Many organizations view VPATs (Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates) as a form of certification. Although that sentiment is incorrect, it’s not entirely off base.
Here’s exactly how a VPAT (ACR) can help your organization win contracts and make sales.
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.
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 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.
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.
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 reply very soon – usually within a few hours. Most clients who just need an audit and VPAT services have their ACR within 2 weeks of messaging us.
