As a transit agency, compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act plays a critical role in your ability to serve your community. To provide the best service—and to comply with regulations—transportation needs to be both accessible and equitable.
Accessibility answers the need for public transit and/or paratransit to allow disabled persons to use transit as intended, from paying to boarding to riding. Equity, on the other hand, ensures all people can use transit or paratransit with comparable access to services, information, and technologies necessary for taking trips.
With riders using web applications and mobile devices to book and manage travel, digital accessibility and equity are must-haves. VPAT factors heavily in ensuring accessibility for riders using the latest technology. Learn what a VPAT is and why it’s important.
MAAS, DRT, MDT ... transit is chock-full of acronyms, some easier to wrap your head around than others. VPAT—or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template—is another that is absolutely essential to modern operations. A VPAT is a document or conformance report published by information and communication technology (ICT) product vendors.
Your VPAT discusses how a product—such as your transportation software—meets the Revised 508 Standards for digital accessibility. Per Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, all government agencies must make ICT accessible to people with disabilities, and accordingly, ICT companies dealing with federal agencies must provide a VPAT.
So, where do you get this report? The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) hosts the VPAT template document. There are four editions to choose from, so vendors can create accessibility conformance reports relevant to their markets:
The doors to today’s many transit options must be open to everyone. Accessibility and equity matter more and more with the shift to technology enablement and for a few key reasons:
Failing to meet Section 508 standards could result in a liability situation for any publicly funded transit agency that obtains software without having a clean VPAT. With a VPAT, you can verify that no claims have been made about the product that would subject your agency to legal action.
VPATs also frequently play a big role in request for proposal (RFP) processes. Make sure that when you put together your RFP for transit software solutions, you also request proof of a VPAT from software vendors. As an ethical agency, this could very well mean the difference between vendors obtaining or not obtaining your business!
While it’s easy to think of transportation software primarily in terms of features and functionalities (which are certainly important), an individual software’s VPAT is what you really want to assess digital accessibility and equity. Examine the VPAT from three perspectives: its summary, standards and guidelines, and accessibility conformance report.
What does a potential vendor’s VPAT say about them and their software? The VPAT summary provides general details about the product and VPAT, such as:
Which standards and guidelines were the product developed around? A VPAT should reflect adherence to one or more of the following:
To provide additional clarity, some vendors will also include the WCAG 2.0 levels of conformance used in product development. There are three levels of conformance: A, AA, and AAA, and most vendors aim for the AA level.
The ACR lists accessibility success criteria in one or more tables. It examines digital accessibility through the lens of WCAG principles—each of which combines to form another convenient acronym: POUR.
The ACR will display information in three columns:
Between the VPAT summary, guideline details, and a comprehensive ACR report, your agency will have access to all of the essential VPAT details to make an informed decision about whether a particular option is the right transit software for you!
Transportation software must be accessible and equitable for all riders, ensuring ease of use for all. The VPAT serves as a guidepost to explain how a solution meets diverse needs.
Ecolane has digital accessibility covered for your agency with three clean VPATs—giving you extra peace of mind when deploying our solutions. We’re the leader in paratransit software, with an unyielding commitment to equitable and accessible inclusion of all persons regardless of ability. Our solutions relieve any concerns over compliance and help you stay prepared for your audits.
Want to learn how this could impact your agency? Talk to us to learn more.