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Re: VPAT 2.3 Rev 508 vs WCAG

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From: joe@a11yeval.com
Date: Oct 18, 2019 1:28PM

Section 508 VPAT is often used in higher education as well. I know this
because my company just helped a higher ed vendor create a VPAT and had to
add a missing section that they requested that we normally remove.

Joe Humbert


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < <EMAIL REMOVED> > On Behalf Of glen
walker
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2019 1:24 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] VPAT 2.3 Rev 508 vs WCAG

Also note that the Section 508 version of the VPAT includes the WCAG section
too. So you have four options:

1. WCAG - includes the WCAG tables (3 tables for A, AA, and AAA - most
people delete the AAA table) 2. Section 508 - includes WCAG and Sec508 3. EN
301 549 - includes WCAG and EN 301 549 4. International - includes WCAG,
Sec508, and EN 301 549

So all of them have WCAG. Which one you choose depends on why you're
filling it out.

If you only have US customers and they're not government agencies, then the
WCAG version might be sufficient.
As Ryan noted, if you have Federal (and sometimes State or Local) government
customers, then 508 is probably needed.
If you do any business in Europe, then EN 301 549 is probably needed.

To cover all situations, the "international" version might be a good idea.
It's not exactly "international". It's really US (Sec508) and Europe (EN
301 549). If Russia or Japan or Australia had their own requirements,
they're not really covered in the VPAT other than what WCAG covers. The
international version is a bit of a beast. Ignoring the 10 pages of
instructions at the beginning, it's 40 pages of documentation. The language
of the requirements can take a bit of getting used to.

If you decide on the Sec508 version, it's not too much more work to do the
international version. Some info in the Sec508 sections is repeated in the
EN 301 549 sections.

Glen
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