This article covers the 'why' of accessibility in Factor House products, read about the 'what' in Factor House Product VPAT.
We publish a VPAT in the release notes of every product release. Learn more about accessibility features in our documentation.
Sign up to the free community edition of Kpow or Flex and evaluate accessible tooling for Apache Kafka and Apache Flink today!
The Importance of Accessibility at Factor House: A CEO's Perspective
When I was eleven there was an activity at school to draw a picture for your grandparents, the picture would then be laminated for you to give them as a gift. I was in my cool skateboarding phase, so I drew myself skateboarding on a half-pipe - and then I colored the sun in green. My teacher came over asked about my choice in colors. Some of the other kids had a curious peek, because they could see that I had done something wrong — even if I couldn't. That was the moment I learned that I am colorblind.
Color blindness hasn't significantly impacted my career beyond curtailing early thoughts of being a pilot. These days I use color blind modes in tools like GitHub to help with my work, and the biggest practical problem that protanopia gives me is that I can't tell when a banana is ripe until it starts getting spots. I eat a lot of green bananas.
Color blindness has, however, given me a better awareness of how easily products can become inaccessible. When a customer asked us if we could undertake to provide a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) for Kpow for Apache Kafka, we jumped at the chance to understand where our products were lacking and how to improve them.
Achieving WCAG 2.1 AA Compliance
A quick note before we congratulate ourselves too much - while the request for a VPAT was new to me, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) were not. I first heard of WCAG while working on a user portal for an insurance company in England way back in 2002. Web UI have changed a lot since those days, but the expectation that quality work results in accessible UI has remained the same.
Providing a VPAT requires a commitment to achieve and document established accessibility standards like WCAG and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Working towards this commitment helps organisations assess and communicate the accessibility features and compliance of their products, particularly for users who rely on assistive technologies or have accessibility needs. We understood that accessibility isn't just a product feature - it's a necessity for creating inclusive products that everyone can use effectively.
We partnered with an independent consultancy, AccessibilityOZ, to ensure we were doing this right. AccessibilityOZ involves people who use various assistive technologies and have different accessibility needs in the testing of your website and product. Their comprehensive approach included multiple audits as we completed our work, and was exactly what we needed to not just meet the accessibility standards but to exceed them.
I'm happy to say that Kpow for Apache Kafka is WCAG 2.1 AA compliant since March 2024, with a VPAT published for each release since. Flex for Apache Flink will have VPAT published from release 94.1 onwards - due shortly!
Web Accessibility is not a Tick-Box Exercise
The process of obtaining our VPAT was a significant undertaking, it required us to assess every aspect of Kpow and make necessary changes to ensure compliance with accessibility guidelines. We had to dig deep into our codebase, working from the ground up to close over 100 tickets raised by AccessibilityOz. It was a challenging process taking over 12 months, but it was also incredibly rewarding. We are better developers for it.
Working on accessibility not only improved our products for users with accessibility needs but has also enhanced the overall quality of Kpow for everyone. The improvements we made, such as better navigation and more readable layouts, have made Kpow a faster, more user-friendly tool.
There is no trade-off between accessibility and functionality; in fact, the two go hand in hand. The process of undertaking VPAT has made our products better.
Accessibility is now embedded in our development process at Factor House. We've implemented new tools like Storybook to detect accessibility issues, ensuring that every new feature we release is accessible from the start. We've also upskilled our team, making sure that all of our developers understand the importance of accessibility and are capable of delivering products that meet these standards.
As we continue to grow and evolve, accessibility will remain a core focus for us. We believe that providing accessible tools is not only the right thing to do but also essential for attracting and retaining the best customers. In today's market, organisations have a duty of care to their employees, and providing accessible tools is a fundamental part of that responsibility.
My advice to other tech leaders and developers is simple: prioritise accessibility. It's not just about meeting ticking a box; it's about improving your product for every user. At Factor House, we've seen firsthand how focusing on accessibility has made our products better for everyone, and I'm proud of the work we've done.
For us at Factor House, accessibility is not a one-time task but an ongoing commitment to excellence in product development.