My mind wanders. My mind is creative.

Today after breakfast I took a walk in my Berlin neighborhood. I saw many homes, some businesses, and some public gathering places.

I saw two glass collection locations, and I wondered if they would appear on a map. My first search result was Glas entsorgen – Entsorgen.org. The first commenter was a person with a disability seeking a pickup service for his glass recycling.

This story so far portrays the tangential tendencies of my ADHD brain. Others have told this story before! Here's a fun version: Hal replacing a lightbulb (YouTube autoplay, 42 seconds).

Fortunately, before I went to bed last night, I chose my goal for today: to categorize and prioritize the whole world of unsolved accessibility problems, with a focus on technology. Does that sound unrealistic? Well, I believe I can harness my creativity to tame this complexity.

In fact, I can use this morning's tangential topic for my ambitious goal today. The commenter's need for a recycling pickup service is just one of our seemingly endless list of challenges in need of categorization.

Tangents are good. Wandering toward a goal is called creativity.

My first in-person church visit in COVID-era Berlin

We visited the Lutheran church on Müllerstraße today in Zehlendorf. Today is the Sunday commemorating baptism.

We sat in singles in pairs with social distance. The congregation is older than we are and equally white. A few people had evident disabilities.

The pastor is engaging. His speech and movement convey energy. The sermon started with the idea of Erwaehlung — I tried to look it up in Google Translate, then I got Silke's help. "Gott liebt mich grundlos." The pastor connects the traditional Lutheran message to our contemporary world. Examples: it's a mistake to play on a computer to avoid feeling pain. He said something about #BlackLivesMatter but as a language learner I didn't understand the context. I went in with low expectations of understanding everything, then the experience beat my expectations — I understood 75% of everything spoken.

Du oder Sie? I know we say Du to God. Does God say Du to me?

The organist today played the hymns clearly and confidently — dare I say unapologetically? Back at Christ Lutheran in El Cerrito, I enjoyed each song individually, yet our alternation between musical styles would make the musical program feel slightly labored overall.

I understood that the bell tower at the entrance was meant to be boldly welcoming, but for me it was oppressively loud. When we go again, I'll want to arrive early so we can be seated in the church when the bells sound.

I felt welcome at this church today. I am also curious to explore other churches. After landing in Berlin this is a good moment to sample from the buffet.

WCAG reporting for non-web software

Are companies using WCAG for non-web software?

Short answer: Yes!

This is important for standards education.

The question came up because I recommended that the WCAG-EM Report Tool not hard-code the words "websites" and "web pages" into its reports. I said the tool should also include suitable language for non-web software, such as mobile apps.

Personally I've written a lot of WCAG reports in VPAT format for non-web software, but I wondered... Is this my weird specialty, or is it common?

So I asked the Internet.

I looked at the ten biggest digital companies because I had a hunch they might publish their VPAT reports online for all to see. I was right — after a few simple web searches, I found six out of ten of these large companies publishing their VPAT reports online.

A few clicks later, I had the data I was looking for. Five out of six large technology companies have published at least one VPAT report for non-web software.

I was disappointed to notice that too many of those VPAT reports were over three years old, before the Section 508 refresh, so WCAG was not yet part of the report. However, my conclusion is still valid. The moment these companies update their software conformance reports they'll have to include WCAG.

What the Internet told me

Apple - yes native apps
https://support.apple.com/accessibility/vpat

Microsoft - yes native apps
https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/industry-blog/government/2018/09/11/accessibility-conformance-reports/

Samsung - cannot determine (reports are behind login)
https://www.samsung.com/us/business/solutions/industries/government/compliance-certification/

Google - no native app reports found online, web only
https://www.google.com/accessibility/customers-partners/

AT&T - yes native apps by reference to partners
https://www.business.att.com/industries/family/public-sector/vpats.html
Referenced partners include:
https://www.poly.com/us/en/legal/compliance/vpat
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/accessibility/voluntary-product-accessibility-templates.html

Amazon - yes native apps (reports are behind login but the AWS VPAT page mentions one)
https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/vpat/
Mentions:
https://aws.amazon.com/tools/aws-elasticwolf-client-console/

Verizon - yes native apps (Network Manager apps)
https://enterprise.verizon.com/solutions/public-sector/federal/contracts/eis/contract-info/vpat/

China Mobile - n/a - no reports found online

Disney - n/a - no reports found online

Facebook - n/a - no reports found online
https://www.facebook.com/help/273947702950567
Also searched for Oculus, Instagram

More questions, more answers

Do you have a larger sample? A different approach to these questions? Let's discuss.