508 Compliance

[Jason]

I am working on a government application which has to be Section 508 compliant.  I am using a Gridview object within the VB.NET application and the component doesn't seem to be 508 compliant.  Is there something that must be done to make the component section 508 compliant.  The system is being tested by a blind user.

Thanks,
  Jason

[Vassil Petev]

Hello Jason,

Thank you for contacting us.

Historically speaking, accessibility and Section 508 compliance has been very important for Telerik and it is one of the few features that made Telerik stand out from the crowd. You can check the Accessibility Support page for our ASP.NET controls to see what I mean.

Unfortunately, the RadControls for WinForms suite is behind in this regard. As strange as this may sound, we have not had a single request for accessibility support so far, other than yours, and this has been with a lower priority on our list.

Your request raised the priority of this task, because we realize that compliant controls are the way to go, if we are to work with large enterprise and government organizations. We have started the research on the topic and we will do our best to provide some compliance in our next release.

We are in the process to set up our priorities for this, so it will be best if all of you give us a list of controls which you need to be compliant the most. Additionally, please share what level of accessibility will work initially for you (magnifier, screen reader, alt tags for all elements, etc). This information will help us set our priorities better.

Thanks in advance.


All the best,
Vassil
the Telerik team

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[Andrew Palmer]

Has any progress been made towards improving the accessibility of rad controls for winforms?

In particular I am l particuarly interested in the RadGridView and settting accessible names for every column?

Thanks,

Andrew

[Vassil Petev]

Hi Andrew Palmer,

The truth is that we have seen little to no interest in Section 508 compliance from our customers. This has lead to lowering the priority of this task, and there has been no real advance on accessibility compliance. I am sorry to say this, but RadGridView does not allow for setting accessible names for every column.

I can check with our developers on how easy it is to get this implemented for column names only. In the meantime, please let us know if you need accessibility compliance for cells and row names.

Thanks in advance for your understanding.


All the best,
Vassil
the Telerik team

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[Andrew Palmer]

Hi Vassil,

We require full accessibility compliance for the RadGridView.  Any compliance you add in future releases will be greatly appreciated,

Despite not hearing from your customers I think Telerik are missing out on a lot of new Government based customers by neglecting this compliance. 

Regards,

Andrew

[Jack]

Hi Andrew,

Currently RadGridView supports some of the technical standards of Section 508. However, it is far from full compliance. You are correct, this is a major feature and we will research the matter in details. I can't give you a strict time frame about when we will support Section 508 at this point, but we will work definitively in that direction.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Kind regards,
Jack
the Telerik team

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[Ashar]

I know this is an old thread but what is the latest status for Section 508 Compliance for the WinForms controls?

Thank you!

[Jack]

Hello Ashar,

Thank you for your interest.

Currently we support the following features, that may relate with section 508:

- Our controls support the Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) specification where applicable. You can check the details by following this link. This allows us to provide support for both coded UI tests and the Windows narrator.

- Our controls support localization and right-to-left layout. Again, you will find the details on our site.

- The high contrast theme supported by our controls helps visually impaired people to work with our controls with ease.

Still, we have not done a full research regarding section 508 compatibility, and I cannot tell that we have a full compliance. Could you please be more specific and describe in which parts of section 508 you have interest. Thank you in advance.

I am looking forward to your reply.
 
All the best,
Jack
the Telerik team