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WCAG, ACR, and VPAT oh my! Unlocking the ABC’s of procuring accessible products

Handouts

Presented at 11:30 am in Penrose 1 on Friday, November 21, 2025.

#41348

Speaker(s)

  • Becky Gibson, Lead Accessibility Specialist, UKG

Session Details

  • Length of Session: 1-hr
  • Format: Lecture
  • Expertise Level: Beginner
  • Type of session: General Conference

Summary

Confidently enter the accessibility forest and learn the basics of digital inclusion, and how it affects your employees. We will untangle the acronyms and give you the confidence and knowledge to procure the most accessible products and services to support all your employees.

Abstract

This session will explore assistive technologies and how people with disabilities use the web. It will explain the globally adopted standard for accessibility, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). You will learn what a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is and how it relates to WCAG. Follow the process of how a VPAT is completed and becomes an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). These reports show how well products align with accessibility guidelines. We will review publicly available ACRs together, so you learn how to interpret them. With this knowledge you can confidently compare ACRs from vendors and select the best solutions and tools to support your entire workforce.

Keypoints

  1. Learn how people with disabilities navigate the Web.
  2. Understand the basics of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and how it relates to a VPAT
  3. Confidently compare Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPAT) / Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR)

Disability Areas

All Areas

Topic Areas

Other, Procurement, Uncategorized

Speaker Bio(s)

Becky Gibson

Becky Gibson is a recognized expert in the field of digital inclusion and enabling accessible solutions. Her extensive career as a Software Engineer and Accessibility Architect at IBM impacted products, customer strategy, and industry standards. She is passionate about making Web and mobile applications usable for people of all abilities.

She participated in the creation of W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) and helped to develop and demonstrate the Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) specification. Becky currently works as a Lead Accessibility Specialist at UKG. In her spare time Becky enjoys, traveling, paddle boarding, kayaking, reading, and playing with her cat, Circe.

Handout(s)