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Thread: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
Number of posts in this thread: 12 (In chronological order)
From: Sudheer Babu
Date: Wed, Sep 18 2019 1:15PM
Subject: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
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Hey Everyone,
Can someone please explain on how to get your web application accessibility
certified. Are there any formal ways of getting certified and also does
this vary from country to country?
Any more information on the same would be really helpful.
Thanks in advance
Sudheer.
From: Lucy GRECO
Date: Wed, Sep 18 2019 2:36PM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
hello
frankly i think geting a certification's is a scam. its better to have a
accessibility statement and have a contact in that for people to reach
out if there are problems. as soon as you certify any thing some one will
make a change that brakes the thing. i frankly don't ever offer
sertifcations to any one as there not wourth much
Lucia Greco
Web Accessibility Evangelist
IST - Architecture, Platforms, and Integration
University of California, Berkeley
(510) 289-6008 skype: lucia1-greco
http://webaccess.berkeley.edu
Follow me on twitter @accessaces
On Wed, Sep 18, 2019 at 12:16 PM Sudheer Babu < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Hey Everyone,
>
> Can someone please explain on how to get your web application accessibility
> certified. Are there any formal ways of getting certified and also does
> this vary from country to country?
>
> Any more information on the same would be really helpful.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Sudheer.
> > > > >
From: glen walker
Date: Wed, Sep 18 2019 4:46PM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
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.
From: Steve Green
Date: Wed, Sep 18 2019 8:30PM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: 18 September 2019 23:47
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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.
From: Miriam Fukushima
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 12:35AM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
Hello Sudheer,
I'm from Germany and we have a way of certifying that a at a certain
point in time certain analyzed pages were accessible according to our
Version of the WCAG namely BITV 2.0.
In my experience this gives a false sense of security. Because customers
that want to take the BITV-Test and get a certificate would do anything
to pass the test which does not necessarily mean it does anything for
actual accessibility.
It also fosters the impression that once the test is passed, there is no
need to work on accessibility any further.
For example I would adjust the site on a technical level and advise the
customer on how to revise the content and the customer would edit the
pages that are likely to be analyzed.
But after passing the test, the content is reedited or new content
follows none of the advice I gave.
And I often find that complex features of a site are not considered in
the guidelines for the test and are therefore not implemented before the
test or turned off to assure the passing of the test instead of really
tackling the issue of making them accessible.
But later on they are implemented anyway without any regard to
accessibility.
Because of that I had also customers not wanting to consider
accessibility at all because they thought they would not pass the test
anyway or only with too high costs and without a certificate as sort of
a reward, accessibility would not be worth the effort.
Kind regards Miriam.
On 18.09.2019 21:15, Sudheer Babu wrote:
> Hey Everyone,
>
> Can someone please explain on how to get your web application accessibility
> certified. Are there any formal ways of getting certified and also does
> this vary from country to country?
>
> Any more information on the same would be really helpful.
>
> Thanks in advance
> Sudheer.
> > > >
From: Detlev Fischer
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 2:39AM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
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Most organisations taking the (German) BITV-Test (which is fully aligned
with WCAG
 2.1) aim at identifying weak points in the design of new web sites.
The test helps making the overall structure, the navigation, interactive
widgets like dropdowns, dialogs, disclosure widgets etc. accessible, and
these are then typically used as new content is added. So a test is a
starting point to get the system developed to a good standard.
Changes later on can and will impact the result, so it is true that a
test can always only be a snapshot.
From our experience of carrying out many BITV-Tests ourselves and
quality-assuring many others, I would not agree with the observation
that "customers that want to take the BITV-Test and get a certificate
would do anything to pass the test which does not necessarily mean it
does anything for actual accessibility." While there are many aspects
that are not covered in the test because they are not part of the
standard (often usability aspects or requirements on level AAA of WCAG)
the test ensures that a level of basic technical accessibility is
implemented.
For any test that can lead to a conformance seal (or a seal pointing to
test results) that clearly states its limitations by qualifying "pages
tested", customers do not choose pages themselves, they do not know what
will be chosen for the page sample. So the bit about "advise the
customer on how to revise the content and the customer would edit the
pages that are likely to be analyzed" is simply not true.
If complex features are part of a site they will be included in the
test. It is true that customers may cheat, but we have had in hundreds
of tests only few cases where that has happened. If it happens, there is
really not much we can do about that.
As to the impression that once the test is done no further work is
needed, again it is really outside our scope of influence as evaluators.
It is good that the requirement to regularly update a site's
accessibility statement will certainly counteract somewhat that complacency.
Detlev
Am 19.09.2019 um 08:35 schrieb Miriam Fukushima:
> Hello Sudheer,
>
>
> I'm from Germany and we have a way of certifying that a at a certain
> point in time certain analyzed pages were accessible according to our
> Version of the WCAG namely BITV 2.0.
