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The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (or VPAT®) is the industry standard format for documenting accessibility conformance of information and communications technology (ICT) products and services. The VPAT report format was developed by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) and is offered free-of-charge for businesses and organizations looking to document accessibility conformance of their products.

There are four versions of the Voluntary Product Accessibility template:

• VPAT 2.4 Rev 508: Revised Section 508 standards
• VPAT 2.4 Rev EU: EN 301 549
• VPAT 2.4 Rev WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 / WCAG 2.1)
• VPAT 2.4 INT: Incorporates all three of the above standards.

Voluntary Product Accessibility templates for Section 508 & WCAG conformance are available for download on the ITI website: https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat .

Website accessibility is important for businesses, non-profits, and government agencies alike. An inaccessible website can:

• Expose your business to potential liability in the form of an ADA lawsuit
• Jeopardize funding for federal contracts and funding streams
• Cost you potential customers and sales

Reduce Exposure to Liability

Legal Trends in Website Accessibility

Legal Trends in Website Accessibility – PDF Format

 

Law firms are increasingly filing class action suits on behalf of disabled individuals throughout the United States who use the Internet to facilitate their access to goods and services. These individuals have disabilities that include: blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, mobility impairments, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and various federal courts have concluded that businesses which offer goods and services to the public through websites are public accommodations that must comply with the general accessibility mandate of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Beginning in 2006, private litigants and the U.S. Department of Justice began filing or threatening to file legal action based on allegedly inaccessible websites (and eventually also including mobile applications). Here are some notable legal decisions on website accessibility:

• June 2017 – A federal judge in Florida ruled that the inaccessibility of Winn Dixie’s website violated a Florida man’s rights under ADA Title III. Plaintiff Juan Carlos Gil sued on grounds that Winn Dixie’s website was not usable with a screen reader. The court ruled that Winn Dixie would have to update its website to ensure accessibility for assistive technology users, and mandated web accessibility training to all employees who perform work on its website.
• August 2008 – Target Corporation settled a class action lawsuit filed by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and agreed to pay class damages of $6 million. The FBA was awarded reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of $3,738,864.96. Targets’ own legal costs have not been published. The ruling set a landmark precedent encouraging online retailers to incorporate accessibility measures into their websites.

Check out a list of other recent settlement agreements

Achieve Compliance with Section 508

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that all federal agencies and companies doing business with the federal government provide equal access to information technology. Recent rule making by the access board (known as the ICT Refresh) requires organizations receiving federal funds to meet WCAG 2.0 priority level AA conformance.

Section 508 was originally enacted to:

• Eliminate barriers to information technology
• Create new opportunities for persons with disabilities
• Encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals

Reach a Wider Audience

When we publish content on the Web that is not accessible, we are excluding one or more groups of people with disabilities from accessing this content.

• If we publish videos without synchronized captions, we are excluding deaf people from accessing the audio track of our multimedia content.
• If we publish videos without audio description, we are excluding blind users and people with low vision.
• For websites that are not usable with a keyboard only, we are excluding blind users who require assistive technology devices (screen readers and braille displays), from accessing and navigating web pages.
• For images and graphics that do not include alternate text, we are excluding blind users who need alternate text to understand the context and meaning of images.

By creating content that is accessible, we ensure that the greatest number of people can access and use it. For businesses and communities, this means a more inclusive world where people (regardless of ability) can access goods and services, supports, and any other benefits of society.­­­­­­

Accessibility by the Numbers

What can you do to protect your business?

• Ensure that all pages on your website conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• Post an accessibility policy on your website to ensure that users with disabilities know that you’ve taken steps to create a site that works with assistive technology devices
• Have a plan to maintain accessibility conformance levels as your site grows

Aurora can help you navigate the process of accessibility conformance evaluation, repair, disclosure and maintenance so that you can focus on other things (like your business).

A Slow Website can Sink your Online Business

Website performance is often overlooked, but is a critical factor in the success of your website. A slow website can have a profound impact on user experience, and impacts your bottom line in a number of ways including: poor performance in search engines, lost visitors, decreased engagement and conversions, and higher advertising costs.

Poor Performance in Search Results

Google uses performance data in its search algorithm – so a slow website can impact your sites page rank, and hurt your placement in search results. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a great tool for checking the performance of your website.

