Proposed By
Sean Keegan
Summary
When looking to purchase or acquire web-based technology solutions, ask questions about how the product or service conforms to accessibility standards for individuals with disabilities. A vendor may not have immediate answers and helping them understand what information you want will get you the the details you need. Let’s review what questions you can ask vendors!
Notes
When initiating conversations with vendors or service providers, helpful to get accessibility information early in process:
#1 - Obtain Documentation
- “Describe how your current product version conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), Level A and Level AA standard.”
- “What documentation can you provide (e.g., VPAT, Accessibility Conformance Report, etc.) regarding the current level of conformance with the WCAG 2.0, Level A and Level AA standards?”
#2 - Ask Questions
- “Who is the designated representative at your company to address issues, questions, or the resolution of accessibility barriers in the application?”
- “What processes do you use to evaluate and remediate accessibility issues as part of your software development lifecycle? Do you use any assistive technology applications to review and test the accessibility of the application?”
- “Which automated and manual accessibility testing procedures do you perform when evaluating the accessibility of the application?”
#3 - Evaluate Responses
Focus on the how the vendor responds to questions, in particular what steps they take as part of their product Evaluation Methodology. These can answer key questions:
- What automated tools were used?
- What manual evaluation techniques were conducted?
- Which browsers and assistive technologies were used? And by who?
Be cautious of the response "We used WCAG 2.0". That provides you with no actual information
More description is better, such as:
- “An accessibility expert conducted an overall technical analysis using Chrome with the axe plugin. Code analysis was conducted using the Chrome browser Developer Tools.”
- “Keyboard accessibility analysis was conducted by attempting to thoroughly navigate the web application in a sequential manner via the keyboard, without using a mouse.”
- “The accessibility for low vision was evaluated by: (1) using the screen magnification, palette, and contrast controls provided by the operating systems; (2) using the font resizing capability offered by the browser, and (3) using Colour Contrast Analyser version 1.1.1.”
Can share the Accessibility Documentation and questions to request from vendors [MS Word] with vendors as way to start the process.
Year
2020
