Someone Asked Us for a VPAT. What's That?

VPAT? What's that?  You're deep in a sales cycle with a university, a hospital system, a government agency, or a large enterprise. Terms are basically agreed. Then someone from procurement or IT sends a short email: "Before we can move forward, can you send over your VPAT?"

And nobody at your company knows what that is. Here's what's being asked, why, and what to do about it.

 
What a VPAT is
A VPAT — Voluntary Product Accessibility Template — is a standardized form for documenting how a product conforms to accessibility standards. It's maintained by the Information Technology Industry Council, and it's free to download.

The blank form is the VPAT. Once you fill it in, the completed document is properly called an Accessibility Conformance Report, or ACR. In practice everyone says "VPAT" for both, and nobody will correct you.

It comes in several editions, and you pick based on who's asking:

WCAG edition — WCAG 2.0, 2.1, or 2.2
Section 508 edition — U.S. federal procurement
EN 301 549 edition — European requirements
INT (International) edition — all of the above, which is why most vendors use it

The form walks through each applicable success criterion. For every one, you state a conformance level and explain your answer:

Level
Meaning
Supports
Fully meets this criterion
Partially Supports
Some functionality doesn't meet it
Does Not Support
The majority doesn't meet it
Not Applicable
The criterion doesn't apply to this product
The explanation column matters as much as the rating. "Partially Supports" with a clear, specific note about what fails and where is far more credible than a wall of "Supports."

 What not to do

Don't claim full conformance you haven't verified. This is the important one. A VPAT is a self-reported vendor statement, and it typically becomes part of the contract record. Overstating it means representing something inaccurate to a customer in writing, in a document they may rely on and may re-check later. If they discover the gap during deployment — and they will, because their accessibility team tests — you've turned a manageable conversation into a credibility problem.  Don't fill it out from intuition. You cannot answer 50 success criteria accurately by looking at your product and thinking about it. You need testing. Don't ignore it and hope. Silence is read as "does not support."

Don't hand it to whoever is free. A VPAT completed by someone without accessibility expertise is usually wrong in both directions — overclaiming on criteria that fail, underclaiming on criteria that pass. (As a note: we offer VPAT support and can walk you through the process. We also offer accessibility testing and can even prepare the VPAT for you!)

What to do instead
1. Ask which edition and version they need. Costs you one email and prevents redoing the whole thing. If you contract with us for VPAT work, we can handle the information gathering, but we'll still need this info! 

2. Test your product, website, tools -- whatever the client is potentially buying from you. Automated scanning, manual expert review, and assistive technology testing against the relevant criteria. This is an audit — it's the same work — and it's the input the VPAT is written from. (As a reminder, we offer accessibility audits and will work with you to get your content accessible). But what happens if your product or website fails accessibility? See the next two steps!

3. Write it honestly, with specifics. Real conformance levels, real explanations. Where something partially supports, say what fails, for whom, and what the workaround is if there is one. (If you contract with us for VPAT development, we can handle this whole process). 

4. Include a remediation roadmap. This is the part that saves deals. A VPAT showing gaps with dated commitments to fix them can be perfectly acceptable to a client What they need is a partner who knows their own product and is visibly working on it. Honest gaps plus a credible plan beats implausible perfection. (As part of VPAT development, we develop remediation roadmaps). 

5. Keep it current. A VPAT describes a specific version at a specific date. Update it when the product changes materially, and at least annually (and if you contract with us for accessibility maintenance, we can set a schedule for updating your VPAT as well!)

 
:and now for some truths:
If your product has never been tested for accessibility, the VPAT is not really your problem. It's the symptom. The form is just a structured way of writing down what's true. If what's true is unknown, you can't write it down — and the honest version of the document may say things you'd rather it didn't. So, do the testing, learn what you're working with, and start closing gaps. Plenty of vendors have kept deals alive with a candid VPAT and a real plan. Very few recover well from a customer discovering the report was wrong.

 How we help
We test the product, produce the findings, and write the VPAT — accurately, in the right edition, with explanations that a technical buyer will find credible. Then we help you build the remediation roadmap that goes alongside it, and do the work if you want us to. Turnaround depends on product complexity, but this is frequently urgent, and we can usually work to a procurement deadline if you tell us about it early.

One thing we won't do is write you a VPAT that says what you'd prefer it to say. That would be doing you harm on a delay.

 Also worth knowing
A VPAT is not a certification. Nobody certifies it. It's your statement about your product. VPATs also apply to more than websites. Software, mobile apps, hardware, documents, and digital content can all be subject to one. If you sell a platform, expect questions about the whole thing. Having one ready is a sales asset. Buyers increasingly filter on it early. Vendors who can produce a current, credible VPAT within a day of being asked are noticeably easier to buy from than vendors who go quiet for three weeks.

 
Been asked for a VPAT? Get in touch — tell us the deadline and we'll tell you what's feasible.

We're accessibility practitioners, not attorneys, and nothing here is legal advice. Contract questions are for your counsel.