WCAG from the ground up: where products fail, and how to write the VPAT
Five hours, live online, with two breaks. We walk the WCAG 2.2 Level A and AA criteria that real products fail most often, show every failure live in working software, and finish by going through a VPAT template together — so you can produce one inside your own company.
- 15:00–20:00 CET
- 06:00–11:00 PST
- 19:30–00:30 IST
- How WCAG 2.2 is built — principles, guidelines, success criteria, levels — and what a conformance claim actually commits you to.
- The Level A and AA criteria products fail most often — text alternatives, contrast, keyboard access, focus, forms and errors, headings and structure, reflow, target size — each shown failing, then fixed, in live software.
- How to test them yourself: keyboard only, a screen reader, zoom and reflow, and the point where automated checkers stop being useful.
- A VPAT template walked line by line: Supports, Partially Supports, Does Not Support, Not Applicable — and how to write the remarks so they survive a buyer's procurement review.
Early bird 58 days left — price rises to $99 after.
Booking 3+ from one team? Get in touch for seats.
Learn the criteria by watching them fail.
Reading WCAG cover to cover teaches you very little about why products fail it. This workshop goes the other way round: we start from the failures. For each of the Level A and AA criteria that trip up real products most often, we open working software, show the defect, show what a user with a keyboard, a screen reader or a magnifier actually meets, and then show the fix.
Along the way you learn to test for it yourself — the five-minute keyboard pass, the screen reader check, the zoom and reflow test — and where the automated scanners help and where they stay silent.
The last part of the day is the document buyers ask for. We go through a VPAT template together, criterion by criterion, and talk about who inside a company should own it, how to word a partial result honestly, and how often it has to be revisited.
If you would rather the audit was simply done for you, that is the other half of what I do: accessibility audits on your own product, quoted at a fixed price within 48 hours.
Questions we answer on the day.
The session is built around these — worked through live, on real software, with room for your own.
- 01
What does "WCAG 2.2 AA" actually mean, and why is AA the level almost every law points at?
- 02
Which Level A failures lock a user out completely — and why do they still ship?
- 03
Why is colour contrast the most common failure, and how do you measure it correctly on text, icons and focus indicators?
- 04
When does an image need alt text, when should the alt be empty, and who decides what it says?
- 05
Can every function be reached and operated by keyboard alone — and how do you check that in five minutes?
- 06
What does a form need — labels, instructions, error identification, error suggestions — before it passes?
- 07
Headings, landmarks and reading order: what does a screen reader user actually hear on your page?
- 08
What is new in WCAG 2.2 — focus not obscured, target size, dragging movements, accessible authentication, redundant entry?
- 09
What does an automated scanner catch, and what will it never see?
- 10
What is a VPAT, who asks for one, and what does each conformance level in it commit you to?
- 11
Who inside the company should own the VPAT, and how often does it need updating?
Save your seat — before someone else does.
You'll get the Stripe receipt and a calendar invite straight away, and the Zoom link the day before. Early-bird pricing ends in 58 days.
Secure card payment via Stripe.
The person who'll also answer the email.
Imola
Software-testing practitioner and quality advocate with fifteen years in the field — across product teams, agencies and in-house QA orgs.
Today Imola runs Pearly Quality from Hungary: the workshops, the monthly letter, and the podcast.