VPATs: For Business or Measure?Ted Gies twitter:@tedgies1

CSUN 2017 Golden Hill AB

3 March 2017

Jay Nemchik

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• is a premier global Health, Science, and Technology publisher.

• is headquartered in Amsterdam.• publishes thousands of books each year.• publishes over 2,500 journals.• majority of Nobel Laureates have published with Elsevier

over the last 50 years• created the products ScienceDirect and Scopus.• employs over 7,000 people in 24 countries.• Highly collaborative – Last year SVG charts with HighSoft

Elsevier: World Leader in Digital Information Solutions

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• 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.

invented the VPAT

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Volume of requests growing – doubling in some years• 80% of inquiries come in via sales department• 15% through legal contracts department• 5% through our accessibility inbox

Customer roles asking for “VPATs” or “ADA Compliance”• Procurement specialists• Librarians• Accessibility services• Deans• Instructors

Typical Length – 12 Pages, turnaround 1 day to 1.5 weeks.

Facts and Figures on Elsevier VPAT Requests

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• Time Pressure: Sales Folks Are Trying to Win a Sale By a Deadline• “Many of our large research intensive schools will now not sign our

contracts unless we submit a web accessibility document to them.” • Unpredictability: requests come out of the blue and can be bundled• 3rd party plugins (book players, web libraries)

Challenges With Managing VPAT Requests

“I have never heard of this, 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.”

“I am sorry – I am not sure what is meant by “screen reader”. Can you explain?”

“Any Clue on a VPAT”?

“This is a really strange request, but the customer’s IT department is asking for our VTAT# for Sherpath?”

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Customer: Is Your Website 508 Compliant?

Do You Really Believe Honest Jon’s VPAT?

Of course my boy, we have Supports for all

checkpoints

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Do You Really Believe Honest Jon’s VPAT?

All Supported with No Remarks

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VPAT SECTION SUPPORTS/PASS SUPPORTS WITH EXCEPTIONS/PARTIALLY

DOES NOT SUPPORT NOT APPLICABLE

Section 1194.21 Software Applications and Operating Systems

5 5 2

Section 1194.22 Web-based Internet Information and Applications

5 5 2 4

Section 1194.31 Functional Performance Criteria

3 1 2

Section 1194.41 Information, Documentation and Support

2 1

TOTALS SUPPORTS/PASS SUPPORTS WITH EXCEPTIONS/PARTIAL

DOES NOT SUPPORT NOT APPLICABLE

37 total checkpoints 15 12 2 8

Our Scorecard Table Answers: Is your website 508 compliant?

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Facilitate a

Remediation Form

Present Findings to Stakeholders

Top 10 Fix List

Score Card Table

VPAT

The Complete Elsevier VPAT Service Package

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• Prioritize the requests by revenue risk/revenue size• Scale service package according to reusability

of the VPAT • Present the fix list to educate developers• Utilize a more presentable word template • Create discoverable VPAT intranet presence

Best Practices in Managing VPAT Process

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Acronym: DUTCH

Detailed - Fill out Remarks SectionUnbiased - Use 3rd party or standard testing criteriaTemplate based - Reusable saves timeContemporary - Update every year or with big releasesHonest - Show where you DO and DO NOT pass a requirement with specific examples

Best Practices in Creating VPATs

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VPAT Template

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"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 ResourcesADA CoordinatorUniversity XYZ

Get “Street Cred” With VPATs

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Give Your VPATs Wings to Fly

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• Cost savings data helped hire Jay as FTE accessibility specialist• Cost per VPAT was 1/3 using Jay compared to cheapest consultant• Continuous queue of customers and internals illustrated capacity gap

Cost Analysis of VPAT Using FTE vs Consultants

VPAT Provider Cost Per VPAT

Jay Nemchik intern $844Cheapest independent consultant $2.5KAverage cost across (5) consultants $5800Most expensive consultant $11K

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Proliferation of the Accessibility Conformance and Remediation Form (~20% of VPATs in 2016)

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1. More follow up from customers• Phone calls, remediation plans, workarounds

2. Wider Domain Adoption of 508/VPATs:• US Government Agencies• State Universities• Community Colleges• Online Universities• Police Departments (NEW!)• Healthcare companies (NEW!)

3. 508 Refresh is now on the Federal Register as of 18 Jan 2017

3 External Trends in VPATs and US 508

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• Big change is to broaden standards• V2 Tacks on EN 301 549 and WCAG A, AA, AAA• 32 Pages Vs 18 Page Version 1• Good Best Practices and FAQ• Send feedback to ITI through online survey

VPAT 2.0 (Beta)VPAT 2.0 (Beta) Available on ITI Website

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• Big change is to broaden standards• V2 Tacks on EN 301 549 and WCAG A, AA, AAA• 32 Pages Vs 18 Page Version 1• Good Best Practices and FAQ• Send feedback to ITI through online survey

VPAT 2.0 (Beta)

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• 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.

• We formally track VPAT requests to help demonstrate the business case for accessibility to management.

Conclusion

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ITI Website (Creator of the VPAT and VPAT 2.0 Beta) https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility

Elsevier Accessibility Policyhttps://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/accessibility

Elsevier Accessibility Checklist Toolhttp://romeo.elsevier.com/accessibility_checklist/

ScienceDirect Accessibility Page (With Completed VPAT)https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/support/web-accessibility

Guide to the Section 508 Standards for Electronic and Information Technology, Software Applications and Operating Systems (1194.21) http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.21.htm

U of Arizona VPAT Template (with inline Guidance)http://drc.arizona.edu/about/vpat

US VA 508 Standards Checklistshttp://www.section508.va.gov/Standards_Checklist.asp

Resources

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• How are other firms dealing with Remediation Forms?• Can we encourage Product Managers to own remediation

forms each time a VPAT is created?• When will teams start transitioning 508 checkpoints to

WCAG 2?• Which team in your company completes VPATs?

Discussion