As a standardized format for documenting Accessibility Compliance, the VPAT/ACR process is defined and governed by the ITIC standards body in conjunction with the W3C. To learn more about VPAT, go to Understanding VPAT.
Note: As a standardized format for documenting Accessibility Compliance, the VPAT/ACR process is defined and governed by the ITIC standards body in conjunction with the W3C.As a result, the process for completing a VPAT is a legal process that must be followed to generate a legal document.
On this page:
Before you begin
Before you start the VPAT process, you must set up a meeting with your Level Access Customer Success Manager.
Note: Depending on your services contract with Level Access, your path to a VPAT/ACR may vary. Begin the VPAT process by contacting your Customer Success Manager to identify the services available in your contract. Once you determine which services are included in your contract, your Customer Success Manager will help you determine which services you will need.
High-level process overview
At a high level, you must follow these steps:
- Define the Asset or Assets which the VPAT/ACR will describe.
- Create a Representative Sample of the Asset(s).
- Evaluate that Representative Sample against the chosen standard(s)
- Optionally, remediate the findings of the Evaluation
- Optionally, validate the remediation effort for effectiveness
- Get written VPAT documentation based on the remaining unremediated results of the evaluation
Level Access provides the following services which help accomplish those steps:
- Representative Sample Scoping
- Walkthrough Calls
- Evaluations
- Full Manual Evaluation
- Remediation Support
- Validation
- VPAT/ACR Creation
- VPAT/ACR Updating
Basic workflow for getting VPAT documentation
The basic workflow involves the following steps:
| Workflow step | Details |
| Creation of a Representative Sample |
Typically, we begin with this step. This service includes a Walkthrough Call to define the asset. Creation of the Representative Sample will require acquiring Access to the asset and determining approval. The Representative Sample Scoping process previously a standalone service, but in 2025, we’ve included it in the “Full Manual Evaluation” service to help simplify things overall. |
| Evaluation |
The testing of the asset must completely fulfill the scope of the Representative Sample. |
| Remediation | Optional step. After you receive the results of your Evaluation(s), most project begin a remediation phase. This can last a few weeks to over a year, in which your development team makes updates to the design and code of your asset to resolve the findings in the Evaluation. Along the way, you can rely on Level Access consultants for remediation support to help your developers understand and resolve the findings. |
| Validation | Optional step. As you begin to remediate, your team can resubmit those findings to Level Access to validate their compliance. As your team’s efforts are confirmed, the compliance score, and the compliance description of your eventual VPAT show better and better performance. This step is often iterative. |
| Creation of the VPAT/ACR |
This step is based on the remaining findings of the Evaluation. If you skipped steps 3 and 4 initially, it is very likely that your VPAT/ACR will describe an inaccessible solution. The more remediation work you do, the better the compliance picture will be, and then more competitive your VPAT/ACR will be in the marketplace. |
| Continue to remediate findings and have them validated | Optional. Once you have a VPAT/ACR in hand, your compliance journey is not over. Your team may continue to remediate findings and have them validated, especially if you initially skipped steps 3 and 4. Over time, as new progress is made, you can request a VPAT Update to make sure your VPAT reflects your current state of compliance. |
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