adacompliancepros's blog

Working toward accessibility with the wearer of the shoe!

As a person with disabilities, always keep in mind that your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go, but merely where you can start. Don’t let your mind limit what your able heart encourages you to do. That is the essence of ADA compliance!

What is ADA compliance for a person with disability?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) forbids discrimination against people with disabilities in a variety of settings, including employment, transportation, public accommodations, communications, and access to state and local government programs and services.

As a person with disabilities, this means that all electronic information and technology (EIT) products and services must be accessible to you. The amendment of Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act has strengthened ADA compliance.

The change, popularly known as "Revised Section 508," requires federal agencies' EIT goods and services to be accessible to people with disabilities, including their employees and members of the public who have disabilities.

Section 508 compliance

Section 508 compliance vpat refers to the ecosystem of practices designed to ensure that the federal government and its agencies acquire, create, utilize, and maintain EIT that is accessible to people with disabilities, regardless of whether they work for the federal government or its agencies.

The foregoing are the tenets of 508 compliance,which should inspire every person who has disabilities to establish their role in ensuring the federal government and its agencies promote accessibility by purchasing and deploying EIT products that do not obscure people with disabilities from accessing electronic communication and technology. That is the purpose of this article: to encourage people with disabilities to deploy their exquisite capabilities toward helping to improve the accessibility of EIT products or services!

If you’re a person with a disability, there are many ways you can contribute to the goal of enhanced accessibility of EIT products and services. As the wearer of the shoe, no one can better tell the extent to which an EIT product or service is for people with a disability similar to yours than you.

You can, therefore, choose to not let manufacturers and vendors grope in the darkness over whether their EIT products and services are accessible to people with a disability similar to yours. You can do this by providing unsolicited feedback upon testing their EIT product or service, participating in the VPAT certification of the products or services, or seeking to join their product or service development teams. In this article, we provide you with information about how you can help with VPAT certification.

VPAT certification

To assist with VPAT testing for EIT products and services, you must first understand the VPAT ecosystem, which includes words like as "VPAT certification," "VPAT accessibility," "VPAT compliance," "VPAT accessibility conformance report (ACR")," and "accessibility VPAT," among others.

Keep in mind that, contrary to what the title implies, VPAT certification does not include the presentation of a certificate. There is no certification document, certification process, or certification authority. It simply refers to the development of a VPAT report in accordance with the applicable accessibility standard. This includes doing a thorough VPAT exam before to accurately, precisely, and completely filling out the appropriate VPAT version.

As a person with disability, your insights during the VPAT testing can help the EIT product or service assessment team flag the accessibility flaws in the product or service. This will help them to improve the product or service before making it available in the market or to indicate the flaws in the product's or service’s VPAT ACR so that potential buyers can make informed decisions when considering it for procurement alongside similar products or services.

VPAT accessibility

VPAT accessibility is another term within the VPAT ecosystem of terms that you will need to master. Many people confuse “VPAT accessibility” with “accessibility VPAT.”

VPAT accessibility could refer to the process of making a properly completed VPAT available to potential buyers by posting it on an accessible website, providing it to any potential buyer who requests it, or simply using the checklist or criteria provided in the appropriate VPAT edition to test the accessibility of an EIT product or service and documenting the results in an ACR.

In contrast, accessibility VPAT refers to using the right VPAT edition to test an EIT product or service and generate a VPAT report. If, for example, you want your EIT product or service to be purchased by federal agencies, the VPAT Section 508 edition is the one to utilize. If you want your product or service to enter the European Union market, the VPAT EU (EN 301 549) edition is the rightaccessibility VPAT to use.

Aside from the VPAT Section 508 and VPAT EU editions, two further VPAT editions exist: the VPAT web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) and the VPAT international (INT). The accessibility VPAT WCAG is used to document the accessibility of EIT products or services based on the WCAG standard, whereas the accessibility VPAT INT is used to document the accessibility of EIT products and services intended for the international market.

Needto learn more about VPAT testing in disability?

