[Athen] VPAT?

[Normajean.Brand]

Thank you, Tom! This was a part of a conversation with security and procurement. The vendor was asked for a VPAT (ACR) before proceeding with negotiations. The vendor responded with ‘we are 100% compliant with all WCAG guidelines’ with no other documentation. I could not, on good faith or conviction, say it was even somewhat accessible without testing or documentation even though the department requesting it demanded we (I) allow it. Nor was I allowed access to the product to test with assistive tech.

NJ


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Tom Siechert
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2022 3:26 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] VPAT?

The other fundamental thing to keep in mind when reviewing any VPAT (ACR) is the validity of the reported conformance levels. If the person(s) completing the VPAT (ACR) do not have the appropriate skills and expertise, then what is reported is mostly, if not entirely, meaningless. Also, vendors all too often have an incentive to not be entirely truthful, as accurately reporting status levels may put them at a competitive disadvantage (e.g. in a Procurement bidding / scoring process.)

A very common scenario is having say two VPATs (ACRs) - one says "Conforms" for all success criterion (and has no supporting comments), while another (honestly) reports varying conformance levels and details various barriers that exist in their solution. Which product would you choose? At face value, the one that purports to have 100% conformance would be the "winner." Is that likely to be true in the real world? Not at all.

So, then, what to do? It depends. Usually, to get any real sense of conformance levels - you need to go beyond simply accepting what is written in a VPAT (ACR) by doing one or more of the following activities:

  *   Have a scripted demos (where you ask the vendor to demo critical functionality using assistive technology, and/or keyboard-only use)
  *   Perform your own hand-on testing (e.g., get a sandbox, test drive the solution)
  *   Have a vendor provide accessibility conformance testing results (optimally performed by a reputable, neutral, 3rd party vendor)
  *   Ask the vendor to substantiate their claims of conforms by providing detailed responses that will show whether they do (or do not) understand the criterion involved
  *   Reach out to accessibility experts (e.g., via places like this Listserv) to see if anyone can share real-world experience/knowledge about the solutions' actual level of conformance
  *   Ask questions about the company's accessibility testing processes/accessibility training for developers, etc.
Best,

Tom Siechert, CPWA
CSU Stanislaus


________________________________
From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> on behalf of Normajean.Brand <normajean.brand at hccs.edu<mailto:normajean.brand at hccs.edu>>
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2022 1:08 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] VPAT?


Thank you, Glen! And Jeanna!

This. This is what I’m trying to teach the faculty and others, including procurement, about VPATs. It’s not a ‘score’ or ‘percentage’. It seems we have a newly enthusiastic procurement person who is now team 100% accessible or we don’t use it. I applaud the enthusiasm though. Sometimes I’m battling a department that just won’t budge on their choice of product.



I appreciate your thoughts, wisdom, and help. This is above my paygrade but if asked I’m chiming in … because accessibility and usability matters to everyone.

Thanks! Have a wonderful weekend,

NJ



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: Friday, May 13, 2022 12:51 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] VPAT?



It'd be nice if, when comparing multiple VPATs, you could get a "score" and then just choose the highest score but it doesn't work like that.



You could potentially tally up the number of "supports", "partially supports" and "does not support" values and maybe create a score.  But a VPAT with a lot of "partially supports" might actually be more accessible than a product with a lot of "supports" if the latter also has a lot of "does not support".  The "not applicable" values should count against a product.



With a WCAG 2.1 VPAT/ACR, you should have 30 rows in the A table and 20 rows in the AA tables (50 combined).



Suppose the VPAT has 25 "supports", 15 "partially supports", 7 "does not support", and 3 "not applicable".  Is that a 50% score?  25 "supports" out of a total of 50?  The "partially supports" should also help the "score".



It's a tough call.  Ideally, the product with the most "supports" and "partially supports" should win.



But you might have to evaluate the "does not support" items.  It could be that the parts that aren't supported are in a part of the product that you won't be using, so the fact that it doesn't work doesn't matter.



Sometimes you have to pick the product that is "least worst".  That is, all the VPATs could be bad but if that's all you have to choose from, try to use the one that sucks the least.  But hopefully if that happens, you have the option of choosing none of them and doing more research for other products.



Glen

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On Fri, May 13, 2022 at 11:08 AM Normajean.Brand <normajean.brand at hccs.edu<mailto:normajean.brand at hccs.edu>> wrote:

Hello All, and good Friday!



When looking at a VPAT (and I’m not sure I’m even asking the question correctly), what would be the baseline of acceptable accessibility - 75%, 85%, or something else - as to whether your college would accept and vet a product for use? I know we would all like for products to be 100% accessible, but what is your baseline?



I hope this makes sense, because I was asked by an academic department looking at procuring new software, what would be acceptable.



Thanks for your insight,

NJ



NJ Brand, BAAS-Psych, ATAC

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Accessibility and Inclusion are shared institutional responsibilities. #ally #highered #inclusion



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