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For agencies and organizations that do business with the federal government and are required to fill out VPATs, having a long-term strategy for comprehensive and ongoing accessibility monitoring and remediation is the key to success.

The VPAT template covers accessibility standards like Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, EU’s EN 301549 standard, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Most VPATs test against WCAG 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 standards.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) is a global advocate for technology whose aim is to promote public policies and industry standards that advance competition and innovation worldwide.

The ITI has created four different editions of the VPAT, enabling agencies, manufacturers, and vendors to focus on the standards relevant to their specific markets and contract requirements:

• Revised Section 508 standards: the U.S. Federal accessibility standard.
• EN 301 549: the European Union’s “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe.”
• WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
• INT: Incorporates all three of the above standards.

A VPAT and an Accessibility Compliance Report (ACR) are closely related, but they have slightly different purposes in digital accessibility documentation.

A VPAT is a standardized template that showcases how your products comply with accessibility standards. An ACR, on the other hand, is the completed VPAT. It’s the filled out report that provides in-depth details about how your product conforms to accessibility standards.

More simply, a VPAT is a template, while an ACR is the completed report based on that template. 

No, a VPAT is not a legal requirement by itself; however, in some cases, providing an ACR may be necessary to comply with web accessibility laws and regulations.

No, a VPAT does not guarantee full compliance with accessibility laws. It is a self-reported document that assesses how well your product meets accessibility standards.

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first federal law to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities. It applies to federal government agencies, contractors, and any program that receives federal funding from the U.S. government.

In 1998, the Rehabilitation Act was amended to include Section 508, which requires agencies to “give disabled employees and members of the public access to information comparable to the access available to others.”

Section 508 was explicitly intended to address digital accessibility, and applies to all electronic communications, including but not limited to:

• Public-facing websites and mobile apps.
• Internal and external emails.
• PDFs and other digital documents.
• Digital training resources.

Unlike the ADA, Section 508 contains clear accessibility standards developed by the U.S. Access Board.

In 2017, the board incorporated WCAG 2.0 into its Section 508 Standards. The current standards explicitly require agencies to meet WCAG’s Level A and Level AA conformance levels.