ICT Testing Baseline Portfolio

Overview

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Testing Baseline Portfolio establishes the minimum requirements for evaluating the conformance of ICT with the Revised Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 794d). These Baselines are a benchmark for test processes that determine Section 508 conformance for ICT across federal agencies.

The purpose of the ICT Testing Baselines is to provide a standardized set of components for evaluating Section 508 conformance. Incorporating the Baseline tests into a test process ensures that necessary elements are tested, reducing the risk of overlooking important requirements. The Baseline provides clear guidance on what needs to be tested, helping organizations assess the accuracy of their testing methodology and tools.

What the ICT Testing Baseline Is:

A comprehensive set of test components that a Section 508 conformance test process should include to ensure full coverage of all requirements.
Independent of any testing tools.

What the ICT Testing Baseline Is NOT:

A step-by-step testing procedure or methodology.
A specific testing tool or software for Section 508 conformance testing.

The Portfolio includes a Baseline for Web and a Baseline for Documents. Additional Baselines will be developed for all ICT covered by Section 508 including software and hardware.

Baseline for Web Accessibility

The Baseline for Web, version 3.1 (published April 1, 2024), sets the standard for testing web content for conformance with Section 508 compliance requirements. This was the first baseline in the Portfolio and is recognized as a Best Practice by the Federal CIO Council’s Accessibility Community of Practice (ACOP). Federal agencies are encouraged to adopt this baseline when evaluating web content for accessibility.

Baseline for Electronic Documents

The newest addition to the Portfolio, Baseline for Electronic Documents Version 1.0 (published September 30, 2024), sets the standard for testing all types of electronic documents for conformance with Section 508 compliance requirements. Federal agencies are encouraged to adopt this baseline when evaluating non-web electronic documents for accessibility.

Understanding WCAG Version

While Section 508 requires WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA, Baseline tests with applicable WCAG success criteria (SC) reference the latest version (2.2) of WCAG Understanding SC articles. These updated Understanding SC articles provided improved clarity and explanations and informed the development of the Baseline tests. However, the Baselines are mapped only to Section 508 (and WCAG 2.0) requirements.

How to Contribute

We invite you to contribute to the ongoing development of the ICT Testing Baselines. You can:

Fork the repository and propose improvements via issues and pull requests.
Submit test cases to help validate test processes and tools.

The ICT Testing Baseline Working Group (ITBWG) maintains the ICT Testing Baseline Portfolio on this GitHub repository.

Last updated: September 30, 2024