All calculators follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to meet accessibility specification WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Section 508. As part of our process, in addition to applying WCAG standards to all of our programming, we also scan all calculators for compliance and form with the following two tools:
SortSite:
https://www.powermapper.com/products/sortsite/checks/browser-compatibility/
WebAim:
http://wave.webaim.org/
We have been refining our calculator's ability to work with screen readers since the release of Version 3 in 2014. We are probably the most compliant financial calculators available anywhere. In addition to meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Section 508 standards, we also work hard to make sure they are actually useable to the sight impaired. As long as you keep applying the latest updates, you will always have the most accessible financial calculators.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance for a website is usually defined as meeting the guidelines released by the Word Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org) in its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.1 Level AA and meeting the requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a set of guidelines setup by the World Wide Web Consortium (www.w3.org) to help bring accessibility considerations into the development of different technologies, the most important of them being websites. Accessibility guidelines were first released in 1999 as WCAG 1.0. WCAG 2.1 was published as a W3C recommendation on December 11, 2008. A public working draft of WCAG 2.1 was released in early 2017. Each of the WCAG releases defines a guideline of what the W3C considers the best practice for creating accessible websites. They further define levels of accessibility conformance as Level A, Level AA and Level AAA. Each level brings more stringent requirements. Meeting WCAG 2.1 Level AA is usually considered the standard to meet ADA compliance for a website.
"Section 508" refers to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. This law requires that government agencies purchase electronic and information technology that is accessible to people with disabilities. There is a standards board that defines what is accessible. This law only applies to government agencies, but could affect any business that may be doing work for the government or providing a service that is used by the government or one of its programs. The Section 508 standards borrow heavily from the WCAG 2.1.
For government websites "Section 508" is the accessibility standard. Unfortunately, there isn't a law yet that defines exactly what is compliant or not for non-government related websites. A proposed regulation, first introduced by the Department of Justice in 2012 and repeatedly postponed, was set to take effect in 2018 to define website ADA compliance. In its most recent form, it would have made WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Section 508 the standard for ADA compliance. Unfortunately, instead of having this regulation in place and clearly defined, it was given a status of "inactive" by the Department of Justice in November of 2017. This essentially made the "Standard" for ADA compliance a little bit of a guessing game. It is highly likely that WCAG 2.1 Level AA and Section 508 will become the standard, but instead of originating as a regulation or law it will probably become a standard based on court cases setting a precedent on what is compliant.
If you have a specific financial calculator on your site where you have an ADA question please feel free to contact us - we would be glad to help!
More information can be found at:
Latest update instructions: Update Instructions 3/31/2024
Please contact support with any questions you have when deploying or using the calculators. Feel free to contact us via email at or by phone at (612) 331-2291.