{"head":{"title":"What Is a VPAT? Accessibility Reports Explained | OceanLab","description":"A VPAT is ITI's free template for reporting how a product meets accessibility standards. Filled in, it becomes an ACR. Editions, an example and mistakes.","canonical":"https://oceanlab.in/glossary/vpat"},"crumbs":[{"name":"Home","path":"/"},{"name":"Glossary","path":"/glossary"},{"name":"VPAT","path":"/glossary/vpat"}],"slug":"vpat","term":"VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)","aka":["ACR","accessibility conformance report"],"category":"Accessibility","short":"A free template from the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) for reporting how well a product meets accessibility standards.","body":[["The VPAT turns standards into a table of criteria. For each one the vendor states whether the product supports it, partially supports it or does not, with remarks. A completed VPAT with documented results is called an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR)."],["ITI publishes editions for the US Section 508 standards, the EU standard EN 301 549, ",{"href":"/glossary/wcag-2-2","text":"WCAG"}," and an international edition that combines all three. Anyone can use it; ITI membership is not required."]],"why":["Public sector buyers, universities and large companies often ask for an ACR during procurement. Without one, a product can be dropped from a shortlist. An honest ACR also tells your own team where the gaps are."],"example":["A learning platform bidding for a university contract is asked for an ACR. It runs an ",{"href":"/glossary/accessibility-audit","text":"accessibility audit"},", fills in the WCAG edition with partially supports where video captions are missing, and adds a dated plan to close the gap."],"inBuild":["We base the report on an actual audit of the current release, keep it versioned with the product, and update it when major features ship. Remarks name the real limitation and the workaround, which reads better to buyers than a wall of supports."],"mistakes":[["Marking everything as supports without testing. Buyers increasingly check."],["Using an old report after the product has changed a lot."],["Filling in the wrong edition for the buyer's region or standard."]],"related":[{"href":"/glossary/wcag-2-2","label":"WCAG 2.2","detail":"The version of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines published as a Recommendation on 5 October 2023, with nine new success criteria."},{"href":"/glossary/accessibility-audit","label":"Accessibility audit","detail":"A structured review of a website or app against an accessibility standard, usually WCAG, to find what blocks disabled people from using it."},{"href":"/glossary/soc-2-type-ii","label":"SOC 2 Type II","detail":"An independent audit report on whether a service organisation's controls were designed well and worked over a period of time."},{"href":"/glossary/pwa","label":"PWA (progressive web app)","detail":"A web app built with standard web technology that can be installed on a device and work offline, giving an experience close to a native app."},{"href":"/glossary/ci-cd","label":"CI/CD (continuous integration and delivery)","detail":"An automated pipeline that builds and tests every code change (CI) and then releases it to users in a repeatable way (CD)."}],"tools":[],"links":[{"href":"/software/govtech","label":"Software for government","detail":"Public sector systems and procurement."}],"sources":[{"title":"ITI, Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)","url":"https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat","checkedAt":"2026-10-25"}],"legal":false,"updatedAt":"2026-10-25"}