What Kind of Organizations Require VPAT Certification?
U.S. federal agencies and affiliated businesses and organizations require VPAT compliance. The following organizations must meet respective guidelines and use a VPAT to reveal their accessibility status:
- U.S. government agencies
- Federally subsidized institutions
- Agencies under government contract
- Companies that market to government agencies
Is a VPAT a legal document?
No. VPATS are not legally binding because copyright laws don’t apply to them, and they don’t provide any proprietary information.
Who should fill out a VPAT?
Any member of your in-house team can fill out a VPAT. However, your organization should also consult outside experts to audit and test the accessibility and compliance of your digital assets. You should also involve in-house team members who helped develop these assets in your review/assessment.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
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If you don’t include digital accessibility measures in your website design, you may unintentionally prevent people with disabilities from accessing and using your site effectively. Creating an accessible website is not only the right thing to do, but it also helps provide a more inclusive experience for all users.
Accessibility can also benefit your brand by making your website available to a wider audience, improving user experience, and increasing engagement with potential customers. By making your site more accessible, you create opportunities to reach more users while supporting ADA and WCAG accessibility standards.
Barriano’s accessibility solutions can help improve your website’s usability and accessibility for all visitors.
Shopify is not ADA compliant by default. Shopify does not automatically review every website to ensure it meets ADA or WCAG requirements, and not all of Shopify’s default themes and features are fully accessible.
Shopify store owners and administrators are responsible for ensuring that their website’s content, page design, navigation, and functionality follow ADA and WCAG accessibility standards. This includes making the site usable for people with visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive disabilities.
Using Barriano’s accessibility widget can help improve your Shopify store’s accessibility and support your efforts toward better ADA and WCAG compliance.
One of the easiest ways to make your Shopify store more accessible is by ensuring there is a high contrast between your background color and text color. For example, gray text on a white background can be difficult for people with low vision to read. A best practice is to use strong color contrast, such as black text on a white background, to improve readability across your website.
Next, it’s important to ensure your Shopify site is compatible with screen readers. Screen readers announce webpage content aloud for blind or visually impaired users. Making your website compatible with this commonly used technology helps visitors navigate your pages more easily and improves the overall accessibility of your site.
Installing Barriano’s accessibility widget can help make your website more accessible and support your efforts toward WCAG and ADA compliance.
If you need help uninstalling Barriano’s Shopify app, our support team will be happy to assist you. You can contact us directly through Shopify’s chat function.
If you’d like to uninstall Barriano’s Shopify widget yourself, follow these steps:
Step 1
On the left menu of your Shopify Admin page, select “Apps.”
Step 2
Search for “Barriano Website Accessibility” in the search section at the center of the page, then click “Delete.”
Step 3
We appreciate your feedback. To provide it, select one of the options from the dropdown menu, then click “Delete again.”
