The Importance of a VPAT Certificate

 What is a VPAT certificate?

A certificate generally refers to a document serving as evidence or written testimony of status, qualifications, privileges, or the truth of something. However, when you hear about a VPAT certificate, which is within the accessibility domain, do not imagine seeing a certificate in its general sense.

A VPAT certificate is the final product of a VPAT certification process that starts with choosing the correct version of the voluntary product accessibility template (VPAT) to use in documenting the accessibility conformance details of your information and communication technology (ICT) products or services.

This is followed by VPAT testing for the products or services, accurately and completely filling out the VPAT form, and making the filled-out VPAT form accessible. It is the duly completed VPAT form that is often referred to as the VPAT certificate. It does not involve a certifying authority, and there are no pass-fail qualifications associated with certificates.

Why a VPAT certificate?

In spite of the fact that accessibility for all improves our lives whether we have disabilities or not, it was not until the landmark amendment of Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act that accessibility issues moved from the periphery to the center stage.

It is now imperative that businesses and organizations make their digital products and services accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities. The revised Section 508 requires federal agencies to procure, maintain, create, and use ICT products and services that are accessible to people with disabilities, regardless of whether these people work for the federal government or not.

To help federal contracting officials and procurement teams comply with the revised Section 508, the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) partnered with the General Services Administration (GSA) to develop the VPAT form.

Though filling out a VPAT form for every digital product or service a business or organization has is voluntary, the VPAT report generated after completing the form, which is often referred to as the VPAT certificate, is a mandatory requirement for a digital product or service to participate in federal procurement processes.

Apart from the market comprising the federal organizations, without a VPAT certificate, your digital products or services will not be publicly procurable in Europe and other parts of the world.

Just as federal agencies are expected to comply with the Revised Section 508 accessibility standards when choosing digital products or services to procure, in Europe, public procurement authorities are required to adhere to the EN 301 549 accessibility standards for public procurement of ICT.

In fact, VPAT accessibility has now become a golden standard for accessible digital products and services, with four different editions of the VPAT form created to cater for accessibility of ICT in different scenarios or markets as follows:

VPAT 2.4 WCAG Edition, which is used to test the compliance of websites and web-based digital resources for Level A, AA, and AAA of WCAG guidelines.
VPAT 2.5 Section 508 Edition, which is used in undertaking VPAT assessments to establish the levels of conformance with the Revised Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act
VPAT 2.4 EU (EN 301 549) Edition, which is used to generate VPAT certificates that demonstrate levels of compliance with the EU’s EN 301 549 accessibility standards.
VPAT 2.4 International (INT) Edition, which is a combination of all three standards. This means that if a digital product or service complies with this edition of the VPAT form, then it has all the features included in the WCAG, Section 508, and EN 301 549 accessibility standards or guidelines.

Other benefits of having a VPAT certificate

If your business creates and sells ICT products or services, you’re losing out big time if you do not have a VPAT certificate for each of the products or services. With VPAT certification, you’ll be assured of the following:

Enhanced opportunity to work with or offer services to federal organizations
Ability to identify any critical accessibility issues in your products or services so that you can deal with them before releasing the product or service into the market.
Increased market base for your digital products or services, including the huge market comprised of people with disabilities.
Customer loyalty because the VPAT certificate demonstrates your commitment to accessibility as it enables customers make informed decisions about the accessibility of similar products or services.
Avoidance of legal and financial risks associated with non-compliance with the established accessibility requirements
Customized accessibility services as the business clearly understands the accessibility features that have issues and require fixing.

Need help with VPAT certification?

VPAT certification requires specialist professional support so it can achieve the intended purposes. For example, the VPAT assessments that are part of the process require expert knowledge of the accessibility domain, including its dynamism.

You can review this VPAT certificate developed by ADACP so as to know what the certification requires or call (626) 486-220 to get VPAT certification assistance. Consultations are always free.