The Beginners Guide To VPAT Compliance

Understanding compliance

Compliance is the state of being in conformity with specified norms or specifications, or the process of becoming so.

To comprehend VPAT compliance, it is helpful to understand the thought process that led to the design of the VPAT and the underlying principles or standards, as well as the process of becoming VPAT compliant.

What Is A VPAT?

For those unfamiliar with the term “VPAT,” it is an acronym for “voluntary product accessibility template,” which was developed by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) in collaboration with the General Services Administration (GSA) to provide accessibility and social inclusion for people with disabilities.

The VPAT is a prototype template that contains information about how an electronic and information technology (EIT) product or service conforms to existing accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Revised Section 508 Standards, and European Union EN 301 549 Accessibility Standards.

The VPAT was originally designed to assist vendors in documenting compliance of their EIT goods and services with the Revised Section 508 of the United States Rehabilitation Act, as well as to support government market research on ICT with accessible features.

Many people in the VPAT compliance community refer to the completed VPAT document as a “VPAT,” however in the wider procurement community, the word favored to refer to a correctly completed VPAT form is “VPAT accessibility conformance report (ACR).” The contrast is that a VPAT is an unfilled form, but a VPAT ACR is a fully completed VPAT template.

What Is VPAT Compliance?

VPAT compliance is thus the correct, succinct, and comprehensive completion of the appropriate version of the VPAT template to aid buyers of EIT products and services in understanding the conformance levels of the products or services. Its primary goal is to ensure that EIT products and services comply with existing accessibility laws and policies, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Revised Section 508 of the United States Rehabilitation Act, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and the European Union’s EN 301 549 Accessibility Standards, among others.

VPAT compliance should be a primary consideration whether you are in the procurement process, redesigning your product, or building an EIT solution for someone.

Why You Need VPAT Compliance?

If you are launching a business that sells EIT products or services, or if you wish to expand your EIT business, you must standardize VPAT compliance. Here are some of the reasons why your competitors in the EIT business may be beating you if you are not VPAT compliant:

   1.Alignment With Existing Laws And Regulations

Every successful businessperson will tell you that swimming against the current created by existing laws and regulations is impossible. In the United States, for example, if you ignore Section 508 compliance certification, you cannot conduct business with the federal government, its agencies, or federally supported organizations.

Section 508 compliance certification is based on the Revised Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act, which mandates all federal agencies to make accessible to disabled people any EIT product or service they design, obtain, manage, or use.

Without Section 508 compliance certification, your EIT products and services would be unable to participate in federal procurement processes, effectively removing them from a massive market given that the federal government is the world’s greatest buyer of goods and services.

   2. Customer Consciousness

VPAT compliance allows your customers to perform simple self-audits on your EIT goods and compare their accessibility to similar products and services offered by your competitors. This allows customers to make more informed purchasing decisions and makes firms accountable for how their EIT products or services are used.

Customers will be able to quickly determine how your EIT products or services meet the established accessibility standards when VPAT accessibility becomes a recognized norm for your EIT products or services, saving time spent inquiring about your products from your sales staff and reducing sales conversion times. This translates to more revenue for your company.

   3. Solidarity With People With Disabilities

VPAT compliance shows people with disabilities that you care about them. By making your EIT goods available to them, you are assisting in breaking their isolation from ever-changing digital solutions. As a result, your EIT products and services are more likely to penetrate their vast market.

   4. Enhanced Capacity For Development Of Quality Products And Services

VPAT compliance encourages you to continuously work toward improving the accessibility, and hence the quality, of your products and services. Businesses that value VPAT accessibility put their employees through regular accessibility trainings to stay on the cutting edge of providing accessible products and services. This motivates them and enables them to work innovatively toward making the businesses’ EIT products and services superior in terms of accessibility.

Steps To VPAT Compliance

Here are the steps you need to take toward VPAT compliance:

• Select your reporting standard or guideline based on the market where you intend to offer your EIT products or services. That is, WCAG for websites and web-based tools, Section 508 for EIT products or services targeted for the federal government, its agencies, and federally supported organizations, and EN 301 548 for European market products and services.
• Conduct VPAT assessments on all EIT products. Ascertain that the individual or individuals doing the VPAT assessments are familiar with the necessary conformity standards and criteria. It is usually a good idea to hire a third-party VPAT compliance professional who can give you with objective and experience-based evaluations.
• With the information from the VPAT testing, complete the appropriate accessibility VPAT. When completing the VPAT form, make sure the information is correct, concise, and thorough. There should be no blank spaces on the VPAT form. An independent third-party expert will provide you with an objectively completed VPAT accessibility conformance report (ACR).
• An independent third-party expert will provide you with an objectively completed VPAT accessibility conformance report (ACR).

Need Help With VPAT Compliance?

You can learn about VPAT compliance by reviewing completed VPAT ACRs created by VPAT accessibility experts after extensive Section 508 tests.You could alternatively call (626) 486-2201 for third-party help in attaining VPAT compliance.