VPAT GUIDE

VPAT Guide Essential Requirements Authors

Best Practices Authors

Posting the Final Document Table Information for VPAT® Readers

VPAT Versions

VPAT 2.2 - WCAG

Best Practices Authors

ITI suggests that authors adopt the following best practices when using the VPAT® to create an Accessibility Conformance Report.

  • Branding Header: Company logo or branding information
  • Report Date Changes: If a report is revised, change the report date and explain the revision in the Notes section. Alternately, create a new report and explain in the Notes section that it supersedes an earlier version of the report.
  • Notes: Add any notes applicable to product or the report
    • Additional information about the product version that the document references
    • Any revisions to the document
    • Links to any related documents
    • Additional information describing the product
    • Additional information about what the document does or does not cover
    • Information suggested by the WCAG 2.0 Conformance Claim
    • Information needed to satisfy ISO/IEC 17050-1:2004, Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity
  • Evaluation Methods Used – Information to enter may include the following:
    • Testing is based on knowledge of general product functionality (Instructional note: this would mean the tester knows how to use the common uses and flows of the product in addition to accessibility)
    • Similar to another evaluated product
    • Testing with assistive technologies
    • Published test method (provide name, publisher, URL link)
    • Vendor proprietary test method
    • Other test method
  • Remarks and Explanations: This section may include:
  • Information regarding the testing of a given criteria.
    • Information on application dependencies to support accessibility (e.g. OS, app frameworks, browsers recommended).
    • How the customer can find more information about accessibility issues. One method can be to include the bug ID where customers can call the company’s customer support to get additional information.
    • Known workarounds for accessibility issues.
  • Legal Disclaimer: Area for any legal disclaimer text required by your organization.
  • Report Size: To reduce the size of the report it is acceptable to remove sections. Individual criteria cannot be removed, only sections at a time. Section removal is acceptable in four situations:
    • When an entire section is not being reported on because it does not apply to the product, for example:
      • Chapter 4: Hardware. Information should be included in the notes for that section why it has been removed.
      • A card reader that does not have sound could remove the criteria in section 413 Closed Caption Processing Technologies and just note the why the criteria does not apply.
    • When only reporting on WCAG 2.0 criteria, it is acceptable to remove the WCAG 2.1 and WCAG 2.2-specific criteria from the table. These are marked ‘2.1 and 2.2’ or ‘2.2 only’ within the row. Likewise, if only reporting on WCAG 2.1, it is acceptable to remove the rows with criteria marked ‘2.2 only’ from the table.
    • If the product is not being evaluated for a level of the criteria (for example Level AAA) then that table may be deleted.
    • If a requesting customer has identified that a section of the standard does not apply, information should be included in the notes that the section has been removed.
  • WCAG 2.x Tables: The WCAG 2.x criteria are shown in three tables, Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA.
    • If desired, these tables can be combined into one table.
    • When reporting on a level (A, AA or AAA) all criteria for that level must be answered for the particular version of WCAG that the report includes.
  • Language: Translation to other languages is permitted.
  • Multiple Reports: When using the VPAT to create an Accessibility Conformance Report for complex products it may be helpful to separate answers into multiple reports. For example, when a product is an Authoring Tool that also has web content and documentation. When multiple reports are used for a complex product, it is required to explain this and how to reach the other reports in the Notes section of each report.
  • Criteria Text: To help conserve space in the ITI template only the criteria ID number and a short title have been included. Where possible, links have been included to the standard/guideline.
    • It is acceptable to add the full text of the criteria into the cell if desired to help with understanding.
    • The links to the standards/guidelines can be removed.
  • Ordering of Tables: The order that the guideline tables appear may be changed to facilitate reading. For example, instead of separating the Level A, Level AA and Level AAA criteria, they may be put in one table in numerical order.
  • Guideline Section Heading Rows in Tables: The tables include heading rows to facilitate understanding the context of the criteria.
    • The cells in these rows do not require answers as indicated by “Heading cell – no response required.”
    • It is optional to add a response if desired.
    • The shading of the row is also optional.
    • If removing the heading rows, edit the criteria titles so it’s clear where they apply.