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Friday 13 March 2020, 9:00 AM Platinum 6
Ted Gies
Jay Nemchik
Elsevier Digital Accessibility Team
VPATs: For Business
or Measure?

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− Publisher transformed into information analytics
− Majority of Nobel Laureates have published with Elsevier
over the last 50 years
− 2500 journal titles
− Over 40K DRM Free eBooks
− Employs over 7,900 people in 24 countries.
− Highly collaborative –SVG charts with HighSoft
− Accessibility Policy
Elsevier: World Leader in Digital Information Solutions

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• Who has completed a VPAT for a product?
• Who has had to review a vendor VPAT?
Quick Poll

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AGENDA
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• About Elsevier
• What is a VPAT?
• What do we mean by “business and measure”?
• Elsevier VPAT service package
• Customer Perspective
• Metrics/Data Analytics
• Takeaways and Resources

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In 2001, the Information Technology Industry Council partnered with the
General Services Administration to create a tool that would assist Federal
contracting and procurement officials in fulfilling the market research
requirements specified in Section 508. The result of their collaboration
was the 508 Evaluation Template – a simple, web-based checklist that
allows Vendors to document how their product did or did not meet the
various Section 508 Requirements.
-Background section from original VPAT, circa 2007?

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VPAT vs ACR
• Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (a blank one)
• Accessibility Conformance Report (a completed one)
• VPATs cover ICT (information and communications technology)
• Such as: hardware, software, web pages, documents, and authoring tools.
Anything from photocopiers, to kiosks, to technical manuals.

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ITI VPAT 2.4 (March 2020)
• 4 flavors
• WCAG Edition (15 14 pages)
• 508 Edition (27 26 pages)
• EU EN 301 549 Edition (39 pages)
• International Edition (51 50 pages)
Elsevier VPATs
• 2 flavors (all WCAG 2.0/2.1)
• 10-14 page Word document
• Are very well liked by
customers!
• Evolving with the industry
needs
We use our own custom VPAT template

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Business and Measure
• The VPAT can be used as both an externally-facing document and as an
internal barometer for progress.
• It should be leveraged to scope future work for the product team.
• The VPAT and the accompanying guidance work has become our
“Accessibility Service Package” which has become our team’s core
deliverable.
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Accessibility Service Package
• Providing an entire package to a product team can provide a breadth of
guidance for the team.
• Multiple avenues for remediation efforts and as many ways as needed to
help teams reach better compliance.
• Especially helpful for products and companies that still struggle to adopt
proper accessibility mandates as a culture.
• Guided effort can educate the teams so less mistakes happen in the future
and better designs and development work will lead to a more accessible
product.
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10.
First VPAT
• Welcome to our first VPAT,
made in 2007 for
ScienceDirect.
• The format was directly
provided to us by California
State University and was
based on the original ITI
format.
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7 Years Later (2014)
• We eventually formatted our own
version for several reasons.
− There was a lot of front material.
− It didn’t look particularly pleasing.
− It was long.
• We wanted something more
presentable to customers and our
own product teams.
• Eventually we started using
WCAG 2.0 checkpoints instead
of 508.
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VPAT/ACR
• Customers initially only asked for
a VPAT.
• We ensured that the VPAT would
all gaps for each page.
• University disability services has
been pleased with how the listing
of individual gaps has made their
jobs easier.
• It became apparent that more
would eventually be needed.
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Prioritized Fix List
• Very common questions we were asked by
our product teams were:
− “Where do we start?”
− “What would be the highest priority items to focus
on?”
− “What are some quick wins for an immediate
impact?”
• Our fix list attempts to address those issues.
• This is were we can get into specified code-
fixes and solutions for complex problems.
• There were also times where we’d come
across issues that weren’t specifically listed in
a WCAG 2.0 review, and we could list those
and certain usability recommendations here.
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Accessibility Statement
• Need a place for an
accessibility statement and
place to host the VPAT.
• Document our accessibility
policy and show a product’s
features and gaps.
• Will act as a public
statement and grow
reputation as a company
showing commitment to
accessibility.
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Product Scorecard
• We came up with our Product Scorecard as a way to show where the
product stands for overall process maturity.
− How much testing is done by the team
− How much training has the team undergone.
• Our “Elevator Pitch”: cover the important things that the product does well
and where it needs improvement.
− It can be used as a quick paragraph of notes to state to a manager for how well
the product is doing.
• The last thing we give is an Expert Rating, different from the compliance
percentage.
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Clinical Key: Product Accessibility Scorecard
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Expert Rating
• Although WCAG does a great job covering many of the issues that PWD
face, it does not catch everything. It also places equal weighting on all
success criteria.
• Our personal scores try to give a more “expert opinion” on the state of
accessibility in the product.
• Our scores are made to highlight the potential discrepancy between that
quantitative score, and what we feel isn’t necessarily captured.
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Product Analytics
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0
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38 Star Wars Character Fan Sites Q1 2020
Support of the 38 A and AA WCAG 2.0 Requirements
Fully Supported Partially Supported Not Supported