You can learn more about“VPAT testing in disability” by reviewing a professionally completed VPAT certification or by calling ADA Compliance Pros at (626) 486-220 for expert assistance.

Don’t ignore this article!  You’ll meet the VPAT 2.4 template ahead!

You may believe that information regarding the voluntary product accessibility template (VPAT) is irrelevant to you because you are not in the technology sector. You could be correct, but not entirely. I had similar views until I realized I lacked confidence in comparison to my peers in terms of staying on top of my job.

I became frustrated while waiting for Windows to boot up and had to continue reading printed newspapers. My peers were always one step ahead of me. They had tailored email subscription lists, numerous newspapers on their display devices, and rarely used real diaries!

I concluded that the younger generation's better comfort with electronic information technology (EIT) was owing to their constant, split-second immersion in cutting-edge digital innovations. This enabled them to be more successful in reviewing digital products and services and selecting the best to keep them ahead of the competition.

As a learner, you need to know how VPAT compliance helps

"I can self-curate my education by increasing access to content offered by the top educators, as well as remotely experience holidays through high-resolution videos on massive high-definition screens," quipped one of the youngsters as I marveled at his ability to stay up with innovations targeted at enhancing the lives of elderly people with disabilities, such as the capacity to physically monitor their well-being using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors based on motion or voice-controlled calls!

"VPAT accessibility rocks!" he exclaimed to me as he zoomed away from my presence one day. This prompted me to begin studying VPAT accessibility! That is when I determined to keep up with technology advances, and as a learner, understanding how VPAT compliance affects your life is critical.

What is VPAT accessibility?

VPAT accessibility is simply the practice of applying the right version of the VPAT to make EIT products and services understandable, relevant, and useable for the greatest number of people, including people with disabilities.

The VPAT web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG), VPAT Section 508, VPAT European Union (EU), and VPAT International (INT) are the four VPAT versions that underlie VPAT compliance. The VPAT WCAG version supports the creation of VPAT reports that adhere to the WCAG standard. Section 508 VPAT assists in the preparation of ACRs, which are supported by the Revised Section 508 of the United States Rehabilitation Act accessibility criteria.

The VPAT INT supports the creation of ACRs for the worldwide market, whereas the VPAT EU guides the development of ACRs for the European market.

What is VPAT compliance?

VPAT compliance is the precise documentation, using the relevant version of the VPAT that supports businesses and organizations in measuring and demonstrating the conformance of their EIT products or services to the set accessibility criteria.

Its primary goal is to ensure that EIT goods and services comply with established accessibility requirements such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Revised Section 508, WCAG, and the EU's EN 301 549.

If you develop or sell physical devices or hardware, such as copiers, cellphones, tablets, and telephone systems, or if you provide services that require access to EIT products, you should learn about the VPAT 2.4 template.

If you work with digital documents, apps and software programs used by public-facing mechanisms and agencies, software and apps designed for use by federal government employees, agencies, and federally-funded organizations, public-facing websites or websites used by employees of the federal government and its agencies, or interactive voice response programs, you should also be familiar with the VPAT 2.4 template.

What is the VPAT 2.4 template and what is new in it?

The VPAT 2022 ACRs are based on the VPAT 2.4 template, which is the most recent version of the VPAT. In February 2020, VPAT 2.4 was launched, and it included the EN 301 549 EU Accessibility Standard.

The VPAT 2.4 template, like the original VPAT, has a column for recording conformity to each provision of the standard or guideline that applies to an EIT product or service. It asks EIT product or service producers or vendors to declare the level of accessibility conformance of their products or services by simply choosing one of four available options: "supports," "partially supports," "does not support," or "not applicable."

The conformance level "partially supports" substituted the previous VPAT edition's conformance level "supports with exceptions." This substitution was made at the request of representatives from the US Access Board. The VPAT 2.4 template additionally includes a column for further clarifying each reported conformance level.

In addition, unlike the previous VPAT version, the VPAT 2.4 template does not include a date. The date was removed from the document to avoid any confusion with the VPAT report date. With this new feature, the date is now included in the file name, while the version information is included in the document itself.

