In the last month, we’ve received a surge of requests for VPATs/ACRs. Prospective clients, both in the U.S. and internationally, are not only asking for VPAT services, but they’re very interested in how quickly we can return the Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) to them.
(The term VPAT refers to the template itself and an ACR is the resulting document after the VPAT is filled in.)
What’s happening – and we’ve heard this directly from clients – is that they’re now getting requests from their clients and customers where they weren’t before. And it’s not just the document that procurement agents want – they also want it issued by an independent third-party company.
Of course, we’re happy to help new clients with accessibility and documentation.
The process for getting an ACR is simple:
- We’ll determine which VPAT edition to use with you, our client.
- We’ll audit your digital asset (e.g., web app, mobile app, software, etc.)
- We’ll use the audit results to fill in the material portion of the VPAT.
- We’ll fill in the other details required in the VPAT.
- We’ll return the ACR to you along with our audit report.
We also provide clients with our audit report so this way you not only get the ACR documentation, but you also get the exact details on what accessibility issues exist, where they’re located, and how to fix them.
That’s valuable info that your digital team can leverage.
VPATs can seem fairly complicated at first glance, but they’re really not too bad. All we’re doing is figuring out what accessibility issues exist based on a technical standard and then reporting those issues in the VPAT format.
And depending on how complex the digital asset is – let’s say it’s a web app consisting of 25 pages/screens, we can usually return all deliverables in 2 weeks or less.
This mean your project moves along faster and you can meet the VPAT requirement from your buyer ASAP.
If you need help with accessibility for your project, we’re happy to help. Just send us a message and let us know what you’re looking for and we’ll take care of the rest.
