A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is a template containing information regarding how an Information and communications technology product or service conforms with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. § 794 (d)). Section 508 provides guidelines for rendering ICT accessible to, and therefore usable by, people with disabilities. The VPAT was originally designed as a tool for vendors to document product compliance to Section 508 and facilitate government market research on ICT with accessible features. Many people started to call the completed document a "VPAT" but the wider procurement community would prefer to call it a product Accessibility Conformance Report, or ACR. The distinction is that the VPAT is the incomplete form, and the ACR is the completed report using the VPAT template.
The current VPAT has expanded to include the U.S. