General Information on Packback’s Accessibility
Is Packback accessible?
Packback is successfully used by about 500,000 students per year, including many students with disabilities who rely on a wide variety of assistive technologies. If an issue is ever found that prevents a student with a disability from using the Packback Questions it is company policy to fix it as our highest priority.
In what ways is the Packback product accessible to people with disabilities?
Packback develops our product in accordance with the recommendations of the WCAG Level AA guidelines. A few examples of what those considerations look like in practice on our application include:
- We use aria labels and announce features to ensure that screen readers convey necessary information to blind users.
- We use colored text of appropriate WCAG contrast for low vision users
- We never use explicit audio cues as a means to convey information.
- We test and implement focusable elements in our HTML so that our site is usable by keyboard-only users.
Does Packback have an accessibility statement?
Yes! Packback provides an accessibility statement that summarizes our testing and product development efforts around accessibility.
Does Packback have a VPAT available?
Yes! View Version 2.4 of the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template for Packback.
What standards are followed for coding of interfaces (if 508, what parts, if WCAG, which level)?
Packback strives to conform to the WCAG guidelines at the AA level, and as part of this performs yearly accessibility audits. Please find attached a copy of our Voluntary Product Accessibility Template.
How does Packback support accessibility for users on mobile devices?
Packback Questions is a responsive web application that scales to run on mobile phones. We treat accessibility on cellphones as just as much of a high priority as accessibility elsewhere, and mobile devices are tested alongside other devices at all points.
Packback Client Profile and Scope of Use
Does Packback have clients who require accessibility?
Yes – accessibility is a requirement for many of our contracts. These clients audit the accessibility of our site and report any issues they find. (We also hire a 3rd party company to perform similar audits.)
What organizations are using Packback, and do these organizations prioritize accessibility?
Packback is in active use at over 300 institutions in the US and Canada, and accessibility has been raised as a priority at the majority of the institutions with which we have signed institution-level contracts.
If you let us know in more detail what you would like to ask other schools, we would be willing to find the most appropriate ones to connect you with.
Development, Testing, and Auditing Procedures for Accessibility
Has Packback’s accessibility been tested by an unbiased 3rd party?
Yes. Packback works with a reputable 3rd party company that specializes in accessibility testing to audit our platform for accessibility. Re-audits are performed on an annual basis.
What experience do developers on the Packback team have coding for accessibility?
Our most senior front-end engineer is a web accessibility specialist, and hosts accessibility training sessions to ensure that the team is aware of WCAG standards and best practices for HTML structure. We also use various tools, like ChromeVox, HTML_CodeSniffer, and Axe DevTools, during both coding and code review to catch potential issues.
Does Packback have a road map for accessibility going forward?
We have a backlog of accessibility tickets stemming from 3rd-party accessibility audits and requests reported by other clients; in addition to resolving these tickets, we also want to add automated tools and tests to catch accessibility issues.
Process for User-Reported Accessibility Issues
How can students, faculty, or institutional partners report accessibility feedback?
Accessibility feedback can be reported to our team via our support portal. Please include a description of the issue you noticed and the location where it was noticed (URL).
How are customer-reported accessibility issues prioritized?
User-reported accessibility issues which are preventing any student or faculty member’s ability to easily perform a function on the platform are assigned our highest level of priority (1 business day maximum turnaround).
Suggestions and feedback on how to improve our accessible user experience generally are prioritized into our accessibility roadmap.
To what extent is Packback willing to work with a client to improve the product’s accessibility?
Very willing! As per our accessibility statement, we believe that our site must be as usable as possible for all users. If you find any issues with our platform, you’ll not only be helping your students and faculty, but other users of our platform as well!