idea Make disabled buttons 508 compliant in ArcGIS Experience Builder Ideas

Make disabled buttons 508 compliant

JamesPoeschel — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 16:25:28 GMT

After having a call with Esri Support, I found out that it not possible to adjust the colors of disabled buttons in ExB. By disabled buttons, I mean buttons that cannot be clicked until a condition is met such as:

In a splash screen, I was told that this OK button is not 508 compliant.

I am only able to change the color of the OK button after clicking the check box, purple is my theme color in this example:

This can be mitigated with a custom button in the splash screen, but some widgets have no work around, like in the filter widget. I was told by a federal client that the Cancel button is not 508 compliant and was told by Esri Support that I cannot change it. Again, the Cancel button only becomes adequately contrasted after applying a filter.

Due to Section 508 accessibility requirements for U.S. federal agencies, I request for an ability to customize these disabled buttons OR change ExB to make these buttons have more contrast to be in alignment with those requirements.

Re: Make disabled buttons 508 compliant

SteveCole — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 19:14:04 GMT

Ultimately we just live in ESRI's world and are subject to their whims so I would not solely rely on ArcGIS Ideas for change. Here is an ESRI post which describes how they want to be informed about accessibility issues.

Re: Make disabled buttons 508 compliant

NicoleJohnson — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 20:13:43 GMT

@JamesPoeschel, are you sure this is actually an issue? If realistic, I would counter to whoever told you this that the lack of contrast seems in line with the WCAG Success Criterion 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) Level AA. Is it possible they're just testing with automated tools and taking whatever it tells them as the truth? Emphasis mine:

Text or images of text that are part of an inactive user interface component, that are pure decoration, that are not visible to anyone, or that are part of a picture that contains significant other visual content, have no contrast requirement.

Re: Make disabled buttons 508 compliant

TimWestern — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:36:48 GMT

It feels weird that people even mention 508 Compliance specifically as a lot of 508 is subjective. Most organizations that are being compelled to address accessibility seriously are focused more on

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, either 2.1: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/
or 2.2

https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG22/

@NicoleJohnson is right, automated tools help, but every data point needs to be checked, and confirmed by a human, as there are false positives at times.