Why 508 Wizard™?

Our Approach
Only AccessABILITY Software’s patent-pending approach -- of scanning the source code, pin-pointing the location of problems, and providing instructions to developers for correcting the problems -- can enable you to have accessibility that is “Built In … Not Added On”.

AccessABILITY provides a patent-pending approach for detecting Section 508 problems in computer source code and educating software development staff to correct these specific problems with best practices programming techniques. This exclusive strategy not only enables the software to be corrected more quickly and efficiently, but more importantly, it trains and encourages the software development staff to write new code that is inherently Section 508 compliant. After a little experience in using 508 Wizard™ as part of their development process, your programmers will be creating Section 508 compliant code the first time. This will reduce their remediation time and costs, and also minimize the validation costs.

	Our Mission is to supply software developers with accessibility tools that form an integral part of their software development process as it relates to Section 508.
	The 508 Wizard™, through repeated usage of our accessibility help system, provides the feedback and training that is necessary to help developers build Section 508 accessible code the first time.

	Developers detect and correct accessibility problems early and easily.
	The developers quickly learn how to write Section 508 compliant code the first time.
	Efficient and specific “just-in-time” developer training is done “on the job”.
	The Section 508 validation phase becomes a one-time automated process.
	Most importantly, Section 508 remediation time and costs are greatly reduced.

Sadly, in many organizations today Section 508 validation is an after-though in the overall software development process. This means that the validation efforts grow into large scale testing and re-testing activities. The software development cycle is elongated with an additional testing phase, and additional feedback loops. This leads to significant delays for Section 508 remediation and higher costs.

Historical Analogy
The Section 508 accessibility situation is analogous to the localization problem that the software industry tackled in previous years. When software companies were first becoming globally accessible, they ran into difficulties with European and then later Asian languages and other global differences. Initially, software companies worked with specialists to fix their software, while extensive education was provided to programmers and QA staff at many companies to educate them on how to write and test “globalized” software. In time, the developers began writing code that was mostly “globalized” the first time while the QA staff learned to validate this more efficiently. Later, computer platform and development tool vendors eased the problem by providing software platforms and tools that enabled developers to write “globalized” code more efficiently.

Today, the Section 508 accessibility environment is like the early days of software globalization. Organizations are spending considerable time and energy to learn how to develop Section 508 compliant code and how to test for accessibility. Numerous specialists are promoting their expertise in performing such services. 508 Wizard™ is the leader in moving the industry to the next phase of this environment by providing development tools that greatly ease the challenge of both software developers and testers, while providing efficient, computer-based “just-in-time” training to them along the way.