Is it possible to fully automate the testing for section 508?
No it is not possible. This is because some of the checkpoints require user input. For example, a text equivalent for a non-textual object should be verified by a tester to ensure it correctly describes the non-textual object. Also, the correct order of a document’s elements should typically be verified by a user, as the tagging process in Acrobat frequently results in missing key structural information (e.g. table headers) or incorrectly identifying or misordering the elements in the tags view -resulting in screen readers failing to read text in the correct order- or in the content view -resulting in handheld devices, such as PDAs, failing to display the document correctly.
