The GSA Section 508 program provides information and guidance on procuring accessible information technology.
A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) provides information on how a product or service claims to conform to the Section 508 Access Board Accessibility Standards for Electronic and Information Technology (EIT). It is a company’s own assessment of how their product conforms to U.S. Federal Accessibility Standards using the VPAT template.
The VPAT, housed by the Information Technology Industry Council, was developed as a tool to assist federal contracting officials and other buyers in making preliminary assessments regarding the availability of commercial “Electronic and Information Technology” products and services with features to support accessibility. As more and more companies complete VPATs for their products, the VPAT can be used to help evaluate a single product or several products for a side-by-side comparison.
