1. VPATs: For Business or Measure?
Ted Gies
Jay Nemchik
PEAT (Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology) 21 September 2017

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3. Today’s Main Topics VPAT Defined
Why are VPATs important to Elsevier and other businesses
Our VPAT Service Package
Best practices
Trends

4. Elsevier: World Leader in Digital Information Solutions
Publisher transitioned into information analytics
Majority of Nobel Laureates have published with Elsevier over the last 50 years
3800 journal titles
Over 40K DRM Free eBooks
Employs over 7,000 people in 24 countries.
Highly collaborative –SVG charts with HighSoft
Accessibility Policy

5. Voluntary Product Accessibility Template
invented the VPAT
Voluntary Product Accessibility Template
VPAT defined as: A tool used to document a product’s conformance with the 508 accessibility standards and guidelines.
The purpose of the VPAT is to help inform accessibility assessments when purchasing Information and Communication Technology.
508 is comprised of guidelines and best practices to promote product accessibility.
US Access Board manages the 508 standard, but not VPATs.
The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) is the leading industry voice for information and communications technologies’ (ICT) accessibility policy and standards. We work closely with the U.S. and other governments, consumers, and other industry sectors to promote innovations in ICT accessibility that benefit stakeholders in every aspect of their lives. In addition, ITI houses the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template®, or VPAT®.

6. Facts and Figures on Elsevier VPAT Requests
Typical Length – 12 Pages of Word document, turnaround 1 day to 1.5 weeks.
Volume of requests growing – doubling in some years
>40 VPATs in 2016
70% of inquiries come in via sales department
20% through legal contracts department
10% through our accessibility inbox
Customer roles asking for “VPATs”
Procurement specialists
Librarians
Accessibility services
Deans
Instructors

7. Challenges With Managing VPAT Requests
Large Volume
Time Pressure: Sales Folks under hard deadlines
Lack of familiarity – See quote below
“Many of our large research intensive schools will now not sign our contracts unless we submit a web accessibility document to them.” (Sales Director at Elsevier)
“I have never heard of a VPAT, presume it is technical based on the links for other products. I’m sorry to send you on a wild good chase, but I’m copying a couple folks to see what might exist.”
Anonymous Account Manager
Seen cases where as many as 12 s were passed around until they found my department

8. Of course my boy, we have Supports for all checkpoints
Customer wants to know: Is Your Website 508 Compliant?
Of course my boy, we have Supports for all checkpoints
Do You Really Believe Honest Jon’s VPAT?

9. All Supported with No Remarks
Do You Really Believe Honest Jon’s VPAT?
All Supported with No Remarks

10. Our VPAT is intended to answer: Is your website 508 compliant?

11. Present Findings to Stakeholders
The Complete Elsevier VPAT Service Package
Present Findings to Stakeholders
Product Score Card
Public Facing Page
Fix List
VPAT or WCAG 2.0 Document C
Intended for Customer
Remediation Form C
Intended for Development Team C

12. Optimizing our VPAT Process
Customer, Sales, Product, or Marketing contact our team
Prioritize queue of requests by revenue risk/revenue size
Track inquiry data in annual a11y spreadsheet
Establish appropriate service package
Establish deadline and communicate back
Scale level of effort according to site’s longevity
Deliver service package
Post VPAT on public product page and on intranet repository

13. Detailed - Fill out Remarks Section
Best Practices in Creating VPATs
Acronym: DUTCH
Detailed - Fill out Remarks Section
Unbiased - Use 3rd party or standard testing criteria
Template based - Reusable saves time
Contemporary - Update every year or with big releases
Honest - Show where you DO and DO NOT pass a requirement with specific examples

