By Barry Dahl – October 5, 2016
Second post in month-long series on improving accessibility of online courses.
This is the second blog post in a series of posts intended to help you improve the accessibility of your online courses. In this installment, we’ll take a look at a somewhat technical, and often over-looked aspect of using technology and software in education.
What is a VPAT
The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a tool that provides information about how well a vendor’s product or service conforms to the Section 508 Accessibility Standards. Because it is (usually) voluntary, not all companies will provide a VPAT for all of their products, but most companies that take an active interest in being inclusive with their product development will provide this information.
The idea of the VPAT was developed by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). On their website, they state that the VPAT is “a tool that enhances industry-customer communications on ICT product and service conformance with relevant accessibility standards and guidelines.”
There are times when a VPAT is required, such as when a vendor wishes to do business with a government agency. In most cases, the government agency will require a VPAT (or the similar GPAT) as part of the purchasing decision-making process. In that sense, the VPAT would not be voluntary if the vendor wants to win that contract.
This all gets a bit trickier when an educational institution wants to make use of a free or low-cost technology where there isn’t a rigorous buying process involved in the adoption. For example, a faculty member wants to require that all students create a presentation using some sort of free web-based tool. Does that free tool publish a VPAT that provides the information for the faculty member or course designer to ensure that all students will have equal access for completing the project? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Unless you can be assured that the recommended technology will be accessible to all students, it is a good idea to provide an alternative assignment that can be used by those who cannot make use of the primary technology that has been assigned.
How Hard Are They to Find?
In the Web Accessibility for Online Educators (WAMOE), we asked the student educators to search for a VPAT for software or hardware that they used in their online courses. It could be something that they used themselves for either work or personal purposes, or it could be something that they encouraged or required their students to use.
In most cases, WAMOE participants would do a web search using keywords of VPAT and the name of the tech product. This simple web search would often bear fruit very easily, with an obvious search result that would lead to the desired document. However, there were many times when the search brought back confusing results or no helpful information at all.
For example, Patricia F searched for her favorite software for use with students, a site that allows anyone to create and share multimedia projects that can contain images, video, and voice in a type of threaded discussion. She found the VPAT very easily. What she learned from the VPAT was a bit of a mixed bag regarding how accessible the product is to students with disabilities.
Another example comes from Michael M who searched for a popular web-based alternative slideware program; something that creates a non-linear presentation without using slides. Michael reported back that after an exhaustive search for their VPAT, he found that they didn’t have one. He did find a few discussion threads on the company website that indicated various accessibility issues that the company wasn’t addressing and didn’t intend to address anytime soon.
D2L is a leader in accessibility for online courses, and publicly shares VPAT information. You can find the D2L VPATs and other accessibility information on the Accessibility Standards Compliance page.
In the next post, we’ll examine how to evaluate the information contained in a VPAT, and what to do when you can’t find one at all. I'll also give you a few more ways to find a VPAT or similar accessibility information.
Much of the content in this series of posts comes from WAMOE, the Web Accessibility MOOC for Online Educators; co-created by Karen Sorensen of Portland Community College and Barry Dahl of D2L.
Accessibility Posts - October-November 2016
- Setting the Stage for Improving Accessibility of Online Courses
- What is a VPAT and Where Can You Find Them?
- What Value Can You Find in a VPAT?
- Alt Text for Web Page Images
- When Simple Alt Text is Insufficient
- Finding Captioned Videos for Your Online Courses
- Creating Captions for Your Online Course Videos
- Four Easy Wins to Make Your HTML Content Pages More Accessible
- Three More Ways to Improve Accessibility in your Brightspace Courses
- Creating Accessible Course Content in Microsoft Word
- Creating Accessible Course Content in Microsoft PowerPoint
- Six More Tips for Making Online Courses Accessible
Much of the content in this series of posts comes from WAMOE, the Web Accessibility MOOC for Online Educators; co-created by Karen Sorensen of Portland Community College and Barry Dahl of D2L.
