VPAT Voluntary Product Accessibility Template for website

Developing VPAT — Accessibility Report Template

VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) is a standard document describing a product's compliance with Section 508 (USA) or EN 301 549 (Europe). It is mandatory for selling software to US government agencies and large corporations with procurement policies.

VPAT Versions

VPAT templates are available at IT Industry Council (itic.org).

VPAT Structure

VPAT consists of tables for each WCAG section. For each criterion, a support level is indicated:

VPAT Preparation Process

Step 1: Product Audit

Systematic manual testing is conducted with screen readers (NVDA + Firefox, JAWS + Chrome, VoiceOver + Safari) and automated tools (axe-core, WAVE).

Step 2: Filling in Criteria

For each WCAG Success Criterion (78 total for Level AA in 2.1):

1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A)
  Criteria: Supports
  Remarks: All images have appropriate alt text. Decorative images
           use empty alt="" attribute. Complex charts include
           long description via aria-describedby.

Step 3: Documenting Limitations

1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum) (Level AA)
  Criteria: Partially Supports
  Remarks: Most text meets 4.5:1 contrast ratio requirement.
           Exception: placeholder text in form fields uses #9ca3af
           on white background (2.7:1 ratio). Fix planned in Q2 2025.
           Workaround: Users can use browser high contrast mode.

Automated Draft Generation

// scripts/generate-vpat-draft.js
// Create VPAT draft based on axe-core report

const WCAG_CRITERIA = require('./wcag-criteria.json');  // All criteria list

async function generateVpatDraft(axeReport) {
  const violations = new Set(axeReport.violations.map(v => v.tags).flat()
    .filter(t => t.startsWith('wcag')));

  const draft = WCAG_CRITERIA.map(criterion => ({
    id:       criterion.id,
    title:    criterion.title,
    level:    criterion.level,
    support:  violations.has(criterion.wcag_tag) ? 'Partially Supports' : 'Supports',
    remarks:  violations.has(criterion.wcag_tag)
      ? `Automated testing found issues: ${axeReport.violations.filter(v => v.tags.includes(criterion.wcag_tag)).map(v => v.description).join('; ')}`
      : 'No issues detected in automated testing. Manual verification recommended.',
  }));

  // Generate Markdown
  return draft.map(c =>
    `### ${c.id} ${c.title} (Level ${c.level})\n\n**${c.support}**\n\n${c.remarks}\n`
  ).join('\n');
}

The draft requires mandatory manual review — automation covers approximately 40% of criteria.

What Is Usually Checked Manually

• Keyboard navigation (Tab/Shift+Tab/Enter/Space/Escape/arrows)
• Compatibility with NVDA, JAWS, VoiceOver
• Zoom 200% and 400% without functionality loss
• Windows high contrast mode
• Animations with prefers-reduced-motion
• Session timeouts and warnings

Timeline

Product audit, VPAT 2.4 completion, and review: 5–10 business days depending on product complexity.