A federal agency or private organization that receives funding from the federal government needs a Vpat Compliance. The report is a self-declaration to demonstrate that the entity is compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.

A VPAT document does not just makeyou accountable for complying with the US law for the disabled population, but it also offers a competitive advantage over other non-compliant vendors.  

If you are new to it and wondering how it’s done and how long Vpat Accessibility take, then this is the right post for you. Keep on reading to understand the process of showcasing your accountability towards the 26% disabled population in the US.

What is A VPAT?

VPAT stands for Voluntary Product Accessibility Template. It was created by the ITI (Information Technology Industry) Council in the year 2001. The template helps government agencies to comply with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. According to Section 508 of this Act, companies providing digital products should confirm barrier free access to the disabled population.

There are different versions of a VPAT that offer compliance with Section 508, ADA (Americans with Disability Act) and EN standards of accessibility.

Any business organization that has digital offerings/electronic content should fill out a VPAT document. You could suffer by not having a VPAT declaration as agencies that are linked to federal funding would prefer compliant vendors over you.

Moreover, a VPAT helps you get better through the accessibility criteria. During the VPAT testing, you can find areas of improvement. You can provide better products/offerings that will reach a larger segment of the target audience including the disabled population.

How to get a VPAT report?

The free to use VPAT form can be downloaded from the ITIC website. The entries can be filled in the template to generate an ACR (Accessibility Conformance Report). The Vpat Certification can be marked as supports, partially supports, does not support and not applicable.

How long do VPAT Assessments take?

It is important to thoroughly assess the offerings to make sure that every VPAT criteria is met. Since a VPAT is a legal document, in-depth knowledge is needed to check the products and services based on accessibility criteria.

The time taken to complete the test and generate the ACR may vary for every business. Automated scans cannot help to produce a VPAT – a manual audit is required.

A VPAT is a legal document, thus one should not rely on automated scans. AI powered tools are not 100% accurate. It is important to get human expertise to improve your products and submit a genuine and honest VPAT.

It usually takes around 1 week for the VPAT report to be reviewed. The duration is also subject and scope specific, as accessibility testing for high impact products can take longer than three weeks.  Therefore, it is important to hire knowledgeable experts who always guide you to put your step in the correct direction. It is important to keep reviewing your product updates for accessibility aspects.

For a full suite of accessibility solutions, you can contact the VPAT experts at the link given below.