Lost Customers and Sales

According to a report by the BBC, almost half of visitors will leave a site that takes longer than three seconds to load. If you’re a retailer, a slow website can hit your bottom line hard. According to Kissmetrics, 79% of shoppers who experience performance problems with a website say that they won’t return.

Increased Costs

If you’re using Google AdWords, a slow website can cost you more to advertise your products and services. In AdWords, Google assigns quality scores for keywords, landing pages, and ad relevance. A slow landing page will impact your quality score, and make your ad less competitive in AdWords auctions. In the long run, you’ll end up paying more to place your ad competitively in search results.

Assistive Technology Industry Association, the premier association for assistive technology solutions providers, defines an assistive technology device as follows:

“Assistive technology (AT) is any item, piece of equipment, software program, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of persons with disabilities.”

Assistive technology, as it applies to the web, is any device that augments a user’s ability to use and interact with the web. Some common examples of assistive technology devices include:

Braille Displays

Braille displays convert screen information to braille using electronically actuated pins. Braille displays can show up to 80 characters, and refresh as users navigate the web.

Screen Readers

Screen readers convert digital text and other data into synthesized speech. Screen reader users commonly use a keyboard only to navigate pages on the web. Some common screen readers used by people with low vision include: JAWS, NVDA, and Voiceover.

Screen Magnifier

A screen magnifier alters the graphical output of a computer to zoom parts of the screen. Screen magnifiers are useful for people with low vision, color blindness, and other visual impairments.

An accessible website is fully compatible with assistive technology devices including screen readers, braille displays, screen magnifiers, and more. Accessible websites work seamlessly with these technologies to ensure that individuals with disabilities have full access to information, goods and services on the web.

Inaccessible websites can be difficult or impossible for assistive technology users to access, and can expose your business to legal liability in the form of an ADA lawsuit.

What is the trend towards Website Accessibility about?

Law firms are increasingly filing class action suits on behalf of disabled individuals throughout the United States who use the Internet to facilitate their access to goods and services. These individuals have disabilities that include: blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, mobility impairments, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these.

What standards are available for website accessibility assessment?

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has created the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) to help website owners and developers meet the challenges of developing accessible web content for assistive technology users. Learn more about the WCAG: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ .

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are based on four basic principles of accessibility. These require websites to be perceivable, operable, understandable and robust:

Perceivable

• Provide text alternatives for non-text content.
• Provide captions and other alternatives for multimedia
• Create content that can be presented in different ways, including by assistive technologies, without losing meaning.
• Make it easier for users to see and hear content

Operable

• Make all functionality available from a keyboard
• Give users enough time to read and use content.
• Do not use content that causes seizures.
• Help users navigate and find content.

Understandable

• Make text readable and understandable.
• Make content appear and operate in predictable ways.
• Help users avoid and correct mistakes.

Robust

• Maximize compatibility with current and future user tools.

Common Barriers to Website Accessibility

Properly designed websites and web tools can be used by people with disabilities. However, currently many sites and tools are developed with accessibility barriers that make it difficult or impossible for some people to use them. Below are just a few examples:

• Images missing alternate text – alternate text provides supplemental information about the context and content of images for blind users.
• Website navigation systems not usable with a keyboard only – screen reader users and people with motor impairments cannot use a mouse to navigate webpages. The WCAG requires that web page navigation systems be usable with a mouse only.
• Videos missing captions – synchronized captions are a text alternative for the audio track in a video or multimedia presentation. Captions allow deaf and hearing-impaired people to access the audio portion of video content.
• Webpages missing semantic structure – headings, lists, and other webpage markup are essential to help assistive technology users understand the structure of webpages.

One or more of these accessibility barriers could make your site difficult or impossible to use for people with disabilities. By removing barriers to accessibility, you can open your website to a much wider audience, attract new customers, and reduce exposure to legal liability.

Benefits of an Accessible Website

Accessible websites are fully compatible with assistive technology devices including: screen readers, braille displays, and text-only browsers. By making your website accessible to assistive technology users and people with disabilities, you will:

• Reduce exposure to legal liability. A website that works well with assistive technology devices is not a prime target for a Title III ADA lawsuit.
• Maintain compliance with state and federal accessibility guidelines (i.e. Section 508). Section 508 requires that organizations receiving federal funding provide equal access to information technology (i.e. websites).
• Improve performance in search engines. Accessible websites provide additional semantic information (alternate text, captions, etc.) that can be used by search engines to index and rank web pages.
• Reach a wider audience.