Elsevier has responded to hundreds of customer requests for VPATs around 508 compliance. We will discuss the business significance and our approach to handling requests.

1. VPATs: For Business or Measure?
Ted Gies
twitter:@tedgies1
CSUN 2017 Golden Hill AB
3 March 2017
Jay Nemchik

3. | 3
• 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

4. • 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.
4
invented the VPAT

5. 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.
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Facts and Figures on Elsevier VPAT Requests

6. • 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)
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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?”

7. 7
Customer: Is Your Website 508 Compliant?
Do You Really Believe Honest Jon’s VPAT?
Of course my boy, we
have Supports for all
checkpoints

8. 8
Do You Really Believe Honest Jon’s VPAT?
All Supported with
No Remarks

9. 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
9
Our Scorecard Table Answers: Is your website
508 compliant?

10. Facilitate a
Remediation
Form
Present Findings
to Stakeholders
Top 10 Fix List
Score Card Table
VPAT
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The Complete Elsevier VPAT Service Package

11. • 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
11
Best Practices in Managing VPAT Process

12. Acronym: DUTCH
Detailed - Fill out Remarks Section
Unbiased - Use 3rd party or standard testing criteria
Template based - Reusable saves time
Contemporary - Update every year or with big releases
Honest - Show where you DO and DO NOT pass a
requirement with specific examples
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Best Practices in Creating VPATs

13. 13
VPAT Template

14. "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 Resources
ADA Coordinator
University XYZ
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Get “Street Cred” With VPATs

15. 15
Give Your VPATs Wings to Fly

16. • 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
16
Cost Analysis of VPAT Using FTE vs Consultants
VPAT Provider Cost Per VPAT
Jay Nemchik intern $844
Cheapest independent consultant $2.5K
Average cost across (5) consultants $5800
Most expensive consultant $11K

18. 18
Proliferation of the Accessibility Conformance and
Remediation Form (~20% of VPATs in 2016)

19. 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
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3 External Trends in VPATs and US 508

20. • 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
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VPAT 2.0 (Beta)
VPAT 2.0 (Beta) Available on ITI Website

21. • 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
21
VPAT 2.0 (Beta)

22. • 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.
22
Conclusion

23. ITI Website (Creator of the VPAT and VPAT 2.0 Beta)
https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility
Elsevier Accessibility Policy
https://www.elsevier.com/about/company-information/policies/accessibility
Elsevier Accessibility Checklist Tool
http://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 Checklists
http://www.section508.va.gov/Standards_Checklist.asp
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Resources

24. • 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?
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Discussion