How to Document Accessibility Compliance
While making your software, website, mobile application, or other digital product accessible is foundational to your success, it is also critical to document your progress and your current state of compliance. Documenting conformance to standards like WCAG, ADA, Section 508, and others is necessary for a variety of reasons, including legal risk mitigation, improving user experience, or becoming eligible for new business contracts based on procurement requirements. Whatever the case, our documentation services leverage industry-standard formats and are designed to prove your state of compliance and accessibility.
In 2021, 2,352 web accessibility lawsuits were filed in the United States, and 300 of the websites were using third-party overlays.
VPAT
Voluntary Product Assessment Template
A Voluntary Product Assessment Template (VPAT) is a specific type of accessibility conformance report defined by the US Federal Government. It is quickly becoming the industry standard report for accessibility compliance and has various versions including WCAG, European Union, Section 508, and International (which combines all three). This report documents your website, web application, or mobile app’s state of compliance on a requirement-by-requirement basis. Many organizations require a VPAT to show accessibility compliance, and while it is a useful and detailed review of a digital product’s accessibility, it’s not the only format available.
QualityLogic’s accessibility practitioners can work with you to explain the differences, identify the right format for your needs, and prepare the document based on a formal audit.
Accessibility Statement
An accessibility statement is a statement on your digital asset which highlights your commitment to accessibility. It shows the limitations of technology when interacting with your website or software via assistive technology and provides a way for users to contact you with issues.
The accessibility statement demonstrates that your organization is invested in and actively working on accessibility and creates an opportunity for users to reach out with questions or issues which provides a great user experience.
QualityLogic supports clients by drafting and maintaining accessibility statements on their behalf based on industry best practices.
Accessibility Commitment Letter
An Accessibility Commitment Letter (ACL) expands on the accessibility statement serving as a document that can be shared with clients, partners, employees, governments, and other parties as appropriate. An ACL verifies your organization’s total approach to accessibility from an objective third-party standpoint and is updated over time to show your organization’s progress and improvement on accessibility initiatives. This document includes details like digital product development practices, testing procedures, known issues, hiring practices, resources available to users, future considerations, remediation plans, and more.
QualityLogic provides independent organizational practice reviews related to digital accessibility and can document its findings in the form of an Accessibility Commitment Letter, allowing you to show proof of your current state of accessibility.
Certification
Many reports and documents provide feedback on the state of a digital asset at a particular point in time, receiving updates periodically following re-audits or other events as appropriate, but how do you show that your website or web application continues to be compliant? That’s where certification comes in. QualityLogic provides third-party, independent certification of compliance to WCAG achieved by successfully remediating all accessibility issues and maintained through a combination of at-scale automated monitoring solutions and manual verification performed on all new code releases or modifications (all of which QualityLogic can support).
If you’re ready to certify your website or web application, let us know and we will help you get there.
Document Your Digital Accessibility Process and Show Proof of Compliance
Communicate your digital accessibility progress and document your state of compliance and accessibility objectively.