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Thread: Regarding VPAT and litigation
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Dhananjay Bhole
Date: Fri, May 28 2021 8:57AM
Subject: Regarding VPAT and litigation
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Hello,
Can any buddy assist me in understanding following case?
One of our customer which is a non for profit organization providing
paramedical support to people has recently remediated their website
for section 508 compliance and filed VPAT.
The website could not be completely remediated as we could not fix
some low level issues due to some technical reasons of the already
used template in the website. However those issues are not blocking
any major or minor functionalities of the website. Only it shall
affect the comfort of users with disabilities.
How much is the threat of non compliance of this website in USA?
Can I get any legal opinion on it.
Regards
--
Dhananjay Bhole,
Accessibility evangelist,
Cell: +919850123212
Website: http://www.sites.google.com/site/dhananjaybhole
From: Andrews, David B (DEED)
Date: Fri, May 28 2021 9:13AM
Subject: Re: Regarding VPAT and litigation
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Let me say that I am not a lawyer, but I have been around a while. No good lawyer is going to give you a legal opinion from a mailing list posting and/or for free. However, I think most here would agree that making a good faith effort at accessibility is generally considered to be a good defense against lawsuits. Secondly, it probably wouldn't hurt for the organization to have an Accessibility Policy, and an Accessibility Plan, mapping out what they intend to do in the future.
Nothing is bullet-proof, but this should help. Also, the best reasons to do accessibility are not legal, but because it enables everyone to use the site!
Dave
From: Jonathan Avila
Date: Fri, May 28 2021 9:19AM
Subject: Re: Regarding VPAT and litigation
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Generally speaking in the US under the Affordable Care Act Section 1557 and the ADA there are not technical specifications for meeting website conformance. Generally WCAG 2 is used as a goal and for evaluation, however, the likely test would be functional access. Does the site provide effective communication, can people with disabilities access and enjoy the goods, services, and privileges, does the organization have a policy and programs in place to become and remain accessible. I am not in a position to offer legal advice but you'd generally want to make sure the site is functionally usable to people with disabilities and also make sure you have the proper policies in place to address any feedback and make sure future updates are accessible, etc.
Jonathan
From: Steve Green
Date: Fri, May 28 2021 9:34AM
Subject: Re: Regarding VPAT and litigation
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I'm not a lawyer either, but I have some experience of this and have done a lot of research.
Firstly, in the US, the overwhelming risk of litigation is not from genuine users of a website - they invariably go through the proper channels to ask the company for help. The biggest risk is from ambulance-chasing parasite lawyers who are looking for a nice payday.
However, your customer does not fit the profile of their typical victim. Most law suits are brought against companies in specific sectors such as hotels, restaurants, luxury goods and clothing chain stores. The typical size range is $20M to $200M annual turnover - large enough to secure a substantial pay-out, but small enough that they won't want a long drawn-out court battle. As such, your risk is low.
On the flip side, such law suits never have anything to do with the user experience. The lawyers use an automated testing tool, and if it reports more than a couple of issues, they file a boilerplate law suit. Almost all websites contain such issues, so your risk is high. This is why we tell our US clients to fix all the issues that automated tools find, even if they do not affect the user experience.
Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd
From: Jeff Kline
Date: Fri, May 28 2021 10:04AM
Subject: Re: Regarding VPAT and litigation
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I'm not a lawyer either, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn express last night ð
The responses so far should all be considered good advice.
One other thing should be considered. I suggest putting some language on the homepage and possibly other pages that states something to the effect of: if you are having problems accessing or using this page, please contact (email address or phone number here) for assistance. And, make sure that there is somebody at the other end of this number or email, they can respond to folks in the PWD community when somebody encounters an issue.
Also, it should be noted that VPATs only apply to commercial off-the-shelf products, not a custom website unless that website is a commercially available for sale application. I do like the idea of completing one as an internal document to demonstrate how compliant that particular website is, and possibly even making it available upon request, but I'm not sure what you meant when you stated that it was "filed." By whom and to whom?
Jeff
> On May 28, 2021, at 9:58 AM, Dhananjay Bhole < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> Can any buddy assist me in understanding following case?
>
> One of our customer which is a non for profit organization providing
> paramedical support to people has recently remediated their website
> for section 508 compliance and filed VPAT.
> The website could not be completely remediated as we could not fix
> some low level issues due to some technical reasons of the already
> used template in the website. However those issues are not blocking
> any major or minor functionalities of the website. Only it shall
> affect the comfort of users with disabilities.
>
> How much is the threat of non compliance of this website in USA?
>
> Can I get any legal opinion on it.
>
> Regards
> --
> Dhananjay Bhole,
> Accessibility evangelist,
> Cell: +919850123212
> Website: http://www.sites.google.com/site/dhananjaybhole
> > > >
From: glen walker
Date: Fri, May 28 2021 10:51AM
Subject: Re: Regarding VPAT and litigation
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> Also, it should be noted that VPATs only apply to commercial
off-the-shelf products
Not necessarily. For a company that provides a service, such as HR or
payroll systems, and that service is incorporated into the company's
website, it's not technically an "off the shelf" product. It's an embedded
web app. But even if a company wants a VPAT for their public corporate
site, that's fine. There's nothing regulating what a VPAT is used for.
> I'm not sure what you meant when you stated that it was "filed." By whom
and to whom?
Most likely a language/translation issue. The VPAT wasn't "filed" but
rather was "filled out". If the VPAT was sent to the company's internal
legal team, they might have "filed" it with their other legal documents.
> This is why we tell our US clients to fix all the issues that automated
tools find, even if they do not affect the user experience
Unfortunately, Steve is accurate with that statement. It's a shame because
it puts resources on issues that often have low impact on the users. Time
would be better spent focusing on the important workflows first and then
work on the low priority issues. If you want the silver lining, fixing
issues found by scanning tools *does* address accessibility issues. It's
just that they often include low priority issues.
But as others have said, having an Accessibility Statement on the site is a
great thing.
https://www.w3.org/WAI/planning/statements/
Glen