WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: VPATs for Word, PPT, Excel, etc.

for

From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Jun 4, 2018 8:33PM

I recommend reaching out to the 508 Coordinator via your COR. You can of
course contact the 508 Coordinator yourself, but when a contractor does
this - my office's first question is 'who is your COR?' (Some agencies
call them COTR, or similar, but the FTE you report to.)

--
Ryan E. Benson

On Mon, Jun 4, 2018 at 10:25 PM, Emily Ogle via WebAIM-Forum <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Thank you, Ryan, for your detailed responses. I guess ultimately the
> source of our dismay is we had planned on Vpats for our products and
> created workflows for creating accessible supplementary presentations and
> word files, but not the VPATs on those presentations themselves. There's
> quite a bit of scrambling as we consider the logistics here.
>
> > On Jun 4, 2018, at 6:25 PM, Ryan E. Benson < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
> >
> > `> So… my take-away thus far is that agencies can set any expectations
> for
> > VPATs (or not) that they want.
> >
> > No, not really. A VPAT is the legal document that says "yes our
> deliverable
> > meets the standards." Many departments (HHS, DHS, SSA, and VA - there may
> > be a few others) took the legalese and put it into friendlier language,
> and
> > in the form of a checklist. Section 508 Coordinators have the authority
> to
> > make these decisions and interpretations. What each agency accepts is up
> to
> > each agency, but there is a strong effort to make one checklist for each
> > file type. My recommendation is, if you're providing a service to a
> federal
> > agency, and you're not 100% on how they handle 508, or documentation of
> > it, ask to speak to the agency 508 Coordinator. If your COR can't/won't
> do
> > this, please see https://section508.gov/tools/coordinator-listing.
> >
> >> Do you use the PDF/UA flag as part of your deliverable?
> >
> > Speaking with knowledge of HHS only. HHS has used PDF/UA as a basis for
> our
> > March 2013 release of the PDF checklist. We don't cover every element of
> > the PDF/UA checklist because there's 130 or so checks in UA's
> requirements,
> > as one of 2 primary authors, I knew handing a checklist of 130 to the
> > various groups that needed to sign off on it, it would never fly. UA is
> not
> > explicitly mentioned in the 2013 version because that would blow up for
> > using a new term. HHS requires our PDF checklist for PDF deliverable. The
> > checklist is required because there's no 100% accurate test, though I
> know
> > some third-party tools come close.
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ryan E. Benson
> >
> >> On Mon, Jun 4, 2018 at 12:29 PM, Duff Johnson < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> wrote:
> >>
> >> So… my take-away thus far is that agencies can set any expectations for
> >> VPATs (or not) that they want.
> >>
> >> Next question is for those providing services, specifically,
> >> testing/remediation of PDF documents:
> >>
> >> Do you use the PDF/UA flag as part of your deliverable?
> >>
> >> Based on what I'm hearing it seems like it would be very handy to have a
> >> machine-readable indicator that applies to each individual deliverable
> >> file, as the file would then contain its own certification.
> >>
> >> The service-provider could then simply state that when they apply the
> >> PDF/UA flag it is their indication that the file has passed tests for
> >> Section 508 conformance.
> >>
> >> Of course, it's on the agency adding the flag to ensure that the file
> >> conforms to WCAG 2.0 Level AA (assuming that's what applicable in a
> given
> >> scenario) as well as PDF/UA, but if you are already doing the latter the
> >> former should be no big deal.
> >>
> >> I'm curious to hear any reactions (positive or negative)...
> >>
> >> Duff.
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Jun 4, 2018, at 09:38, Jonathan Avila < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> >> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> This is unexpected so I'm looking to find out what they're really
> >> expecting since we'd have to rethink our strategy by quite a bit. When I
> >> asked the DHS what the typical expectation was, I was given a link to
> the
> >> trusted tester page, in which there was, among several files, an 84-page
> >> document on how to test Word files for accessibility!
> >>>
> >>> There is an accompanying results spreadsheet for the trusted tester
> >> process that is to be completed by the Trusted Tester. This
> spreadsheet
> >> doesn't appear to be available on the public site but is available on a
> >> site that is for people who have passed the Trusted Tester Certification
> >> process. It would document all of the items necessary to understand the
> >> compliance of the document although not in the same form as a VPAT. As
> >> others have mentioned many agencies including HHS and VA have their own
> >> checklists and processes and an agency may ask you to complete their
> >> documentation in the format/wording that they prefer to have.
> >>>
> >>> Jonathan
> >>>
> >>>