How to write a good Accessibility Conformance Report?

scoutb
Tue, 23 Jan 2024 17:25:34 +0000
Discussions

This is kind of a broad question (intentionally) but there is also a specific example in there to get us going.

I am increasingly required to fill in VPATs to report on our products’ accessibility. We use WCAG 2.1 and 2.2. I have a good testing procedure. I find issues. And I am confident in writing reports for our devs to fix issues.

However, an ACR is eventually going live on a website where it is meant to inform users. And I am not sure what is the best language for this purpose.

Here is an example:
Using automated tools, i have identified an issue with 1.3.1. Info and relationships: The pagination list on our search results page has the aria role=“presentation”. But lists should only directly contain li, script or template elements. I suggested removing the role as it did not appear to make any difference to tabbing order or otherwise. But the developer explained it had a purpose. No need to go into detail, the point is that the issue remains but it is academic as far as i can tell because tabbing and screen reader appear to not have an issue - pagination works fine. Of course, other AT might not, I don’t test for every possible tech. I need to report it. But it is so technical! How is this going to make sense to any non-techy user? In my opinion, the ACR is there to give an average user an idea and overview of accessibility issues they may encounter using the site. And with this one, I just don’t know how to get it across.

This is meant to kick of a more general discussion about how to write a good ACR or fill in a VPAT. How technical should it be? How detailed? Should it point out (potentially minor) issues that I have found even though they don’t match any of the WCAG criteria? Or maybe after much deliberating, I decided that an issue is not actually a rule break but it is still an issue in my opinion - do I mention it or not? Do you write down any explanations for those criteria that pass? Or that don’t apply? Or do you just leave them empty?
I know some of this is up to me as the accessibility expert writing the report, but I wonder if others / the community has come up with best practices for this.

2 posts - 2 participants