VPAT
The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template — the document enterprise procurement asks for before a deal closes.
A VPAT is a structured self-report of how a product measures against accessibility standards, criterion by criterion. Each gets one of four ratings: Supports, Partially Supports, Does Not Support, Not Applicable — with an explanatory remark. The completed document is properly called an Accessibility Conformance Report; “VPAT” refers to the blank template but is used for both. Editions exist for WCAG, Section 508 and EN 301 549, and buyers usually name which they want.
It is a sales document with legal weight. Public-sector and large enterprise buyers request one during procurement, and an overstated VPAT is a misrepresentation that survives into the contract. “Partially Supports” with an honest remark and a remediation date is a far better position than “Supports” that a buyer's own testing contradicts.
In practice
A vendor marked every criterion “Supports” based on an automated scan. The buyer's accessibility team tested the trial account, found the data grid unusable by keyboard, and removed the vendor from the shortlist — not for the defect, but for the document. The competitor's VPAT listed four partial supports with dates.
Where teams get it wrong
- Filling it from an automated scan, which covers roughly a third of the criteria.
- Marking “Supports” for anything that has not been manually tested.
- Completing the wrong edition for the buyer's jurisdiction.
- Never updating it, so it describes a version two years old.
- Treating it as marketing rather than a document the buyer will verify.
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Related terms
All terms- WCAGThe Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — the standard almost every accessibility law and procurement contract points at.
- Accessibility AuditA structured evaluation of a product against WCAG, producing a list of failures with severity, location and a route to fixing each one.
- European Accessibility ActThe EU directive that made digital accessibility a legal requirement for products and services sold to European consumers.
- Screen Reader TestingOperating a product with a screen reader to find what assistive technology actually announces — the half of accessibility no automated scanner reaches.