What a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) Is and When You Need One
VPATs are one of the more confusing acronyms in accessibility. They're also a legitimate procurement requirement in certain contexts. Here's what a VPAT is, who asks for it, and what it actually tells the reader.
A business owner who sells to government agencies, educational institutions, or large enterprises may encounter a procurement requirement they haven’t seen before: a request for a VPAT, or Voluntary Product Accessibility Template.
The term is technical, the document format is unfamiliar, and the request often arrives without much context. Here’s what it actually is and what it means.
What a VPAT Is
A VPAT is a standardized document that describes how a product, software platform, or website conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and, in some versions, to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the European EN 301 549 standard.
The document is produced by the vendor, the business offering the product or service, and reviewed by the buyer. In that sense, it’s a self-reported conformance statement. The “voluntary” in the name reflects that it’s not legally mandated as a format, but it is required by many procurement processes as a condition of contract.
When completed, a VPAT is sometimes called an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). The VPAT is the template; the ACR is the completed output. The two terms are often used interchangeably in practice, which causes some confusion.
Who Asks for VPATs
VPATs are most commonly required in three contexts.
Federal and state government contracts. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that federal agencies procure information and communication technology that meets accessibility standards. Many state governments have adopted equivalent requirements. When a vendor is providing software, a digital platform, or a website as part of a government contract, the agency may require a VPAT as part of the procurement process.
Higher education. Universities and colleges, particularly those receiving federal funding, are subject to accessibility requirements under both Section 508 and the ADA. Many institutions have formal procurement processes that require accessibility documentation before approving a new vendor or technology platform.
Large enterprise procurement. Corporate procurement departments at large organizations increasingly include accessibility in their vendor evaluation criteria. This is especially common in financial services, healthcare, and technology sectors where accessibility has become a compliance and ESG concern.
Not every business needs to produce a VPAT. A small service business that does not sell to government agencies or large institutional buyers is unlikely to encounter a formal VPAT requirement. The businesses that need to understand this document are the ones that are selling, or aspiring to sell, into these procurement environments.
What a VPAT Actually Contains
The VPAT template, published by the IT Industry Council (ITI), provides a row for each relevant WCAG success criterion (or Section 508 requirement) and three columns: the specific criterion, the conformance level, and a brief explanation of how the product addresses it.
The conformance levels are: Supports (the product fully meets the criterion), Partially Supports (the product meets the criterion in some contexts but not all), Does Not Support (the product does not meet the criterion), and Not Applicable (the criterion is not relevant to this product).
A completed VPAT is not a checklist of pass/fail. It’s a detailed, criterion-by-criterion disclosure of how the product performs against the standard. The purpose is to give procurement teams enough information to evaluate whether the product will work for their users with disabilities, before committing to a contract.
Why “We Are Accessible” Is Not a VPAT
A common misunderstanding: providing a general statement that the product is accessible is not a substitute for a VPAT in contexts that require one.
Procurement teams asking for a VPAT want the specific, criterion-by-criterion documentation, not a summary. A response like “our platform is WCAG 2.2 AA compliant” without supporting documentation raises more questions than it answers. How was compliance evaluated? By whom? When? Against which criteria? What were the partial conformance findings?
The VPAT format exists precisely because “we are accessible” is not a verifiable statement. The document forces specificity about what was tested, what was found, and where gaps exist.
The Honesty Question
A VPAT that claims full conformance on every criterion, with no partial supports or gaps, is frequently not credible to experienced procurement reviewers.
Real accessibility evaluation almost always produces some findings, partial conformance on specific criteria, not applicable designations that require justification, or areas where the product meets criteria in most but not all contexts. A document that shows no findings suggests either that the evaluation was not thorough or that the disclosures are not accurate.
An honest VPAT, one that documents partial conformances accurately, explains how known gaps are being addressed, and describes the evaluation process that produced the findings, is more credible than a perfect-looking document that experienced reviewers will regard with skepticism.
Producing a VPAT
Producing a credible VPAT requires a real accessibility evaluation first. The document is an output of the evaluation, not a document that can be filled in without one.
The evaluation should cover the same scope the buyer will be evaluating: the product’s full user journey, including all interactive features, forms, navigation patterns, and dynamic content. The evaluation should use manual testing methods alongside automated tools, because automated tools alone do not produce findings that support criterion-level disclosure.
The VPAT template is available from the ITI website at www.itic.org. There are several versions, corresponding to different standards: WCAG 2.1, WCAG 2.2, Section 508, and the combined international version that covers EN 301 549 as well. The right version depends on which standard your buyer requires. The COREaccess™ Accessibility Leadership System covers the full framework — audit, remediate, train, and monitor — for organizations that need documented, standards-based conformance.
The Small Business Owner’s Guide to Website Accessibility covers accessibility compliance for small and mid-sized businesses, including the relationship between WCAG, Section 508, and ADA requirements. If a VPAT request has arrived and you’re not sure where to start, a 15-minute conversation about COREaccess™ is a practical first step.