Data Conversion Laboratory's 508 Services Enables Those With Blindness, Low Vision or Other Disabilities to Better Interact With Digital Content

FRESH MEADOWS, N.Y., July 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Conversion Laboratory, Inc. (DCL), a leader in organizing, converting and enhancing content into digital formats, is offering a new service to ensure customers' documents, websites and other information technology are "Section 508" compliant.

Section 508 is a Federal Standard calling for people with blindness, low vision, or other disabilities to have equal access to various documents, websites, and other sources of information. The process incorporates information to ease navigation, incorporates image descriptions to help those who cannot see them, and verifies that fonts, colors, and other elements are easier to read for those with difficulties. It is important to realize that the majority of people who are considered visually impaired are not totally blind, but rather have low vision or other disabilities, and these accommodations make information easier to follow, improving their quality of life and their ability to work.

In conjunction with this initiative, DCL is hosting a free educational webinar, "Digital Accessibility and Complying with Section 508", on Tuesday, July 18. Presented by DCL's President Mark Gross and Senior Project Manager Leo Belchikov, the webinar will discuss how complying with Section 508 removes barriers to provide digital accessibility to documents, websites and more. Concepts such as reading order, alternative texts, color, and other adjustments that make a website digitally accessible will be discussed. Register here for the webinar.

Customers for DCL's accessibility and 508 Compliances have included government agencies, including Veterans Affairs (VA), Center for Medicare Medicaid Services (CMS), and the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The work for these organizations included the review and remediation of website content, publications, and other materials to assure high quality compliance with Section 508.

"We want to not only help get these agencies and offices to be 508 compliant, but also to improve the user experience for those with disabilities," said Mark Gross, President of DCL. "It wasn't always possible to do this in the past, but with advances in computer technology and automation, we have an opportunity to make as much digital content accessible as possible. Accessibility should be for everyone, and that's a worthwhile goal."

While Section 508 is a Federal mandate for government-produced materials, the standard is applicable to anyone who wants to make their materials more accessible, and often it is simply good business, making it easier for customers to find content, and for employees to work more easily. For DCL, it represents an important and long-standing goal of offering content conversion services to make digital content more easily accessible. DCL's Section 508 compliance services expands this idea even further.

About Data Conversion Laboratory, Inc. (DCL)

Since 1981, DCL has been a leader in helping organizations maximize the value of their content assets investment through digitization and organization, making reuse easier, and providing greater accessibility. DCL's teams are experts in converting content into all structured formats, including XML, S1000D, SGML, proprietary schemas, and others. With DCL's process, content quality is vastly improved, systems are future-proofed, redundancies are eliminated, and revenue opportunities are expanded. DCL uses its advanced technology and U.S.-based project management teams to help solve the most complex conversion challenges securely, accurately and on time. DCL is a multi-year winner of EContent's Top 100 companies.

Contact: Ariane Doud, Warner Communications, (978) 283-2674, [email protected]

SOURCE Data Conversion Laboratory

Related Links

http://www.dclab.com