Good VPAT

The following information has been provided to assist you with evaluating the quality of your VPAT before submitting it to us for review. A good VPAT will meet all of the requirements for each section listed below, and will significantly reduce the time it takes for us to review it. A VPAT that contains incorrect or incomplete information will be deemed insufficient in our evaluation and require further follow-up and remediation.

The final VPAT conformance report that is submitted to us must also be accessible.

Product Overview

1. Name of Product/Version. The name of the product and what version it is, as well as the version of the VPAT report itself, are both clearly displayed and current.
2. Report Date. The report date is current. We consider only reports generated within the last two years to be accurate enough.
3. Contact Information. The contact information is for someone who works directly on the development side of the product, and can answer any accessibility or technical questions that we have.
4. Notes. The notes contain important information about the accessibility of the product that might not be found otherwise in the report, such as device compatibility or features in development.
5. Evaluation Methods Used. The evaluation methods are thoroughly described and contain information about both automated and manual testing.

This first page of the VPAT gives us a "bird's-eye view" of the accessibility of your product. Digital products tend to change rapidly, so your VPAT should be the most current snapshot of your product's accessibility. Arguably the most important piece of information on the first page, the Evaluation Methods Used, explain to us how thoroughly you tested your own product for accessibility, and how compatible your product is with assistive technology. It is recommended that your VPAT be filled out by a third-party, though it is not required.

Conformance Table

Conformance Levels

1. Supports. A conformance level of "Supports" means that the product is in 100% conformance with the criterion it describes. Additional remarks and explanations are welcome but not required.
2. Partially Supports. A conformance level of "Partially Supports" means that there are some functions or features of the product that do not support the criterion. Examples of where the product fails to support the criterion are listed in the remarks and explanations field.
3. Does Not Support. A conformance level of "Does Not Support" means that the majority of the functions or features of the product do not support the criterion. Relevant examples are listed in the remarks and explanations field, as well a reasonable commitment and timeline to resolving the identified nonconforming features.

The conformance table itself is a more detailed look at how accessible your product is (we recommend using the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version). Most products are hardly ever 100% accessible, and the conformance table helps identify specific areas where there might be some accessibility gaps in your product and where users might need some extra support. It's important to be as detailed as possible here, as listing conformance levels without providing any remarks or explanations would not be considered sufficient.

NOTE: Where the product does not conform to a specific criterion with a rating of "Does Not Support," we also recommend including any information about when such an issue might be resolved, significantly decreasing the amount of follow-up required on individual issues.