What is VPAT compliance?
"Compliance" generally refers to the state of being in accordance with the established guidelines or specifications, or the process of becoming so, while "VPAT" is an acronym for "Voluntary Product Accessibility Template," which is a prototype self-declaration form used by manufacturers and vendors of information and communication technology (ICT) products and services to document the accessibility conformance levels of their products and services.
Accordingly, VPAT compliance is the condition of adhering to the established accessibility standards or guidelines as outlined in the various editions of the VPAT, specifically Section 508 VPAT 2.4, EN 301 549 VPAT 2.4 of the European Union, the International (INT) VPAT 2.4, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Why VPAT compliance for businesses?
Compliance with the established accessibility standards is a legal necessity. Businesses could face legal and financial penalties from the authorities if they disregard the current accessibility standards and guidelines, such as Section 508 accessibility standards, EN 301 549 accessibility requirements from the European Union, or WCAG. Compliance with VPAT is crucial to preventing pointless lawsuits.
Businesses should embrace VPAT compliance for more reasons than just avoiding the financial and legal dangers connected with non-compliance. Additional advantages that a business will gain from VPAT compliance include the following:
- Helping to identify critical accessibility issues in products and services
VPAT compliance requires a number of steps, including selecting the appropriate VPAT edition to document the accessibility of a product or service, conducting an accessibility assessment on the targeted products or services, completing the appropriate version of the VPAT to generate an accessibility conformance report (ACR), and making the VPAT ACR accessible.
During the VPAT assessment for the product or service, a business is able to identify residual accessibility barriers in their products or services. These can be referred to the product or service development team to deal with before the product or service is made available to be purchased or used by customers. This identification and dealing with accessibility issues in products and services ensures that a business’ products and services are not only accessible, but also continue to improve in terms of quality. Continuous improvement of the quality and accessibility of a business’ products or services enhances the brand image of the business and fosters its visibility.
- Enhancing prospects for working with federal organizations
If a business wants to work with the federal government or any of its agencies, including selling or offering digital products or services to them, VPAT compliance is imperative.
Having a Section 508 compliance VPAT accessibility conformance report (ACR), for example, will help federal organizations understand the accessibility features of your digital product or service. This helps to impress them into working with the business.
- Reduction of procurement time
With VPAT compliance, a business helps to cut procurement times because the VPAT ACRs generated as part of the compliance make buyers review the accessibility features of the associated products or services and only contact manufacturers and vendors when they require clarifications or want to close the purchase.
VPAT compliance, therefore, helps a business better utilize its human resources because they concentrate on handling other things than what an accessible VPAT report provides.
- Increase in customer base and business profits
VPAT compliance unlocks the huge market of people with disabilities. This means that more customers, who translate to increased revenue and profits for the business.
- Customized compliance services
With VPAT compliance, a business will precisely understand which services they can contract a consultant to help them deal with. For example, during the VPAT audit, a business may identify access barriers that require an expert in a given technical area.
In this case, the business identifies a professional that has domain knowledge of the issue and seeks customized services as required. This saves the business time and money that could have been spent on diagnostics had it not embraced VPAT compliance.
How a business can achieve VPAT compliance
To achieve VPAT compliance, businesses can identify an internal team among its staff to help in filling out the VPAT to generate a VPAT or contract professional VPAT certification service providers like ADACP.
A review of VPAT 2022 hits and misses indicates that businesses that contracted the services of professional VPAT compliance service providers had credible and objective VPAT reports that helped them close business deals, as opposed to those that relied on internal teams to generate their VPAT ACRs. With years of experience and domain knowledge, professional VPAT compliance service providers offer fully customized compliance services within a short period of time.
A third-party VPAT compliance professional will benefit a business with personalized accessibility suggestions, offer legal help as and when required, help with periodic audits and VPAT updating, inform the business of any changes in the accessibility standards or guidelines, and offer technical expertise when dealing with the accessibility barriers identified during VPAT auditing.
Hire a professional for your VPAT compliance needs.
If you want to take a shot at creating a VPAT report for your products or services, you can use this VPAT report example developed by ADACP.
If you choose to hire a third-party service provider with a professional team of accessibility experts who offer a plethora of both manual and tool-based VPAT auditing services, call (626) 486-220 to get the assistance you need at the best possible rates.