These three questions will save you hours of time, make the world more inclusive, and help your business be welcoming and accessible to everyone. I’m often asked for my thoughts on business technology. It’s fantastic that a blind employee is asked for their input. The problem is neither I nor any other blind person has time to try out every digital system on the market. When I started my first company in 2015 (Opens a new tab), I would demo every system we came across. This took hours, and most were inaccessible. I spent about 30% of my time evaluating new tools. Over the years, I created three screening questions. These questions quickly eliminate companies that are unresponsive to changes or don’t know what they’re doing with software. Even the largest companies can have many developers who frequently release broken tools.
The Three Questions
These three questions are sent to the sales team as the second step. I send them after reviewing the feature requirements to see if the system is even partially what I’m looking for. I don’t spend more than 10 minutes reviewing the system before asking these questions. I need a positive reply to at least two of the three questions, or the system is a no-go:
- What is the name and contact info of the head of accessibility at your company?
- Please send me an Accessibility Conformance Report for the software I’m looking at.
- Please send me a sandbox or live demo I can personally try.
Each of these questions has a clear reply. If the reply doesn’t fit the correct format, it’s not good. Eliminate any business that can’t answer at least two of these questions. Without two answers, the risk is too high that they don’t know what they’re doing.
What is the Name and Contact Info of the Head of Accessibility at Your Company?
It’s critical to get a specific person’s name. They should have the title of: CEO, Chief Product Officer, Chief Technical Officer, Head of Product, Head of Accessibility, or Accessibility Champion. This should never be someone in legal, as legal can’t change the product if it’s broken. Some companies give you accessibility@company.com as the only contact email. This is not okay. These accessibility contact emails are voids of no return. If you don’t have a single point of contact, then the risk is too high. A single point of contact means you have someone who can push fixes if something breaks. You can call this person, and you know they have the power to change things. Without a single point of contact, there is a risk the system will break, and you won’t hear anything for weeks.
Send Me an Accessibility Conformance Report for the Software I’m Looking At
An Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) or completed Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) (opens a new tab) is a standardized report. An ACR is a systematic report that goes through all major aspects of accessibility. Here is what a completed ACR looks like (opens a new tab). Do not accept:
- Accessibility Statement: (opens a new tab) An accessibility statement is often hot air created by marketing and sales folks. It means nothing and helps you even less. The ACR is systematic and helps you know what you’re getting into. A good accessibility statement will link to an Accessibility Conformance Report and give you the contact info for the head of accessibility (opens a new tab).
- Assurances the product is accessible. I don’t care how much the salesperson tells me their product is accessible. If the company didn’t take the time to systematically evaluate their tool for accessibility. If they didn’t see if it meets the most basic accessibility standards, they’re wasting my time. Salespeople will tell you their products are accessible, because why wouldn’t they be? Well, sadly, 95.9% of homepages have at least one accessibility error. These errors can be caught with an automated tool (opens a new tab). This means 95.9% of the time you talk with a company, their product has major accessibility issues.
Some companies get super antsy about showing an ACR that’s not perfect. This is silly because I’m not expecting the product to be perfect. I’d like it to be, but it doesn’t need to be. Instead, the ACR lets me know what to expect without me needing to find it. I would also accept a list of problems they are aware of from a robust accessibility evaluation. I would prefer if the evaluation is from a third-party company. I would also want a plan for fixing the highlighted issues. If the company says they have it but don’t give it to you, then that’s a huge red flag. More importantly, it is a “no” to this question. You need a positive response from the other two questions to start due diligence.
Send Me a Sandbox or Live Demo I Can Personally Try
The third question to ask is for a live demo you can try with your own screen reader and assistive technology. You’re interested in whether the product is usable at all. It is going to take you a long time to test the product. You want to get one of the above two items along with this one before starting your own testing process. I’ve accepted both a sandbox environment and a demo version for this process. I prefer a sandbox environment because you have full functionality with test data. Sometimes when you sign up, you need to customize the platform for your own business. There are also sometimes restricted functionality until you pay. Restricted functionality keeps you from doing a full test.
Conclusion
These three questions will save hours of time in the systems acquisition process. You won’t need to even look at products that don’t meet at least two of these criteria. You also save money by not implementing an inaccessible system. This is also following your obligation under the ADA to accommodate disabled employees, even if you don’t have any yet. It is not an undue Burdon to ask these 3 questions. You also inform sales teams that accessibility is a make-or-break decision for you. Telling companies accessibility is important through sales puts it on their priority list. Insisting on a single accessibility point of contact and an ACR will tell the sales team exactly what you need. There’s no ambiguity in these requests, and you’re not asking for the moon. Even small companies, like XR Navigation (opens a new tab), have a digital accessibility point of contact, which is me, an ACR (opens a new tab), and a live demo of our product (opens a new tab). If you’re working with a big company, it’s completely unacceptable to not have at least two of these items. The most common combination is an accessibility point of contact and a live demo. Please contact us if you would like to talk further about setting up your acquisition process, or if you want to talk about making your digital maps accessible (opens a new tab).
