Mr. Market’s Guide to Buying VPAT Services
You need a VPAT/ACR to win contracts. This guide shows you exactly what to look for when purchasing VPAT services so you get documentation that actually helps you get the sale.
What You’re Actually Buying
You’re paying for standardized documentation of your product or service’s accessibility.
A service provider like Accessible.org will audit your digital asset and issue you an independent Accessibility Conformance Report or ACR.
(An ACR is a filled in and completed VPAT.)
You can now use the ACR to win contracts, maybe. The procurement agents use to evaluate your product or service’s accessibility. The ACR opens doors to all types of buyers that require accessibility documentation.
If the ACR shows you have poor accessibility and the buyer cares about accessibility, your product/service will not be chosen.
The Service
VPAT services should include three core components. First, the accessibility audit evaluates your product against the technical standard.
Second, the provider fills in the VPAT template with audit findings.
Third, you receive the completed ACR ready for procurement submissions.
As a #4, many service providers offer the ability to pause the ACR issuance so that you can fix issues and clean up your ACR.
Accessible.org clients usually need 2–5 technical support hours to validate fixes if you choose to remediate before ACR issuance. Our clients use the Accessibility Tracker platform for tracking fixes and validation during this process.
VPAT Edition
You can choose between one of four different editions of VPATs:
- WCAG
- Section 508
- EU (EN 301 549)
- INT. (international)
Each aligns with different technical standards and market requirements.
Most of our clients use the WCAG edition. Here we have broadly applicable documentation where we account for the success criteria in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
You’ll choose the Section 508 edition when selling to U.S. federal agencies. This edition includes WCAG 2.0 AA plus additional federal requirements.
The EU edition is used when selling for European markets.
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The INT edition combines all standards but creates a longer, more complex document. Only use this when you need to account for all standards or are selling to multiple markets.
Red Flags
Remove any provider that sells custom overlays or overlay widgets from consideration. These companies have conflicts of interest (i.e., selling widgets as “solutions” while attempting to also sell legitimate services) and lack credibility with procurement agents.
Also, any company that does not insist upon an audit that is fully manual (with an automated scan only used as a review) is out of consideration.
Accurately and completely filling in a VPAT requires a complete technical evaluation, not a scan or a “hybrid” approach where “automated testing” (a scan) is combined with manual testing.
Also, make sure that when you get your ACR back, the remarks and explanations column is filled out for every “Partially Supports” or “Does Not Support” entry. Procurement agents expect thorough documentation.
Timeline
An audit can be delivered along with an ACR within 2–3 weeks so long as you don’t want to fix issues first.
If you want fix issues, then the timeline extends another few weeks to few months depending on how quick your team remediates.
Cost
VPAT services pricing includes two main components: the audit and the template completion. Audits typically cost $100–250 per page or screen for complex content. Simple pages cost less.
The VPAT service of filling in, completing, and issuing the ACR costs $350 for the WCAG edition at Accessible.org.
The other VPAT editions cost more because the take more time to fill out.
FAQs
What’s the difference between a VPAT and an ACR?
A VPAT is the blank template you download from ITIC.org. An ACR is what you get after filling in that template with your product’s accessibility information. People use these terms interchangeably, but when buyers request a VPAT, they want the completed ACR.
Can we complete our own VPAT?
Anyone can fill in a VPAT, but self-issued ACRs carry less weight with procurement agents. Independent third-party ACRs from reputable accessibility companies demonstrate objectivity and expertise that self-assessments may lack.
How long is an ACR valid?
ACRs don’t expire, but they become less relevant over time. Update your ACR when you release major features, annually for active products, or when buyers request current documentation. Three years is a good maximum cutoff time to update your ACR.
Do we need perfect WCAG conformance for an ACR?
No. ACRs document your actual accessibility status, including any issues. Many successful products have ACRs showing “Partially Supports” for some criteria. Transparency about limitations often works better than inflated claims.
Sometimes our clients reach full conformance, other times they have just a few issues that can’t be fixed, and some times the client just needs the documentation for procurement and has multiple issues that show on the ACR.
Is a VPAT certification of accessibility?
No, it’s just an accounting of accessibility. However, a VPAT that shows full conformance and is issued by a reputable service provider can have the desired effect of certification.
Because then a well regarded digital accessibility company just said your product or service was fully conformant.
