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Re: - VPAT for Services

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From: Hayman, Douglass
Date: Jul 12, 2024 9:19AM

Vaibhav,

I concur with Patrick and Ryan's replies.

I'd add to what you mentioned about not needing 3rd party review. So often on the VPATs I've seen they'll say something like "familiarity with the product" and not much else. If the internal person at the company was both familiar with the product AND knowledgeable on accessibility then that would go further in my book. I've seen some VPATs done internally where a knowledgeable person mentions using JAWS, NVDA and Voiceover etc.

Too often though I'll see the questionably perfect VPAT where everything passed. Or they'll have nothing found in comments section. Some even pare down the VPAT, leaving out whole sections. I'd much rather see the blemishes and what it is that they are doing to remediate those in the near future.

Moving beyond the person requesting a VPAT for your service, it does seem like what they'd really want is to know the background of your people and the methodology that you all use to do your work. What comes to mind are companies like Deque, Level Access and others where you can also see the staff and what their expertise is.

Doug Hayman
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Information Technology
Olympic College
<EMAIL REMOVED>
(360) 475-7632