VPAT 2.4 also includes version-specific instructions, which is a new feature. It also includes a new table heading and revisions in the EN 301-549 edition. The VPAT EU and INT versions' links and tables have also been updated to suit the amended EN 301 549 standard.

Ideally, the most significant new additions in VPAT 2.4 are related with the EN 301 549 standard from the European Union. Other alterations were done, but they are minor. So, if your EIT product or service seeks to target the EU and/or international markets, ensure you update your VPAT ACRs using the VPAT 2.4 template.

Need help with updating your VPAT ACR using the VPAT 2.4 template?

You can learn how to update your VPAT ACR to the VPAT 2.4 template criteria by reviewing a professionally filled VPAT 2.4 example, or you can call ADA Compliance Pros at (626) 486-220 for expert assistance.

Securing the universality of your EIT products and services

The universality of anything, including that of electronic and information technology (EIT) products and services, is what gives it power. Accessibility to everyone, regardless of disability status, is a critical component of that universality.

That is what the voluntary product accessibility template (VPAT), developed by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) in collaboration with the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide a means for organizations and businesses to showcase their accessibility compliance and conformity to existing standards, helps to deliver.

Without VPAT accessibility, your EIT product or service will not be considered in mainstream procurement processes, such as those of the federal government and its agencies, educational institutions, and large corporations.

What is VPAT accessibility?

VPAT accessibility is the practice of utilizing a suitable VPAT template to make information, activities, and/or environments sensible, meaningful, and useable for as many people as possible, including people with disabilities.

It begins with selecting the appropriate edition of the VPAT template to use in describing the degree of accessibility of your EIT product or service, followed by VPAT testing of the product or service based on the criteria and technical specifications provided in the VPAT, filling out the VPAT template to generate an ACR, and making the VPAT ACR accessible.

Given that practically all sorts of businesses utilize websites to advertise their products or services, no company or organization can afford to overlook VPAT accessibility, even if its products or services are not in the technology industry. People may question your credibility as a company or group if you do not have a website.

Having a website allows you to make a solid first impression and gives customers confidence that you are a legitimate business. A website also greatly assists you in showcasing your business to potential customers. Nonetheless, having a website that excludes a large section of your potential customers, such as people with disabilities, does not make sensible commercial sense.

The business sense in ensuring website VPAT compliance

Did you know that around 16 million adults in the United States live with a disability? This means that 26% of adults in the United States, or one in every four, have a disability. It is also estimated that a round 87 million (one in every four) adults in Europe have some form of disability, and one billion people worldwide experience disability, accounting for 15% of the world's population.

If your website is inaccessible to people with disabilities, your products or services are excluding a large portion of the market. The disability market is predicted to be larger than China and is emerging as other markets have in the past. It has a yearly disposable income of almost $1.9 trillion!

You don’t want to exclude such a huge market from your products or services, do you? That is why you need to ensure your website is what VPAT accessibility experts simply refer to as "VPAT compliant."

Steps to creating a VPAT compliant website

Clearly, your website can only be considered effective or powerful if it is accessible to everyone. As indicated earlier, the universality of anything is underpinned by the thing’s ability to be accessed by everyone, regardless of his or her disability status.

Here are some essential measures you can take to make your website VPAT compliant and thus successful in accomplishing the goals for which it was designed:

• Choose a content management system that supports accessibility.
• Make good use of headings to ensure that your information is properly structured and arranged.
• Include appropriate alt text and images.
• Give your links unique and meaningful names.
• Use color with caution.
• Check that your forms are user-friendly.
• For tabular data, use tables rather than layouts.
• Ascertain that all of the website's content can be accessed logically using only a keyboard.
• Provide access to dynamic material.
• To assess your website's accessibility, use a trustworthy website compliance checker or a third-party VPAT compliance specialist.

Need help with VPAT accessibility for your website?

Call (626) 486-220 to speak with a VPAT compliance professional for more information and assistance in developing an accessible website, testing your current website for accessibility, or updating your website to make it accessible to all people.