can be configured to be Section 508 compliant.
Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. To find out more about Section 508, and obtain information about guidelines, tools and other resources, see http://access-board.gov/508.htm.
Once you have set up your project to be Section 508 compliant, and provided alternative text where required (for example, images and tables), you should test your source documents and project with one of the third-party tools available for verifying accessibility.
To enable Section 508 compliance
1. Open the Help Targets dialog box (see Creating Help Targets).
2. Choose your NetHelp or Mobile Help project from the panel on the left.
3. In the Advanced section, go to the Accessibility mode field and choose Section 508.
The following features are enabled when the Accessibility mode is set to Section 508:
•All links generated by Doc-To-Help have title strings (indicating the link type) and appear as tooltips that are read by accessibility devices. The default title strings are: link, popup, expanding text, and dropdown text. These strings can be changed, see Customizing Themes with the Theme Designer.
•Icons in the table of contents have titles (their text equivalents) indicating whether the item is a book or a topic. When the Dynamic table of contents check box is selected in the Help Targets dialog box (NetHelp Targets only) and therefore the icon is a book, this title indicates whether it is open or closed. These strings can be changed, see Customizing Themes with the Theme Designer.
•Pop-up links become jump links to allow easier accessibility. For the same reason, margin notes and glossary term links, which usually appear as pop-up windows in normal mode, are not shown as pop-ups but as normal HTML pages in the main frame.
•Inline pop-up text is shown as inline (or expanding) text rather appearing in a pop-up box.
•When a user clicks a group or keyword link or a keyword in the index that has multiple destination topics, the destinations are shown in the main frame as a normal HTML page. By default, the heading of this page is “N Topics Found” where “N” is the number of topics associated with the group or keyword. The page heading can be changed, see Customizing Themes with the Theme Designer.
The following features are enabled, regardless of the Accessibility mode chosen:
•All links and buttons are accessible from the keyboard using the Tab key.
•When the Dynamic table of contents check box is selected and a NetHelp target is built, the user can expand and collapse books in the table of contents using the Num +/- buttons on the keyboard.
•Each frame of a NetHelp theme has a title string that can be read by accessibility devices. By default, the title strings match the frame titles. The default strings are: Topic navigation, Top topic navigation, Bottom topic navigation, Navigation panes, Topic text, Index lookup pane, Index list, Search lookup pane, and Search result list. These strings can be changed, see Customizing Themes with the Theme Designer (Accessibility properties).
Note: For more information about editing Themes, see Customizing Themes with the Theme Designer.
To create alternative text for images
In order for your project to be Section 508 compliant, all images in your source documents must have alternative text, which is a description that can be read by accessibility devices. In HTML source documents, set the appropriate image options for your editor (<img src> alt attribute). In .xml documents, you can specify this text in the Alternative Text field when inserting the image in the XHTML editor with the Picture Properties dialog box (for movies, the Alternative Text field in the Movie in Flash Format Properties dialog box). In Microsoft® Word source documents do the following:
1. Right-click on the image and select Format Picture from the menu. The Format Picture dialog box will open.
2. In Word 2003, click the Web tab and enter the text in the Alternative text text box. (In Word 2007/2010/2013, the tab is named Alt Text.)
3. Click OK.
Doc-To-Help will provide warnings in the build log if any images without alternative text are found in the Word source documents of your project. These warnings can be ignored if certain images do not need alternative text and will not interfere with accessibility. Doc-To-Help inserts an empty alternative text tag in the NetHelp target if text is not provided.
To create table captions and summaries
Tables must have a caption and summary specified in the HTML in order to be Section 508 compliant.
The caption is specified using the <caption> tag, which must appear within the <table> tag. It is displayed in the target and read by accessibility devices. Although Word displays the caption as normal text with no special formatting, Doc-To-Help places the <caption> tag inside the <table> tag when NetHelp is generated.
The summary describes the table’s purpose and usually provides more detail than the caption. It is specified in the summary attribute of the <table> tag. It is not displayed in the target, but is read by accessibility devices. Although Word does not have a feature for specifying a table summary, this can be done by inserting a comment within a table. Doc-To-Help will interpret the comment as the table’s summary.
In HTML source documents, set the appropriate options for your editor. In .xml documents, you can specify this text in the Caption and Summary fields when inserting the table in the XHTML editor with the Table Properties dialog box. In Microsoft® Word source documents do the following:
Adding a caption to a table
1. Select the entire table and right-click.
2. In Word 2003, choose Caption from the menu. (In Word 2007/2010/2013, the menu item is named Insert Caption.) The Caption dialog box will open.
3. Click the New Label button. Enter the caption and click OK.
4. Click OK to close the Caption dialog box.
Adding a comment to a table (this will become the summary)
1. Select the entire table or place your cursor within a cell.
2. In Word 2003, choose Insert > Comment. (In Word 2007/2010/2013, click the Review tab and click the New Comment button.)
3. Enter the comment.
Doc-To-Help will provide warnings in the build log if any tables without captions and summaries are found in the Word source documents of your project. These warnings can be ignored if certain tables do not need captions and summaries and will not interfere with accessibility. Doc-To-Help inserts an empty caption and summary in the Target if text is not provided.