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Re: Accessible Applications

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From: Karl Groves
Date: May 12, 2008 4:50PM

That's quite a list you have, Kara.
One step that may help you in finding what you seek is to look for a VPAT
for these products. Contrary to Darian's response, VPATs are not mandatory
(what is mandatory is that the FAR Part 10 requires market research, for
which VPATs help.).

The other thing about VPATs is that, in my experience, they're often
inaccurate. I don't want to say that vendors lie on their VPATs (though
they could) but that sometimes it seems like the person filling them out
doesn't seem to understand 508 or that the version of the application
currently in release is not the same as the version discussed in the VPAT.
There seems to be a lot of reasons why a VPAT could be inaccurate. The
bottom line is, be skeptical. In cases where a VPAT was supplied by a 3rd
party, accuracy seems to increase (because those 3rd parties don't want to
be grilled about inaccuracies).

A VPAT is NOT a legal document and does not, in and of itself, prevent or
permit any acquisition.

> Also, has anyone contacted vendors directly asking for changes to be
> made in response to accessibility if contract language wasn't
> originally
> in the picture

In practice: Your chances are relatively slim and directly proportional to
your purchasing power. For example, let's say GMU is purchasing something
from Microsoft. The chance of them remediating something for GMU is
nonexistent compared to the chance they'd do it for a major government
agency such as IRS or SSA and, unless it is in the original contract is
already slim-to-none. A contract is a contract and must clearly define the
work to be performed, including adherence to any standards for
accessibility. It would be like trying to take a car back to the
dealership because it came with the wrong engine when you didn't tell the
dealer which engine you wanted in the first place. The best you can do is
learn from mistakes and make sure they're not made again.



Karl Groves
AIM/YIM: karlcore
Skype: eight.pistons
www.WebAccessStrategies.com


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