[Super Epic] [CAIA A11y Support] - Benefits and Claims Maintenance Audit

[coforma-terry]

About your team

• Team name: Benefits and Claims
• OCTO-DE product owner: Matt Self
• Product manager: Laura Steel
• Designer: Fiorella Geedi
• FE engineer: Thomas Blackwell
• Accessibility specialist:
• Content writer:
• Product/team Slack channel:

CAIA Support Request

What does your team need support for? Check all that apply.

• Launching one or more unauthenticated pages, online forms, apps, or tools on VA.gov
• Making revisions to one or more existing VA.gov pages
• Accessibility review of wireframes and/or prototypes
• Accessibility issue (general request)
• Accessibility PDF review request
• Accessibility user research support (submit a separate, additional request)
• DST component or pattern
• Something else

Updated Ticket Below with CAIA Team Inventory

• 4 PDFs (Non-CAIA)
  • 21-686c
  • 21-674
  • 21P-509
  • 28-1900 (CH31/VRE)
• 4 Digital Forms
• 21-686c
• 21-674
• 28-1900 (CH31/VRE)
• 28-8832 (Ch36/PCPG)
• 21 Issues
  • These existing defects (open tickets)will need addressed first, then we can proceed with an audit.
• 508-defect-2 [COGNITION, SCREENREADER]: Changes to the length of the form SHOULD be announced to screen reader users  #16988
• 508-defect-2 [COGNITION]: Error message MUST be specific to the field #16784 -- reviewed and error still persists
• 508-defect-2 [COGNITION, SCREEN READER]: Screen reader users SHOULD know there is relevant info after making a selection in the wizard #16745
• 508-defect-3 [COGNITION]: Buttons that have the same functionality MUST be identified consistently #16711
• 508-defect-3 [COGNITION]: Review page, it's not clear if a user has not selected a time #22881
• 508-defect-2 [HEADINGS, COGNITION]: Review page, headings should be logically ordered and consistently used #22880
• 508-defect-1 ❗ Launchblocker [SCREENREADER, COGNITION]: Step 2 of 4, legend must be the first child of the fieldset so it can be announced #22876
• 508-defect-4 [COGNITION]: Reword or design the education math problem on step 2 of 4 #22874
• 508-defect-3 [COGNITION]: Introduction page, links should be styled and written as links #22846
• 508-defect-3 [COGNITION] Eligibility page, links should be styled as links #22840
• 508-defect-3 [COGNITION]: Ch31 home, lists should be announced as lists in VoiceOver #22831
• sitewide defect-level-3 [FOCUS]: When closing the "in this section" menu, focus should be placed back on the "in this section" button  #22826
• sitewide 508-defect-2 [COGNITION, KEYBOARD]: Focus MUST not be hidden by the sticky profile menu #22824
• Accessibility Review for Staging Review: VRE CH31 #22653
• 🚢 Capture Fields Necessary to Automate Pension Eligibility Determinations in the 686c-674 #7759
• [CI/CD]: Review coverage of accessibility checks in pensions end-to-end tests #7403
• Accessibility Feedback - Design Intent: eBenefits - View Dependents Formlet #21464
• [Content organization] Your page doesn't follow heading hierarchy. Headings aren't properly nested, and headings and/or labels aren't relevant to the page. (02.04.1) #30026
• Design | Adjust Copy on 686 Confirmation Screen #39225
• 508-defect-2 [COGNITION, SCREEN READER]: View dependents modal must reference its h1 using aria-labelledby or be appropriately labelled #41108

Tickets within this Epic

[CAIA A11y Support]: Benefits and Claims, Dependents #61685

• Maintenance audit for forms:
  • 21-686c - PDF & Digital
  • 21-674 - PDF & Digital
  • 21P-509 - PDF only
• 3 PDFs (non-CAIA)
• 2 Digital Versions
• 5 open issues (needing closed first); 2 closed

[CAIA A11y Support]: Benefits and Claims, Pension #61716 - CLOSED

• Maintenance audit for the following has been canceled:
  • 21P-534EZ (application for dependent and indemnity compensation)- Paper Form Only
  • 0 PDFs
  • 0 Digital Versions
• 2 open issues (needing closed first); 12 closed

[CAIA A11y Support]: Benefits and Claims, CH 31/VRE #61718

• Maintenance audit of:
  • 28-1900 (CH31/VRE)
• 1 PDF (non-CAIA)
• 1 Digital Version
• 10 open issues (needing closed first); 12 closed

[CAIA A11y Support]: Benefits and Claims, CH36/PCPG #61719

• Maintenance audit of:
  • 28-8832 (Ch36/PCPG) - DIGITAL ONLY
• 0 PDFs (non-CAIA)
• 1 Digital Version
• 4 open issues (needing closed first); 10 closed issues

Timeframe

July 31

Will this new product be released incrementally (for instance 25% of users initially)?

• Yes
• No

Note: If you checked yes, we'll reach out to discuss details about the content in the react widget.

When do you expect to launch your product to 100% of users?

Please provide an estimated date so our team can create other relevant tickets.

When does this work need to be completed?

• Estimated launch date:
• Estimated staging review date:
• Content, Accessibility, and IA work needed by:

Collaboration Cycle

Will this work be going through the Collaboration Cycle?

• Yes
• No

If no ...

• Skip to the supporting artifacts section, below.

If yes ...

Please provide the link to your Collaboration Cycle ticket:

• Ticket (number):
• Collab. Cycle Ticket Opened (date):

Please check all of the phases in the Collaboration Cycle you have completed:

• Design Intent
• Midpoint Review
• Staging

For planning purposes, please check all of the phases in the Collaboration Cycle you feel you might need CAIA support and guidance:

Design Intent

• Accessibility
• Content
• IA
• Translation
• Already completed, no assistance needed.
• Unknown at this time.

