Understanding an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) is super important in today’s world. Accessibility isn’t just a nice thing to have; it’s a must. ACRs show how companies make sure their products can be used by everyone, but not all ACRs are the same. A report that’s not done well might not truly show how accessible a product is. That’s why it’s key to know what to check for once you get this report from a company who says they’re accessible.
1. Coverage Beyond Public Content
The product or version talked about in the ACR should include more than just public content. The law, like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), talks about public content, but other laws like Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act say that all digital content needs to be accessible. Plus, the ADA says employers need to make sure their tools are accessible for their disabled employees. So, if you have or might have employees with disabilities, you’ll want an ACR that looks at everything.
2. Third-Party ACRs are Best
Look to see if the ACR was completed by a 3rd party company, not just the company making the product. Big names in accessibility like Level Access (Opens in a new tab), TPGi (Opens in a new tab), or Deque Systems (Opens in a new tab) are good to see. For smaller companies, having a check done by an independent accessibility expert (Opens in a new tab) is also great. Internal ACRs are OK, but they should have the following:
- The tools and assistive technologies (like types and versions of screen readers or magnifiers) used to do the report. Just saying “tested with a screen reader” doesn’t help.
- The expertise of the person who did the report. You don’t want the legal department doing an ACR. You want someone who has experience with developing accessible products. If the contact information provided on the report is to legal, then be extremely suspicious. When accessibility is only seen as a legal obligation, then it is probably not being done because it’s the right thing to do, and it’s probably not being done well.
3. Questioning General Compliance Claims
Be careful with ACRs that say they meet all the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) standards and are compliant. Meeting every single standard is pretty rare. If they say they do, every part of their report should say “Supports” with details on why. Watch out for a lot of “not applicable” answers. That might mean they didn’t really look into things or plan on making things better. If there is “partially Supports” in a row of the report, that means it’s not compliant.
4. Check Claims of Compliance
Don’t just believe everything the ACR says. Try things out yourself. If the ACR says everything’s “supports”, use tools like the AXE Chrome Plugin (Opens in a new tab) to see if that’s true. Remember, the actual experience of the app might not really match up with what they say in the ACR.
5. Clear Comments
Every part of the VPAT should have detailed comments, even the parts that say “not applicable.” If there’s not much detail, it might mean the company didn’t really think about accessibility when they were filling out the VPAT.
Resources
For more info on understanding ACRs, check out:
How to Interpret a VPAT (Opens in a new tab).
If you’re looking to make sure your digital content, like maps, is accessible and includes everyone, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, especially if you’re working with digital geographic maps.
