SEOA11y can help your organization create an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) from the latest ITI Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT®). Generally, this process involves:
- Auto- and manual-Testing your software or web application for specific standards (Section 508, WCAG, EN 301 549)
- Documenting conformance levels (supports, partially supports, does not support, not applicable or not evaluated) for each criteria
- Adding remarks & explanations that help define why each criteria item received a certain conformance level
- Provide recommendations, when possible, on how to improve certain criteria and/or strengthen the ACR
Why Do I need an ACR (VPAT®)?
If you plan on government or educational institutions using your software or web application, then one of the first things requested will be an Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). It gives peace of mind to those institutions that you, as their vendor, take accessibility seriously, and will set you apart from your competitors.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if my ACR was created using an older VPAT® version?
The presence of an ACR is better than nothing. However, it’s like if you were on a trip to someplace new and went to purchase a map. You would probably not be very comfortable purchasing something that was not updated in the last five years.
I have an ACR for the previous version of my company’s software. Should I re-test everything for accessibility and update the ACR?
Updates to software and web applications could inadvertently affect accessibility in a negative way, so it is always good to re-test for accessibility with each release. Updating your ACR with each release is good practice, and will often not be much extra work if done in tandem with the accessibility testing.