36 CFR Part 1194 - Proposed Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Standards and Guidelines NPRM - Preamble

502.3.9 Event Notification (Section-by-Section Analysis)

This section proposes that programmatic notification of events relevant to user interactions— including changes in a component’s state, value, name, description, or boundary—must be available to assistive technologies. This proposal complements existing 508 Standards § 1194.21(d), but more explicitly requires that changes to on-screen user interfaces be done in a way that such changes, otherwise known as events, are exposed to assistive technology. Such event notification is already a widespread industry practice, and, moreover, a feature provided by software designed to be accessible. This proposed requirement is important to address this issue in these proposed requirements because, on occasion, developers new to accessibility overlook this need.