| Key Point | What It Means for You |
|---|---|
| VPAT vs. ACR | VPAT is the empty template; ACR is the completed report you provide to buyers |
| Certification Status | Not technically certification, but has similar marketplace effect when done well |
| Market Requirement | Increasingly mandatory – schools, universities, and companies now require independently issued ACRs |
| Quality Indicators | Independent audit, reputable company, detailed remarks, diverse testing methods |
| Timeline | Accessible.org turnaround: 1-2 weeks for audit, complete ACR within 14 days |
| Remediation Option | Fix issues before ACR issuance for cleaner documentation |
| Competitive Advantage | Products with credible ACRs beat competitors without documentation |
| Technical Standard | Most buyers require WCAG 2.1 AA conformance |
Many clients ask if VPATs (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) are certification for the accessibility of their product or service. Although that sentiment is technically incorrect, it’s not entirely off base.
Here’s exactly how a VPAT (ACR) can help your organization win contracts and make sales.
Table of Contents
VPAT vs. ACR
A VPAT is exactly what its name suggests – a template. There are multiple editions of the VPAT documentation:
- WCAG
- EN 301 549
- Section 508
- INT
Each edition is tied to a technical standard and the VPAT is just the template that we fill in to account for the accessibility of the product or service in question against all of the criteria in a given technical standard.
When we fill in the details section and complete the accessibility table of the VPAT, we create what’s known as an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR).
The terms ACR and VPAT are used interchangeably in the marketplace, but when most people request a VPAT, they’re really asking for an ACR.
Is An ACR Certification of Accessibility?
No, once you fill in and complete the VPAT, you have an accounting of the accessibility, but an ACR doesn’t certify that a product or service is conformant with a technical standard or compliant with a law.
However, that doesn’t mean an ACR isn’t extremely powerful. If your product or service is fully conformant or near conformant with the technical standards in question – and this is reflected in the ACR, your product is very likely to beat out any competitors who can’t produce this documentation or don’t grade as well.
Procurement teams rely heavily on these on ACRs to evaluate products, and with accessibility now a mandatory consideration in many circumstances, buyers will significantly favor sellers with ACRs for their product or service.
However, not all Accessibility Conformance Reports are created equal. Knowledgeable buyers will scrutinize ACR documentation to see if it’s reliable.
The Marketplace Reality
Demand for third-party issued VPATs is real and growing. Schools, colleges, universities, and other organizations are aware that they’re impacted by legal accessibility requirements from every direction – Section 504, ADA Title II, and ADA Title III. When they’re procuring products and services, they’re going to insist that they meet a technical standard, typically WCAG 2.1 AA.
The marketplace has quickly advanced and become more regimented in their requirements. We’ve seen clients who already had an ACR that they had completed on their own, but the school they were attempting to win a contract with told them they would only consider an independently issued ACR. This trend is quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception.
What Are Qualities of a Good ACR?
The whole point of a VPAT is to have a standardized document for accessibility to make it easier for buyers to easily assess the accessibility of a product or service and compare it with others.
Of course, this means the ACR only brings value if it’s accurate and reliable. This gets at what experienced procurement agents are looking for and favoring in buying decisions:
- Is the ACR accurate?
- How do we know?
- Was an audit conducted?
- Who conducted the audit?
- How thorough was the audit?
- What evaluation methodologies were used?
- Was the ACR issued by an independent digital accessibility company?
- Is that company reputable?
These questions get at what qualities make the best ACRs:
- Independent audit from a reputable company (companies who sell widgets don’t count)
- Using diverse evaluation methodogies
- Conducted by an experienced, technical accessibility expert
- Remarks and explanations column entries indicate thoughtfulness
- ACR issued by company, perhaps after collaborating with product team
- Collaboration can ensure company is familiar with the product
Independent audits and ACRs issued by accessibility professionals are a big deal because most organizations lack internal accessibility experience and expertise to conduct an audit. Also, there’s an inherit bias with a product team assessing its own product’s accessibility and a tendency to embellish the accessibility to look better than it is.
Ultimately, this comes down to buyers making sure that they are relying upon a document that closely mirrors the accessibility of a product or service.
Understanding the ACR Creation Process
The journey from VPAT to ACR involves several critical steps that ensure accuracy and completeness. When a client approaches us about VPAT services, the process typically begins with a consultation to understand their specific needs. During this meeting, we discuss their product or service, which VPAT edition they need, which version of WCAG they need to conform with, and their timeline including any procurement deadlines.
After the initial consultation, we scope the digital asset to determine what screens or pages should be included and calculate a price quote. The audit is the most technical phase of the process and involves a systematic evaluation against the technical standard. For a typical web app with 15-25 unique screens, this phase takes approximately 1-2 weeks, though we can make a VPAT request a rush order and half that time depending on our current queue.
Similar Effect of Certification
So even though an ACR isn’t certification, it can have the same effect.
Because if your product or service is mostly conformant or fully conformant with a given technical standard, say WCAG 2.1 AA, and you have a credible ACR that reflects that strong accessibility status, it’s going to be a big advantage against competitors who don’t stack up, either in terms of document integrity or level of accessibility.
A well-documented ACR can positively impact your success in the marketplace, even though it’s not technically a certification.
The Remediation Advantage
What clients particularly like about our process is that we offer a pause for them to remediate their digital asset before we issue the ACR. Instead of immediately issuing an ACR that documents all the accessibility issues found, we give our clients the option to pause the ACR issuance so the development team can make fixes.
We still need to validate the fixes before we clear the issues as conformant on the ACR. The process works like this: client begins remediation using our recommendations, we recommend starting with 20-25 issues for an initial batch (if there are 150 issues are more), client completes fixes and notifies us they’re ready for validation, then our technical team reviews the changes and either validates or provides additional guidance.
For clients using our Accessibility Tracker platform, this process is streamlined as developers can mark issues as fixed and notify us directly within the platform. This validation phase usually requires 3-7 hours of technical support.
Summary
Think of an ACR as a detailed snapshot of your product’s accessibility. It condenses complex technical assessments into clear conformance levels, providing stakeholders with a standardized way to evaluate accessibility compliance.
Remember, the accessibility table should be filled in only after an accessibility audit. Once the audit report is completed, those results are used to fill in the accessibility table and provide the snapshot of conformance with a standard.
Accessible.org offers excellent quality audit services and will fill in and complete a VPAT for you, meaning you get an independently issued ACR from a reputable third-party digital accessibility company.
We can even work with your digital team to remediate and re-audit your product before issuing documentation so that you have a clean ACR.
Do you need help with VPAT services?
Contact us and we’ll respond very soon, usually within a few hours. Most clients who just need an audit and VPAT service have their ACR within 14 days of messaging us.