>
> In my experience this gives a false sense of security. Because
> customers that want to take the BITV-Test and get a certificate would
> do anything to pass the test which does not necessarily mean it does
> anything for actual accessibility.
>
> It also fosters the impression that once the test is passed, there is
> no need to work on accessibility any further.
>
> For example I would adjust the site on a technical level and advise
> the customer on how to revise the content and the customer would edit
> the pages that are likely to be analyzed.
>
> But after passing the test, the content is reedited or new content
> follows none of the advice I gave.
>
>
> And I often find that complex features of a site are not considered in
> the guidelines for the test and are therefore not implemented before
> the test or turned off to assure the passing of the test instead of
> really tackling the issue of making them accessible.
>
> But later on they are implemented anyway without any regard to
> accessibility.
>
> Because of that I had also customers not wanting to consider
> accessibility at all because they thought they would not pass the test
> anyway or only with too high costs and without a certificate as sort
> of a reward, accessibility would not be worth the effort.
>
>
> Kind regards Miriam.
>
> On 18.09.2019 21:15, Sudheer Babu wrote:
>> Hey Everyone,
>>
>> Can someone please explain on how to get your web application
>> accessibility
>> certified. Are there any formal ways of getting certified and also does
>> this vary from country to country?
>>
>> Any more information on the same would be really helpful.
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>> Sudheer.
>> >> >> >> > > > > --
Detlev Fischer
Testkreis
Werderstr. 34, 20144 Hamburg
Mobil +49 (0)157 57 57 57 45
http://www.testkreis.de
Beratung, Tests und Schulungen für barrierefreie Websites
From: Praunicorn
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 3:25AM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
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Hi All,
Can you please help me out how to prepare SOW for Web accessibility testing, If you have any sample document kindly share with me.
Thank you.
From: Mark Magennis
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 8:43AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of Steve Green
Sent: 19 September 2019 03:31
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: 18 September 2019 23:47
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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.
From: Steve Green
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 9:18AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of Mark Magennis
Sent: 19 September 2019 15:44
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of Steve Green
Sent: 19 September 2019 03:31
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of glen walker
Sent: 18 September 2019 23:47
To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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.
From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 9:42AM
Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
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 ADDRESS 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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of
> Mark Magennis
> Sent: 19 September 2019 15:44
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of
> Steve Green
> Sent: 19 September 2019 03:31
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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 ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of
> glen walker
> Sent: 18 September 2019 23:47
> To: WebAIM Discussion List < = EMAIL ADDRESS 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
> > > > > >
From: Peter Shikli
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 4:21PM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | Next message →
Sudheer,
The WebAIM folks running this blog are well qualified to answer this
question so I hope they respond. Here's what I know.
There is no authority, person or agency, who can give you a certificate
of accessibility to guarantee that you are accessible and immune from a
lawsuit. After we audit a website and find no accessibility violations
or remediate PDFs, we provide a Letter of Reasonable Accessibility to
summarize that, noting exceptions as needed. This is signed by our
Expert Accessibility Analysts with years of experience who are Trusted
Tester certified by the Office of Accessible Systems and Technology, and
Website Accessibility Specialists certified by the International
Association of Accessibility Professionals. This adds credibility, but
in the final analysis, it is just our opinion.
And keep in mind that after getting whatever letter or certification,
your staff can update content to become inaccessible. Like online
security, this is a process, not a destination reached with a certificate.
Cheers,
Peter Shikli
Access2online
www.access2online.com
Prison inmates helping the internet become accessible
From: chagnon@pubcom.com
Date: Thu, Sep 19 2019 4:50PM
Subject: Re: Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
← Previous message | No next message
Excellent comment, Peter.
â â â
Bevi Chagnon, founder/CEO | = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
â â â
PubCom: Technologists for Accessible Design + Publishing
consulting ' training ' development ' design ' sec. 508 services
Upcoming classes at www.PubCom.com/classes
â â â
Latest blog-newsletter â Accessibility Tips at www.PubCom.com/blog
-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > On Behalf Of Peter Shikli
Sent: Thursday, September 19, 2019 6:21 PM
To: WebAIM Forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: [WebAIM] Getting Your Website Accessibility Certified
Sudheer,
The WebAIM folks running this blog are well qualified to answer this question so I hope they respond. Here's what I know.
There is no authority, person or agency, who can give you a certificate of accessibility to guarantee that you are accessible and immune from a lawsuit. After we audit a website and find no accessibility violations or remediate PDFs, we provide a Letter of Reasonable Accessibility to summarize that, noting exceptions as needed. This is signed by our Expert Accessibility Analysts with years of experience who are Trusted Tester certified by the Office of Accessible Systems and Technology, and Website Accessibility Specialists certified by the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. This adds credibility, but in the final analysis, it is just our opinion.
And keep in mind that after getting whatever letter or certification, your staff can update content to become inaccessible. Like online security, this is a process, not a destination reached with a certificate.
Cheers,
Peter Shikli
Access2online
www.access2online.com
Prison inmates helping the internet become accessible