Section 508 - Standard (k)
A text-only page, with equivalent information
or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the
provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any
other way. The content of the text-only pages shall be updated whenever
the primary page changes.
Explanation - Standard
(k) - Text Only Web Page
In concept a text only web page is an alternative to a graphical page.
The text only page conveys the same content as the graphical page in a
pure text form. This means that descriptions are included in replacement
of images, text transcriptions are available for audio or video, etc.
It may be more important to understand that a text only page can't be
a light weight version of the graphical page that just eliminates images,
multimedia, or other objects that require accessible formatting. The key
concept is that the content on the graphical version and the text only
version must be the same.
Designers familiar with the Section 508 standards may argue that text
only pages are not needed if a designer has an understanding of the Section
508 standards and properly uses alternatives to objects such as images
and multimedia. While this is an argument with merit, designers can consider
the use of a text only web page, as long as the content is equivalent
to the graphical version.
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Validation Technique(s)
The testing measures that follow can be used to evaluate compliancy of
your web page(s) with the concepts presented for Standard (k).
- read both the graphical and text-only versions of the web page and
compare content
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 complete
a self-assessment on text-only pages
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