VPAT® Certification: Accessibility Documentation Explained
Is there a VPAT certification?
No, there is no VPAT certification — you complete the VPAT as the product-owner to demonstrate the accessibility of your products.
That’s straight from the Information Technology Industry’s official VPAT page.
So that closes that chapter, but if a VPAT isn’t certification, what is it?
A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a standardized document that we use to account for the accessibility of a product or service. It’s quite literally a template that we fill in.
Once the template is completed, it becomes an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR).
When executed correctly, an ACR becomes like an accounting or report card of the accessibility of a product or service.
If your report card shows full conformance (think of this as all A’s), then it can have the effect of certification so long as buyers accept the results.
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Why does it have the effect?
Because you’ve got a standardized document speaking to the accessibility of your product or service and that document is representing that your product or service meets all of the criteria for a given technical standard.
Now, full conformance is not an easy feat.
The most famous accessibility technical standards, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), have 55 success criteria (i.e., technical requirements) under WCAG 2.2 AA.
It’s quite normal for a product or service to have a few accessibility issues.
And if that is the case when an expert (internal or third-party) begins to fill in the VPAT, then those issues will reflect on your ACR.
So, again, the VPAT isn’t certifying anything. Rather, it’s merely relaying what the current accessibility status of a product or service is.
But, if you think about it, the ACR is basically certifying that for the given product or service, on a certain date, this is/was the accessibility status of that accessibility or service.
If the accessibility is pristine, that’s quite a valuable document that you’re holding on to.
It may not technically be certification, but it will certainly open up doors during the procurement process.
If you need VPAT services, we’d love to help. Just send me a message at Accessible.org and we’ll be right with you.
