E-mail List Archives
Thread: Accessibility Reports for acquisition managers?
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Brandon Keith Biggs
Date: Thu, Jan 18 2018 11:05AM
Subject: Accessibility Reports for acquisition managers?
No previous message | Next message →
Hello,
I'm wondering if there is any kind of report or scoring mechanism other
than WCAG As I can ask vendors to provide me while searching for software
to purchace for our company?
I'm wasting a whole lot of time reviewing interfaces that are not
accessible in critical ways with my screen reader and I would like to just
ask for an accessibility report that says "This company has reviewed their
web interface and it is n level of accessible" or something like that?
I'm thinking of just requiring all our software to be WCAG AA before I will
look at it, but I don't think it is easy to rank a website as WCAG AA or
AAA.
Especially for elastic markets for software like PSAs, HR, timekeeping,
CRMs, password safes, cloud storage, accounting, and stuff like that, I
would like a way to just canvas as many companies as possible and ask them
for an accessibility report, then I can look at the ones who actually
respond. I don't want to spend hours going through an accounting software
just to find that the reports screen is not accessible.
Is there anything like this?
Thank you,
Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;
From: BF Devs
Date: Thu, Jan 18 2018 11:07AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility Reports for acquisition managers?
← Previous message | Next message →
Closest might be a VPAT, but as far as I know, the only companies who tend to have VPATs on hand deal with government agencies.
Following, though.
-
Katriel
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jan 18, 2018, at 1:05 PM, Brandon Keith Biggs < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I'm wondering if there is any kind of report or scoring mechanism other
> than WCAG As I can ask vendors to provide me while searching for software
> to purchace for our company?
> I'm wasting a whole lot of time reviewing interfaces that are not
> accessible in critical ways with my screen reader and I would like to just
> ask for an accessibility report that says "This company has reviewed their
> web interface and it is n level of accessible" or something like that?
> I'm thinking of just requiring all our software to be WCAG AA before I will
> look at it, but I don't think it is easy to rank a website as WCAG AA or
> AAA.
> Especially for elastic markets for software like PSAs, HR, timekeeping,
> CRMs, password safes, cloud storage, accounting, and stuff like that, I
> would like a way to just canvas as many companies as possible and ask them
> for an accessibility report, then I can look at the ones who actually
> respond. I don't want to spend hours going through an accounting software
> just to find that the reports screen is not accessible.
> Is there anything like this?
> Thank you,
>
> Brandon Keith Biggs <http://brandonkeithbiggs.com/>;
> > > >
From: Steve Green
Date: Thu, Jan 18 2018 11:30AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility Reports for acquisition managers?
← Previous message | Next message →
VPATs are good because they are much more granular than simply stating level AA compliance (and virtually no websites in the world fully meet even AA, let alone AAA). In particular, VPATs provide a means to explain which features are less accessible than others, perhaps because they incorporate third-party or legacy content. VPATs aren't produced just for US government procurement - they are for everyone to use and we have even started creating them for some of our UK clients' applications.
Steve
From: BF Devs
Date: Thu, Jan 18 2018 11:35AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility Reports for acquisition managers?
← Previous message | Next message →
I like VPATs because of that very granularity, so I am glad more folk are using them (government agency use or not)!
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jan 18, 2018, at 1:30 PM, Steve Green < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> VPATs are good because they are much more granular than simply stating level AA compliance (and virtually no websites in the world fully meet even AA, let alone AAA). In particular, VPATs provide a means to explain which features are less accessible than others, perhaps because they incorporate third-party or legacy content. VPATs aren't produced just for US government procurement - they are for everyone to use and we have even started creating them for some of our UK clients' applications.
>
> Steve
>
>
From: Andrews, David B (DEED)
Date: Fri, Jan 19 2018 10:32AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility Reports for acquisition managers?
← Previous message | Next message →
As others have said, the only thing out there is a VPAT. Also, since it is "self-reporting," they always aren't accurate. The person filling out the VPAT may not understand what is being asked, and may not give inaccurate information.
I think the VPAT is an indicator of accessibility awareness, but it can't be trusted as a guarantee of accessibility.
There is no quick answer to your question, at some point you will have to get your hands, and ears dirty.
If the purchase is large enough, in terms of value, you could reasonably ask for an independent third party audit. Make sure the audit goes directly to you though, so it can't be edited.
Dave
David Andrews | Chief Technology Officer
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development
State Services for the Blind
2200 University Ave West, Suite 240, St. Paul MN 55114
Direct: 651-539-2294
Web | Twitter | Facebook
From: Philip Kiff
Date: Fri, Jan 19 2018 10:40AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility Reports for acquisition managers?
← Previous message | No next message
I'm probably the only one of this list who had to remind myself what
VPAT stood for: Voluntary Product Accessibility Template.
:-o
If, like me, you're not in the States and you're also out of the acronym
loop, here are more details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_Product_Accessibility_Template
https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat
Phil.
On 2018-01-19 12:32 PM, Andrews, David B (DEED) wrote:
> As others have said, the only thing out there is a VPAT. [snip]