Accessibility Conformance Reports (ACRs) and Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) are essential tools for assessing how well digital products meet accessibility standards such as Section 508 and WCAG. This session focused on helping participants navigate the selection of vendors to conduct these assessments, understand typical pricing and timelines, and make informed decisions during procurement.
The event featured expert speakers, including Ken Nakata, Laura Ruby, and Thomas Logan, CEO of Equal Entry, whose two decades of experience span projects with Fortune 500 companies and federal agencies. He emphasized the real-world impact of thorough accessibility audits and advocated for ongoing, living conformance processes rather than one-off checkbox exercises.
Key takeaways included strategies for choosing the right VPAT/ACR vendor, with discussion around factors like auditing rigor (manual vs. automated approaches), vendor expertise, timeframe expectations, and cost. Attendees learned that securing a reliable partner is critical to generating meaningful and legally defensible conformance reports.
Video Accessibility:
Each video below is on the Vimeo platform. Accessibility features are listed on Vimeo's website.