14. VPAT Template

15. WCAG 2.0 1.3.1 Info and Relationships
Supports with Exceptions
Information, structure, and can be programmatically determined. Level A W3C Guideline
OVERALL RATING: Supports with Exceptions
Examples of Supports
Examples of Does Not Support
Well-constructed landmarks are used on all pages to allow easier navigation for screen readers.
Headings are used well on all pages. They are ordered hierarchically and all relevant text is wrapped as headings.
Most areas of repeated links are contained in unordered or ordered lists.
Groups of related inputs are labelled using <fieldset> and <legend> tags.
A few lists of links are not contained in unordered links (e.g. the list of links in the footer).
PDFs have tags but only for figures.
Workarounds and User Tips
Screen reader users (e.g. JAWS) can utilize headings navigation to skim through search results quickly.
PDFs can be read by screen readers by using the Add Tags or Auto Tag feature.
First delete all existing tags.
New Template Coming Soon in PPT

16. Increase Customer Satisfaction with Quality VPATs
"I would like you and those who created this VPAT to know, that I appreciate how well done it is. I truly appreciate all of the details in the areas which are supported with exceptions or not supported. It is rare to see a VPAT with such specific detail about the functionality and exceptions. I wish more vendors would do as good a job as Elsevier has done."
Director, Disability Resources
ADA Coordinator
University XYZ

17. Example ScienceDirect Accessibility Statement

18. Central Accessibility Team is a Cost Effective Way to Manage VPATs
External consultancies (VPAT) expensive compared to FTE
VPAT by intern was 1/3 cost of VPAT by cheapest consultant
Cost savings data helped hire Jay as FTE accessibility specialist
Continuous queue of customers and internals illustrated capacity gap
VPAT Provider
Cost Per VPAT
Intern
$844
Cheapest independent consultant
$2.5K
Average cost across (5) consultants
$5800
Most expensive consultant
$11K

19. What’s New in the VPAT Universe?
Remediation Forms
3 External Trends
VPAT 2.0

20. Proliferation of the Accessibility Conformance and Remediation Form (~20% of VPATs in 2016)
VPAT creation was a much more self-contained requirement
Lack of familiarity with 508 checkpoints to boil them down
Aversion of PMs to promise any kind of date with so many competing requirements
Some products rely on 3rd party software, so chasing down other companies to complete this is not fun

21. 3 External Trends in VPATs and US 508
More follow up from customers
Phone calls, remediation plans, workarounds
Wider Domain Adoption of 508/VPATs:
US Government Agencies
State Universities
Community Colleges
Online Universities
Police Departments (NEW!)
Healthcare companies (NEW!)
Switch from web standards to WCAG 2.0 (AA)

22. VPAT 2.0 (Beta) Available on ITI Website (32 Pages!)
Big change is to broaden standards
V2 Tacks on EN and WCAG A, AA, AAA
32 Pages Vs 18 Page Version 1
Good Best Practices and FAQ
Send feedback to ITI through online survey

23. VPAT 2.0 (Beta)
Big change is to broaden standards
VPAT 2.0 tacks on EN and WCAG A, AA, AAA
32 Pages Vs 18 Page Version 1
Good Section on Best Practices and FAQ

24. Conclusion
In business, VPATs are the industry standard for responding to US 508 accessibility inquiries.
For measure, we recommend a VPAT service package to tell the whole story.
By expanding a VPAT into more than just a list of violations, the team can be trusted, have more impact, and develop into a larger team.
By formally tracking VPAT requests, you can help demonstrate the business case for accessibility to management.

25. Resources
ITI Website (Creator of the VPAT and VPAT 2.0 Beta) ScienceDirect Accessibility Page (With Completed VPAT) Elsevier Accessibility Policy Elsevier Accessibility Checklist Tool Guide to the Section 508 Standards for Electronic and Information Technology, Software Applications and Operating Systems ( ) U of Arizona VPAT Template (with inline Guidance) US VA 508 Standards Checklists

26. Discussion How are other firms dealing with Remediation Forms?
Can we help educate Product Managers to help in completing remediation forms?
Have accessibility teams already transitioned from 508 checkpoints to WCAG 2?
Which team in your company completes VPATs?