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Re: [EXTERNAL]Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified

for

From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Sep 19, 2019 9:42AM

I have seen numerous bad third-party ones, or the third-party not
explaining what the document means.

> we usually provide the VPAT as a PDF so they can't change it!
LOL if they don't know they could, I'd be concerned with the company.
Unless you lock it down without messing the accessibility up, minor edits
can be done in Acrobat. File > save as works decently these days,
especially if the source came from a recent version of Word.

--
Ryan E. Benson


On Thu, Sep 19, 2019 at 11:18 AM Steve Green < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> I totally agree with that assessment. However, some VPATs are written by
> independent third parties, in which case it should say so on them and they
> should be more trustworthy. It's a service we provide for our clients, and
> we usually provide the VPAT as a PDF so they can't change it!
>
> Steve
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> Mark Magennis
> Sent: 19 September 2019 15:44
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] [EXTERNAL] Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility
> Certified
>
> Yes, the level of detail in VPATs varies enormously, and the truth of
> VPATs varies even more. Honestly, most VPATs I've looked at are complete
> works of fiction. "Supports, Supports, Supports, ... " when the truth is
> "Partially Supports, Partially Supports, Does not support, ...". My advice
> for procurers is to take VPATs with a bucket of salt and have the product
> tested by an independent third party.
>
> Mark
>
> Mark Magennis
> Skillsoft | mobile: +353 87 60 60 162
> Accessibility Specialist
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> Steve Green
> Sent: 19 September 2019 03:31
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WebAIM] Getting Your Website Accessibility
> Certified
>
> You can also do a VPAT certificate, which provides far more granular
> compliance information than an accessibility statement. It also shows who
> did the testing, when they did it and what was in and out of scope. Unlike
> an accessibility statement, it has a consistent structure so every VPAT
> looks the same regardless of who wrote it. That said, the level of detail
> that people provide can vary a lot.
>
> https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat
>
> Steve Green
> Managing Director
> Test Partners Ltd
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of
> glen walker
> Sent: 18 September 2019 23:47
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
> Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
>
> There is no "official" certification you can do. That is, there is no
> governing body that monitors or grants certificates. It's not like an
> Underwriters Laboratory seal like you can get in the United States with
> regards to electronic equipment.
>
> What you can do is write an accessibility statement. See
> https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning/statements/
>
> You can document your commitment to accessibility, what you've done to
> achieve compliance, what your future plans are, how you test, etc. The
> aforementioned URL has a lot of good information.
>
> As Lucy said, even if you documented that a site was 100% compliant, the
> next time code gets pushed to production, it might break that compliance.
> So a "certificate" is only good for the day you write it and then it's
> expired.
> > > at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> > > > at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> > > > at http://webaim.org/discussion/archives
> > > > > >