Midpoint

• Accessibility
• Content
• IA
• Translation
• Already completed, no assistance needed.
• Unknown at this time.

Staging

• Accessibility
• Content
• IA
• Translation
• Already completed, no assistance needed.
• Unknown at this time.

Supporting artifacts

Please provide supporting artifacts as available.
Product outline for 527 (There is no outline for 534EZ
User flows
[Prototype or mockups](Insert URL here between the parenthesis)
Epics/issue that may be helpful
Form 21P-534EZ (application for dependent and indemnity compensation)

• Link to product outline:
• Link to or attach user flows:
• Link to prototype or mockups:
• Link to your research plan:
• Link to any epics/issues that may be helpful:

Additional Support

Collaborative Sessions

Do you plan to bring this to an upcoming content office hours session?

• Yes, benefit content office hours (Thursdays, 3:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET)
• Yes, health content office hours (Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET)
• Yes, unauth office hours (Mondays, 11:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. ET)
• No, but I'd like to schedule time to talk about this request
• No, let's work asynchronously and meet if needed

Note: If we think this work would benefit from a collaborative session with you, we may ask you to bring it to office hours or set up a separate time to meet.

Accessibility Help in Slack

The #accessibility-help channel in the DSVA Slack, is also available to you as a resource. Everyone is welcome to ask questions or get help from our a11y (accessibility) specialists. Tag @Terry Nichols to get a11y help asap.

Next steps

Once you’ve submitted this ticket, please post a link to this issue in the #sitewide-content-ia Slack channel and tag @Terry Nichols.

• If you also need engineering support from the Public Websites team, fill out their intake request form.

• If you need a page/URL redirected, a URL changed or a vanity URL set up, please submit a Redirect, URL change, or vanity URL request

• If you are creating an experimental design, please also contact the DST.

• If you are requesting a11y support for user research, please complete this form, next.

[sara-amanda]

@coforma-terry updated the body of the ticket to identify the number of forms and quantity of outstanding issues relating to the forms, along with assignments so we can work with Kate on that.

[sara-amanda]

@coforma-terry updated EPIC to reflect conversation with Martha today 7/12/2023:

• Breaking out the PDFs (4) and Digitized Forms (4).
  • Work needing to be done includes digitized forms only.
  • The PDFs need sent to the VBA (Veterans Benefits Administration).
  • A PDF request can also be put into the 508 office.
• Audit can begin, once the 21 open issues found on the last edit have been reviewed and closed out by the Benefits & Claims Team.

[steele-lm]

@sara-amanda and @coforma-terry The intent with these new audit requests were to validate that the existing issues are still issues given that most are over a year old and have cycled through several teams. We were advised to open new audits rather than have engineers research each issue to see if it still exists. cc @tblackwe

[tblackwe]

@sara-amanda I discussed these issues with @joshkimux and the recommendation was to request a new audit due to the age of the tickets. Theses issues originally assigned to a different team, some of them originating in 2020.
We can start working on them, but my concerns are that:

• the previous team did the work and didnt close the ticket, leading to confusion on our side
• Accessibility guidelines have changed since tickets were opened and we will implement the wrong solution, or address them in incorrect order due to changed severity

Please confirm that we need to resolve these issues before an audit will occur.

[sara-amanda]

@tblackwe @steele-lm - understood. Thanks for the additional info.!

Our new CAIA team member, @ohgreatkate has jumped in with her benefits background, and is working on closing those, to clear them out, I believe.

The PDFs noted above, would not be part of that though.

[coforma-jamie]

Hi @tblackwe and @steele-lm! I've been working on this audit, but I see here that there are still a bunch of a11y defect tickets that need to be closed (see "21 issues" at the top of this ticket). I can't complete my audit until the open tickets are closed, or their statuses are reviewed. Can you take a look at those?

[steele-lm]

@coforma-jamie Thanks for reaching out. Thomas and I outlined the intent of these audits earlier in the comments. Many of the outstanding tickets are over a year old, so the goal with the new audit request was to have CAIA review the old outstanding issues to ensure they are still issues and that the accessibility guidelines outlined in the original tickets are still valid.

[coforma-jamie]

@steele-lm CAIA would be happy to review once these tickets have been resolved or otherwise closed. We can run an audit on new work, but cannot validate existing open tickets. Since our team is so new, we understand that there may be confusion around what we do - we’re working on updating our documentation about this.

cc @sara-amanda

[steele-lm]

@coforma-jamie Thanks! For issues that are over a year old, is there any concern that we may be implementing depreciated standards that we'll need to revisit after a new audit is completed? I don't have a good sense of how often standards change.

[coforma-terry]

Tagging @sara-amanda ?

[artsymartha68]

@coforma-jamie Thanks! For issues that are over a year old, is there any concern that we may be implementing depreciated standards that we'll need to revisit after a new audit is completed? I don't have a good sense of how often standards change.

Jumping in to say that this shouldn't be an issue! OCTO complies with WCAG 2.1 which has been in place many years (2.2 is published but we haven't "upgraded" yet). As long as the product code hasn't changed in the intervening time, the issues should still be valid.

[ohgreatkate]

Separate tickets were created for each form listed above, and feedback has been shared within each form's separate ticket.
[CAIA A11y Support]: Benefits and Claims, Dependents #61685
Maintenance audit for forms:
21-686c & 21-674

[CAIA A11y Support]: Benefits and Claims, CH 31/VRE #61718
Maintenance audit of:
28-1900 (CH31/VRE)

[CAIA A11y Support]: Benefits and Claims, CH36/PCPG #61719
Maintenance audit of:
28-8832 (Ch36/PCPG)