In progress · Case study
508 Draft Rater
A pre-audit rater for one HTML page against Revised Section 508 electronic content (E205 → WCAG 2.0 A/AA). Never claims “508 compliant.”
Deterministic draft status strings plus an optional risk/coverage index — built so humans still own legal sign-off.
- Tech stack
- TypeScript
- Python
- HTML
- JavaScript
- CSS
- axe-core
- Categories
- dev-tooling · a11y
Problem
Teams confuse automated scans with Section 508 conformance. Products that print “508 compliant” or invent a compliance score create legal risk. I needed a pre-audit rater that is explicit about owners, packs, and limits.
Approach
Working title was Quick508 Rater; the shipped name is 508 Draft Rater so it cannot be mistaken for a conformance engine. Scope for v1:
- Revised Section 508 electronic content: E205.4 → WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA (38 SCs)
- Page-level draft status only: does not meet / incomplete / no failures on tested criteria
- Optional 0–100 risk/coverage index — never a compliance score
- Owners:
code,axe,jev(semantic judgments), andhumanfor runtime/site-set SCs
Jev is not the decision maker. Deterministic fails from code + axe cannot be overruled by vibes.
Outcome
A tooling stance that matches how federal accessibility work actually signs off — humans on ACR/VPAT, machines on inventory and mapped WCAG signals.