VPAT & Accessibility Conformance Reports

Accessibility Conformance Reports on the VPAT 2.5 template for vendors selling software and web products to Ontario's public sector and beyond: WCAG 2.1 AA testing by people who build accessible products, and a report your buyer's procurement office will accept.

Proof, in the format the buyer already uses

When a public-sector buyer asks for accessibility evidence, they ask for a VPAT, and what they want is an Accessibility Conformance Report: a criterion-by-criterion statement of how your product supports WCAG, on the template their procurement office knows how to read. A good one is an asset in every evaluation you enter. A bad one — self-declared, all supports, no remarks — is quietly fatal, because evaluators have read enough of them to know.

We produce reports that survive scrutiny because they are the output of a real evaluation: automated scanning, manual review of every applicable criterion, and assistive-technology testing of the journeys a user actually takes. The evaluation methods are stated in the report, the remarks are specific, and the levels of support are ones you can repeat in a demonstration.

A report that gets better

The first report is rarely all green, and it should not pretend to be. What buyers reward is trajectory: dated remarks, a roadmap, and a next edition that shows the roadmap was real. We pair the report with a ranked list of the criteria that do not yet pass, and, where you want it, with the remediation that closes them before the next procurement cycle.

What is in the report

Every criterion, a truthful level of support, and the remarks that make it credible

VPAT 2.5, WCAG edition

The current Information Technology Industry Council template, WCAG 2.1 (or 2.2) Levels A and AA, in the format procurement portals expect. Section 508 and EN 301 549 editions where your buyer is outside Canada.

Tested, not self-declared

Each criterion evaluated against the product by automated scan, manual review and assistive technology — the same method as our audits — so the levels of support are ones you can defend.

Remarks that read as evidence

Partially supports with no explanation is a red flag to a buyer. Each remark names the component, the behaviour and the plan, which is what turns a report into a reason to buy.

A roadmap, if you want one

The criteria that do not yet pass, ranked by effort and impact, so the next edition of the report shows movement — and so your team can remediate with us or without us.

How a conformance report runs

  1. Define the product

    Which product, which version, which platforms, which journeys. A report covers a defined thing; the definition is on the first page.

  2. Test

    Automated pass across the product, manual review of every applicable criterion, assistive-technology sessions on the core journeys. One to three weeks depending on the product.

  3. Write

    Support levels and remarks for every criterion, an executive summary for the buyer, and the evaluation-methods section that tells a careful reader how to trust it.

  4. Refresh

    Products change. We re-test on your release cadence, typically annually or on a major version, and reissue the report with a change log.

Who needs a conformance report

Software vendors selling to government

Ontario ministries, agencies and the broader public sector ask for accessibility evidence in procurement, and a Vendor of Record supply arrangement is not a substitute for it. A credible report shortens the evaluation.

Product companies selling into the United States

Section 508 and state procurement rules make a VPAT a condition of sale. We produce the WCAG, 508 and international editions from one evaluation.

Organizations receiving a VPAT

Buyers, too. If a vendor has handed you a report and you are not sure whether to believe it, we read it against the product and tell you.

Questions we're asked

What is the difference between a VPAT and an ACR?

The VPAT is the blank template published by the Information Technology Industry Council. An Accessibility Conformance Report is a completed VPAT for a specific product and version. Buyers ask for a VPAT and mean an ACR; we produce the ACR on the current VPAT 2.5 template.

Can we fill in the VPAT ourselves?

You can, and many vendors do, which is why buyers have learned to discount them. A report is credible when its evaluation methods are stated and its remarks are specific. If you want to self-assess, we can review your draft against the product instead of testing from scratch, and say so in the methods section.

We do not pass everything. Should we still publish a report?

Yes. A truthful partially supports with a plan is what buyers expect; a blanket supports they do not believe. Ontario’s procurement evaluators read hundreds of these. The report that admits its gaps and dates its roadmap is the one that gets through.

Do you write conformance reports for websites as well as software?

Yes. We maintain an Accessibility Conformance Report for our own site, tested with the same method we use for clients, available on request alongside our published accessibility statement. For a website we usually recommend the audit report as the working document and the ACR as the thing you publish.
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