Section 508 + Accessibility-Compliant Outputs

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 USC §794d) requires federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. The Revised 508 Standards (36 CFR Part 1194) align technical requirements with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Level AA. The Plain Writing Act of 2010 (PLAA, 5 USC §301 note) requires writing the public can understand the first time they read it. AI handles both better than most agencies' current workflows.

What you'll learn

• What Section 508 actually requires of routine documents and emails
• How to generate alt text that passes WCAG 2.0 Level AA
• How to convert dense bureaucratic prose into PLAA-aligned plain language
• A pre-publication accessibility checklist for AI-generated content

The four habits that handle 80 percent of routine 508

Habit 1 — alt text on every meaningful image

Decorative images get an empty alt attribute. Meaningful images get descriptive alt text that conveys the same information a sighted reader gets. Charts and infographics need either a long description or an accompanying data table.

Bo, here is the prompt I use to generate alt text in bulk:

I am attaching/describing [N] images for a federal document subject to Section 508
(36 CFR Part 1194, WCAG 2.0 Level AA).

For each image, return:
1. A 1-sentence alt text (under 125 characters) suitable for the alt attribute
2. If the image is a chart, table, or diagram, also return a long description
   that conveys all of the data a sighted reader gets
3. If the image is purely decorative, mark it DECORATIVE (alt should be empty)

RULES:
- Do not start alt text with "Image of" or "Picture of"
- Use present tense, neutral voice
- Reproduce text that appears in the image verbatim
- For charts: state the chart type, axes, time range, and the headline finding

Habit 2 — semantic headings, not visual styling

Screen readers navigate by heading structure. A document that uses bold 14-point text instead of a real Heading 2 is invisible to a screen reader user. When you ask Claude to draft a document, ask explicitly for "semantic headings using H1/H2/H3 structure" and verify in Word/Google Docs that the styles are applied, not just visual.

Habit 3 — plain language by default

The Plain Writing Act requires public-facing writing be in language the public can understand. AI is excellent at this conversion. The trick is to specify the target reading level and the audience.

Rewrite the passage below for a Plain Writing Act-aligned public communication.

CONSTRAINTS:
- Target a 9th-grade reading level (Flesch-Kincaid 60+)
- Replace acronyms on first use
- Use active voice, second person ("you") for instructions
- Keep sentence length under 20 words on average
- Preserve every legal/regulatory citation verbatim — do not paraphrase a statute
- Preserve every numeric value verbatim
- Add a 1-sentence "What this means for you" line at the end of each paragraph

After rewriting, list every term you replaced and what it became, so I can verify
no regulatory term of art was changed.

PASSAGE:
[paste your dense original here]

Habit 4 — meaningful link text

"Click here" and "read more" fail Section 508 because screen reader users tab through links out of context. Every link needs descriptive text that makes sense alone. When AI drafts a document for you, instruct it: "All hyperlinks must use descriptive text that conveys the destination." Then verify on read-through.

Pre-publication accessibility checklist

Before any AI-generated content goes out, walk this list. It takes about three minutes per document and catches the issues that would otherwise come back as 508 findings.

1. Headings: are H1/H2/H3 styles applied (not just bold/italic)? Is there exactly one H1?
2. Alt text: does every image either have alt text or an empty alt attribute marked decorative?
3. Tables: do tables have header rows marked as headers? No merged cells in data tables.
4. Color contrast: text/background contrast at least 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large text.
5. Color alone: no information conveyed by color alone (e.g. "the red bars" needs a label too).
6. Link text: every link is descriptive on its own.
7. Reading order: in PDFs, the reading order matches the visual order.
8. Document language: the document language attribute is set (matters for screen readers).
9. Run the tools: Microsoft Word's Accessibility Checker, Adobe Acrobat's Accessibility Check, or your agency's CommonLook/equivalent. Resolve every error before publishing.

Federal compliance pitfalls

Homework

1. Pick one document you produced in the last 30 days.
2. Run it through the alt-text and plain-language prompts above.
3. Walk the pre-publication checklist.
4. Run the Word or Acrobat accessibility checker. Note every issue caught.
5. Save the cleaned-up version — this is your new template.