VPAT Remediation
Accessibility
Collaboration
Overview
Accessibility at Cvent is an ongoing effort, that includes continuous staff education and auditing current products. I was part of Round 1 VPAT, completed in May 2023 which aimed compliance with WCAG 2.1 AA standards for the attendee-facing event registration webpages created in the Cvent platform.
Approach
I collaborated closely with the QA and engineering to understand the issues identified in the VPAT and vet solutions enabling an accessible experience while maintaining or improving usability.
Duration
6 months
106
Total tickets
100
Tickets with UX input
8
New tickets by UX
Why accessibility?
28.7% of adults in the United States have a disability, according to the CDC. Disabilities can include visual impairments, cognitive impairments, physical impairments, and hearing impairments. Our mission is to enable everyone to be able to register and understand the event information.
Process
I consulted on the overall user experience and usability as the QA and the engineering team were working on the issues. After a month it became obvious that a lot more UX input was needed and I started working more closely with the SDET, where we tested together and discussed what is configurable (and therefore the planner's responsibility) and what was not. We kept a detailed documentation of each issue tested, with the result and recommendation. After the engineers' works was done, we tested the solution to ensure it met Level AA guidelines.
Outcomes
The majority of the issues were planner configurable, which meant that our user already had the capability to make contrast ratis accessible, and for these defects I verified and provided an explanation.
The bread and butter of the VPAT were issues that could be easily fixed. For these, we tested the fixes and how they fit with the overall usability.
And lastly, there were some issues that required a thorough change in the components and very high level of effort. For these, we added a recommended product design modification, and discussed with the PM.
In the process of VPAT, I discovered a few additional accessibility issues not marked in the VPAT, for which I made 6 new tickets to address things such as
Attendee Table
The VPAT found 2 issues with the way the attendee table was implemented. One was that
Decorative Images for Speakers
Browse dozens of templates. Click, duplicate, customize.
Registration Progress Bar
The Progress bar widget was deisnged to be planner-side configurable, and a few of the options were did not meet Level AA accessibility criteria. For example, the simple bar style did not have labels for the progress steps. The most detailed version did not provide the same information when zoomed to 400%.
I provided a responsive/zoomed in design solution that met standards. However, the work was very involved and was designated as product modification.