VPAT® Software: Can You Automate Filling in a VPAT®?
Yes, you can now automate filling in a VPAT using Accessibility Tracker AI. Here’s how it works:
Process
Start by uploading your accessibility audit report in Excel spreadsheet format to the Tracker platform. All issue data will be extracted automatically.
From there, you update the status of issues as your team works through remediation. When you’re ready, you can generate a VPAT based on the current state of your audit.
(Note: Currently the WCAG edition of the VPAT is supported.)
This is hybrid automation. AI handles the initial population of the VPAT, then a human expert reviews and makes corrections. The automated layer does the heavy lifting. The manual layer ensures accuracy and completeness.
How it Works
The platform analyzes your current audit data against WCAG success criteria. For each criterion, the AI determines the conformance level based on issue status. If issues tied to a specific success criterion are marked as validated, that criterion shows as “Supports” in the VPAT. If issues remain unresolved, the criterion is marked as “Does Not Support.”
Note that you can fully edit all AI output. For example, you can change “Does Not Support” to “Partially Supports.”
The AI also generates the remarks and explanations column. This is where most of the time savings come from. Writing remarks for dozens of success criteria can take hours manually. The AI reduces this work to seconds using the issue descriptions for the outstanding issues in your audit report.
Step-by-Step Workflow
Here’s what the workflow looks like inside the dashboard:
- Upload your accessibility audit report to a project
- Track remediation progress by updating issue status
- Navigate to the VPAT tab within your project
- Enter details like product name, contact information, and scope
- Select your WCAG standard (2.0, 2.1, or 2.2 AA)
- Choose your evaluation methods (screen reader testing, keyboard testing, etc.)
- Generate the VPAT using AI
- Review the draft and edit as needed
- Mark as reviewed and publish
The scoring and conformance levels populate automatically. You review everything in the dashboard before finalizing.
Significance
Filling in a VPAT manually takes hours. This is after the audit is complete. You still have to transfer results from the spreadsheet to the VPAT template. It’s not a copy and paste job. Each success criterion needs its own conformance level and remarks.
Get Kris Rivenburgh, Founder Accessible.org’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
With Tracker AI, that transfer happens automatically. The AI maps audit issues to the correct WCAG success criteria. It writes the remarks based on your actual audit data. You review and correct rather than build from scratch.
Of course, this represents tremendous efficiency for compliance documentation. Organizations that need ACRs for procurement can generate them faster. Large organizations managing dozens of digital products can scale their ACR production without proportionally scaling their team.
The Manual Review Layer
This is a prime example of hybrid automation; this not a 100% fully automated process.
AI is prone to errors and omissions so the manual review step is essential.
When you generate a VPAT, you get a draft. You review the conformance levels. You check the remarks and explanations. You edit anything that needs correction. Only after manual review does the VPAT become an Accessibility Conformance Report.
The platform includes editing tools directly in the dashboard. You can change conformance levels, rewrite remarks, and adjust any field without leaving the interface. This keeps your workflow contained in one place.
Current and Future Editions
Right now, AI VPAT generation covers the WCAG edition. We’re looking into adding Section 508, EU, and INT editions in Q2 of 2026. Each edition follows the same logic: audit data feeds the AI, the AI populates the template, and you review the output.
Who Benefits
Any organization that produces ACRs can use this. Accessibility companies issuing reports to clients save time per project. Enterprise organizations with internal accessibility teams managing their own product ACRs can scale output. As a result, procurement teams waiting on ACRs get documentation faster.
Key Distinction
What’s so fundamental to this entire process is it’s based on an actual accessibility audit that is manually conducted by a technical accessibility expert.
The audit is the foundation, not a scan.
Because Accessibility Tracker is an audit-based platform, this foundation is already seamlessly in place and sets the stage for AI’s amazing capabilities to be harnessed in the correct way.
- The audit report provides the data.
- Tracker AI uses that data to fill in the VPAT.
- Accuracy and completeness is manually verified.
- The resulting ACR is based on an evaluation of WCAG conformance, not scan results or incomplete testing.
Final Thoughts
This is a clear cut breakthrough in terms of AI making accessibility compliance much more efficient.
In 2024, filling in a VPAT took hours, now it takes minutes.
