Well that is really interesting that you're using HTML5 output because my manager has me doing the research about that. I'll have to add this to my list of "cons."
Okay, so my favorite 508 buddy at work read my email message, in which I copied and pasted your original questions, and here's what he had to say (he's verbose too, it runs in the company).
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Technically for all web pages to be 508 compliant they need a language tag. [html:en] or lang=“en”[code]
This should probably be within the first few lines of the HTML page. It actually only needs to be before any Text on the page especially if the page suddenly changes language.
Example:
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<head>
I just looked at [our help] and it has en-US.
I don’t think we have web pages in any other language or a page that suddenly changes from English to some other language. As a result, I think we are fine. If it was Spanish, you would want that tag for JAWS to correctly identify the language. This could be within the same page.
For example: it could have English instructions and then suddenly have the same instructions in Spanish (like what you would find in a tech manual of some kind). In that case you would want the lang attribute to change.
Here is [our company's] guidance on the Coding Standards Guide for Developers in [Our Software]:
A language attribute and direction are is required on the <html tag. For now all of our products are in English so we will declare as lang=“en” and dir=“ltr”. Example: <html language=“en” dir=“ltr”
I think that particular user is worried about where the language tag is or perhaps, they want to change it, they should be fine if it is before any text. I think this only really applies to help that is in multiple languages.
As for skip navigation, 508 suggests / requires that there be an easy way [for the] user to navigate using anchors or some kind of drop down / skip nav link. (ex. #header1, #header2) (For example if they load a page and it has 10 links at the top and they click a link does it refresh the page and make them tab through all 10 links before they reach the content again?)
Example:
https://webaim.org/techniques/skipnav/https://jimthatcher.com/skipnav.htmSometimes this is a skip navigation link so you can go straight to the page’s contents. It is designed to skip a repetitive navigation bar. I think with our help, the fact that you can search the help and you have topics, and that the page refreshes within a frame rather than reloading the whole webpage, I think we are fine.
I think the fact that you have contents, index, and search makes it easy for anyone to navigate to a particular section and understand how it is organized. The fact that you have suggested links at the bottom is good too. More importantly the fact that content is in its own frame, while the left frame is navigation makes it easier for users to navigate. The whole skip link is more so when it is a single page.
[Our Software] doesn’t actually have a skip nav option.
Summary:
I think [you're] fine on both accounts. The old help (.ASP) may have issues, but [in] the new one [he means our online help for our .NET software] I think navigation is really easy to use, and you don’t have to click multiple pages to get to a section, as you can just search for a term or click an item from the index.
For the most part everything looks good. If we ever go multiple languages, it is something we need to keep in mind for MadCap. (For example, I believe Canada requires both English and French on all government webpages, or at the very least a resource that French users can use that is equivalent to the English one.)
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I have NO idea whether any of that will be helpful to you or not, but there it is. I've also attached two pictures to illustrate some of what he's talking about. The first picture is our "old" or "classic" or ".ASP" help style. The second picture is our "new" or ".NET" help style. (Both styles reside in the same help project. Don't get me started.)
Example One - Old StyleOLD Example.png
Example Two - New StyleNEW Example.png
I hope some of this was helpful...if not, I did find interesting topics in this forum just by doing a web search for Flare 508 compliance.
Good luck with this--it seems challenging!!!
Michelle
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