Product managers: Launch without a VPAT at your own risk.
VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) explains the accessibility level of your product or service for people with disabilities and special needs. It’s not an optional document if you are selling to the US federal government or receiving funds from Uncle Sam. Increasingly, RFPs from Fortune 2000 enterprises call for the VPAT in their RFP and bid process. Product managers need to make the VPAT part of their product planning, development process and not an administrative afterthought.
Here is a link to the VPAT details. https://www.section508.gov/sell/vpat and https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat
You need to get your product's or service's VPAT report as accurate as possible, or you could drag yourself and your most valued customers into a deep black hole. If your customer makes a mis-informed buying decision, the lawyers on both sides will likely get involved. You will regret your shortcut, not to mention losing trust with your customer, alienating your sales people, and staining your company’s reputation.
So don’t make writing your VPAT an afterthought. Make it a part of the product requirements document in the product planning stage. Then carry the VPAT editing through your product development phase and with your testing. The accessibility capabilities of your product or services are an innate part of its operation, why treat them as anything but critical to its usability. Don’t forget to update the VPAT when you release a new product version. If you have automated the VPAT creation process, it’s a quick update and it will not delay your next big product launch plans.
Honesty is the best policy with your VPAT. Use the spaces to explain your testing protocols. More and more companies are watching VPATs closely to comply with their own internal IT accessibility rules. Skip or mislead on the VPAT at your own risk.
Here are a few VPATs to check out. How do yours compare?