A while ago, I talked about the legal requirements for academia web development. I pointed to Section 508 because it was “just another section” of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Section 504 was DEFINITELY required.
I was wrong.
Upon further inspection, we are ONLY under Section 504 because Section 504 is a matter of civil rights, while 508 is “just a guideline”. Section 504 (or title III of the ADA (American’s with disabilities Act of 1990)) is what people reference when filing suit. 508 is not directly enforceable outside of government agencies. Even then it can be trumped by 504.
So when doing things in academia, using 508 is useful in that it will get you 90% of the way there, but that 10% can still get you under 504. The trick is it’s not clearly defined. It’s left very ambiguous. This is probably a good thing from an accessibility standpoint because it can remain technology agnostic.
So stick to WCAG 2.0 AA.