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Email Summary Report
• We wanted to ensure that plenty of the main points of our review were
captured in our Email Summary.
− Where were the best improvements?
− Who on the team was responsible for championing change?
− Which checkpoints changed since the last VPAT?
− Where would be some starting points to tackle for the team?
• We attempt to wrap up most initial questions that teams might have and
answer them preemptively with our summaries.
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Time and Effort for a Deliverable
• The time for a package the we deliver can change based on a variety of
factors.
− How many pages?
− How complex is the site?
− What user flows exist?
• Time can range anywhere from a few days to two weeks.
• Potential for team expansion if the time resources are not available.
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Customer Perspective

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VPAT Questions We Receive From Customers
• It’s contract renewal time for our library, please send latest VPAT for our
accessibility review?
• Do you have a newer VPAT? This one is over a year old.
• Do you have a VPAT in a more “traditional” format?
• Do you have a VPAT to help our campus legal team determine if the
software is permissible on campus?
• Would you please complete the remediation form to show workarounds
and a timeline for fixing open issues?
• Please let us know your plans to improve accessibility. What are your
Accessibility goals and perhaps a timeline for completion.

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VPATs and Reputation Building
• VPATs should be detailed, honest, and unbiased
• Post your VPAT on a nice info site!
“Your VPATs are so good they make me want to cry.”
-Librarian
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“We will not buy anything less
than 80% compliant”

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Accessibility Analytics
“What is My Percent Compliant?
“How is My Product Doing Compared to Others?”
“What Does Good Look Like?”

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Star Wars Fan Sites Used for
the Upcoming Analytics
Examples
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38 Star Wars Character Fan Sites Support for WCAG 2.0
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DarthVader
CaptainPhasma
EmperorPalpatine
JabbatheHutt
C3P0
ObiWanKenobi
Chewbacca
BabuFrik
HanSolo
CountDooku
WedgeAntilles
AnakinSkywalker
LukeSkywalker
JynnUrso
MaceWindu
ReyPalpatine
ChirrutÎmwe
YakFace
Bossk
LandoCalarissiun
Yoda
JarJarBinks
BiggsDarklighter
BobaFett
QuiGonJinn
KyloRen
SawGerrera
JangoFett
R2D2
BibFortuna
GeneroulGrevous
Greedo
GrandMoffTarkin
LeiaOrgana
DarthMaul
PoeDameron
KitFisto
PadmeAmidala
38 Star Wars Character Fan Sites Q1 2020
Support of the 38 A and AA WCAG 2.0 Requirements
Fully Supported Partially Supported Not Supported

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Rebel Alliance Fan Pages Support for WCAG 2.0
25 25 25 24 24 23 23 23 23 22 22 22 21 21 19
16
13 13
9
14 13 15 15 14 14
13 12 12 13 12 17
16
0 0
4
0 1 0 0 1 1 3 4 4 4 5
2
6
66% 66% 66% 63% 63% 61% 61% 61% 61% 58% 58% 58% 55% 55% 50% 42%
0
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Rebel Alliance Fan Pages Q1 2020
Support of the 38 A and AA WCAG 2.0 Requirements
Fully Supported Partially Supported Not Supported

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Impact of Analytics on Elsevier Teams
• Gives our team more credibility as being data driven
• Education goal to achieve 80% minimum
• I want my product to be the best/most compliant!
• Can now compare products more easily and business units more easily
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Support for WCAG 2.0 Standard Across 38 Star
Wars Fan Sites
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Analytics to Surface Biggest Gaps
• Timing Adjustable (session timeouts)
• Page Language
• Page Titled
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Conclusions
• VPATs should be done by experts: (Detailed, Unbiased, Templated,
Contemporary, Honest)
• Service Package model has been successful in both business and
measure.
• VPAT is the industry standard for reporting, and we’ve customized ours.
− If you don't have one, you can lack: (perception, sales, awareness of
compliance)
• As team matures, can start using analytics, ranking and setting OKR,
tracking progress over time.
• Track inquiries and demand to grow accessibility program.
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Resources and Links
• Elsevier ScienceDirect VPAT
https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/sciencedirect/support/web-accessibility
• ITI VPAT Templates
https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat
• Elsevier Accessibility Checklist
http://romeo.elsevier.com/accessibility_checklist/
• Elsevier Accessibility Inbox accessibility@Elsevier.com
• Ted Gies Digital Accessibility Lead (ted.gies@Elsevier.com)
• Jay Nemchik UX Specialist II (j.nemchik@Elsevier.com)
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Discussion Questions
• Who customizes their VPATs over using the ITI template as is?
• Who is using WCAG 2.0 versus 2.1 in VPATs?
• What are the biggest challenges involved in creating VPATs?
• Who dismisses ACRs as inaccurate or dishonest?
• Is there a better way to communicate accessibility to customers/users?
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