Accessibility VPAT for OCaml Software?

Site Feedback
1

Hello,

I’m Saan, a Digital Accessibility Coordinator Co-op with the Khoury College ADA Compliance Committee at Northeastern University. I’m currently auditing software we use on campus and wanted to check if OCaml has an up to date VPAT available for this year?

We use VPATs to verify WCAG 2.1 AA compliance and ensure the software we rely on meets federal accessibility standards. If there’s a public link or a way to get one, that’d be super helpful. If it’s in progress, any info on your accessibility timeline works too.

Thanks!

1 Like
2

The OCaml compiler is a CLI tool. The Web Contents Accessibility Guideline seems non-applicable in this case. Did you mean the 508 or EU version?

As far as I am aware in the case of a CLI, the AA accessibility compliance can be resumed to:

  • 1.4.1 Use of color: The OCaml compiler text output only uses colors for highlighting important information, no information is only conveyed by color.
  • 2.4.6 Headings and Labels: we do have headings for errors and warnings
  • 2.4.9 Link purpose: reference to the manual are in plain text (because links are noisy in terminals that do not support them)
  • 2.4.10 Section Headings: yes, see 2.4.6
  • 3.1.1 Language: the displayed text is always in English currently
  • 3.1.3 (AAA): there are no lexicon of technical word available unfortunately
  • 3.1.4 (AAA): supported, there are no abbreviations used in compiler messages
  • 3.1.5 Reading level (AAA): as a technical tool, using the OCaml compiler requires a reading level higher than secondary education. However, outside of technical terms, the language used is international English and thus accessible to secondary education for native English speaker.
    3.1.6 Pronunciation: is never needed to infer meaning
    3.3.1, 3.3.3 Errors: error messages and warnings are provided on erroneous input
    3.3.2 Labels or Instructions: manpages and help options are available as instruction on how to use the compiler
1 Like
3

Thank you for the response and for sharing that information! I wanted to specify that I did mean the 508 version. We’re looking specifically for a Conformance Report but would appreciate any accessibility documentation that comes with your software or tools.

4

Do you mean the accessibility of OCaml (the ability of a blind programmer to use it), or the accessibility of the sites you create with it ?

The first case had a answer in the octachron’s post.

In the second case, with the Dream or the Ocsigen framework, the programmer has the responsability to include accessibility informations (alt=“…” for example). OCaml won’t enforce accessibility, but will not prevent it.

5

How much of a formal document do you need?

If having my analysis above be available in a more official-looking place, possibly with a statement that OCaml compiler (and possibly the reference manual?) reaches the AA level of compliance is enough, this can be done easily.

Otherwise, I might have a look at writing a full VPAT, but this will take more (of my) time.

7

Hello,

Once again, thanks for keeping in communication! I understand the confusion, this is a common misconception about WCAG. Even though it stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, it actually applies to non-web software as well. It’s a framework used for all kinds of digital products, including apps and IDEs. Microsoft even has a page where they publish VPATs for their tools, including Visual Studio Code.

As for the document, it would be really helpful on our end if the bullet points from your first email could be formalized into an evaluation. Since you all know your software best, it would be the most accurate coming from your team! There will likely be guidelines that don’t apply to your software, and those can simply be marked as not applicable, but having a document that goes through every guideline, not just the ones the software supports, gives us a much more complete picture. This also helps us support a wider range of students, not just those using screen readers, but also students with mobility impairments or who are hard of hearing.

Having formal documentation would be really valuable for us, it’s something we’d be able to reference and share with students and other universities who may be going through similar evaluation processes.

Thank you again for your time, we really appreciate it!

8

The difference between OCaml and Visual Studio Code, is that OCaml is a CLI tool, and Visual Studio Code is a GUI tool.

A screen reader won’t interface with OCaml directly, but with a terminal emulator (provides by Windows, Gnome, KDE, or whatever else), and in most cases with the editor you use to type OCaml program (VS Code ? Emacs, others).

This explain that no specific development about accessibility are in the OCaml project: the accessibility is native via the use of the terminal (if we don’t do weird things like color required to understand outputs… and if you use an accesible terminal).