[Athen] accessibility demonstration for rfp

[Kurkjian, Nazely]

Hi Sean,

Thank you for explaining. This is incredibly helpful. We ended up writing that the vendor may download NVDA, JAWS (demo) or use VoiceOver to demonstrate screenreader accessibility/navigability. We are trying to purchase a travel management software, for employees. I decided to focus on the accessibility of critical features of the product – capturing expenses and voucher creation. I’m not familiar with travel management software industry so I’m interested to see if accessibility is on their radar! I’ve shared your response with our procurement folks so I may come back with questions. I’m not quite sure yet how to assess the color contrast…I know there’s free contrast checking tools. Perhaps we can share these with them too.

That resource!! My goodness, I could’ve used this some time ago. Will definitely use some of these questions in an upcoming RFI.

Many thanks,
Nazely

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Sean Keegan
Sent: Monday, July 10, 2017 5:41 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] accessibility demonstration for rfp

Hi Nazely,


> My question is how you request the vendor to demonstrate in real time,

> like how would they demonstrate “remove style sheets”?


If the product is viewable in the browser, they could use the Web Developer Toolbar (Firefox or Chrome plugin) to turn off CSS. That said, that's probably not a requirement I would focus on.


> Or “well defined keyboard visual focus throughout”?


The simplest method is to use the tab-key to navigate around the web page. Is there a visual focus ring around the interactive elements? The default focus indicator for Safari and Chrome is a blue outline, but for Firefox, it is a thin, dotted outline that is more difficult to perceive. It helps to test in a few different browsers.


> What if they don’t have a screenreader? Does that mean they fail?


I think that is a decision you have to make for your specific circumstances. In my opinion, if a product was to be used with students and the vendor was claiming the product was accessible, but had never tested with a screen-reader, I would be concerned. Also, it is important to note that NVDA for Windows is available at no cost and VoiceOver is part of macOS. Cost should not be a reason for not testing.

I have asked vendors to demonstrate similar actions and have not had too much of an issue. Just a note - I don't "surprise" them in a demo and give them plenty of advance notice along with a use case scenario (e.g., "I am a student using a screen-reader and want to register for a course"). What this has usually done is create a larger conversation about the accessibility of the product and how the vendor should be conducting accessibility tests.

I would also refer you to Mike Gifford's GitHub repo - "Building Accessibility Best Practices into Contracting" (https://github.com/mgifford/a11y-contracting/). Many of the questions in that repo may help the vendor thinking about accessibility in a proactive fashion before you even get to a demo of the product. If the vendor can't answer any of those questions in a semi-knowledgable manner, then the demo is the least of your concern.

Take care,
Sean
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