ACR /VPAT Consumption and Production
This free ITI training, sponsored in part by VMware, will quickly teach learners how to read and author essential documentation on product accessibility.
The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) is the premier global advocate for technology, representing the world’s most innovative companies. ITI promotes public policies and industry standards that advance competition and innovation worldwide.
One of the things that ITI produces is the ACR/VPAT template.
ACR is “Accessibility Conformance Report”
VPAT is “Voluntary Product Accessibility Template”
Are the terms ACR and VPAT interchangeable?
No. Before Section 508 harmonized with the WCAG standard, there was only the VPAT, and it was a standalone document. Since the harmonization, what used to be the standalone VPAT has been integrated into a larger report, the ACR. Hence, the use of the term ACR/VPAT.
What accessibility standards are included in an ACR/VPAT?
There are four different editions of the ACR/VPAT template, enabling ICT manufacturers and vendors to create Accessibility Conformance Reports focused on the standards for their specific markets and contract requirements:
VPAT 2.4 508: The U.S. Federal accessibility standard
VPAT 2.4 EU: The European Union’s EN 301 549 “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe.”
VPAT 2.4 WCAG: WCAG 2.1 or ISO/IEC 40500 — the current W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
VPAT 2.4 INT: All three of the above standards, combined.
What is in the ITT ACR/VPAT training?
The free training covers basic knowledge of all four ITI ACR/VPAT formats and is located on ITI’s YouTube channel. VMware has been an ITI sponsor for many years and participated in both the authoring and recording of this training.
There are eight modules altogether, ranging from 8 to 25 minutes each.
All videos are captioned.
The audio track was designed in such a way that no descriptive audio is required.
While students can pick and choose which modules they want to view, it is recommended to view them in order. The material covered in the first three modules is essential to understand subsequent modules.
* It is strongly recommended to take Modules 1–3 before proceeding to 4–7.
Contributions from HP, IBM, Lexmark, Intel, and Oracle, in addition to VMware made this ACR/VPAT training possible.
Please send back comments to info@itic.org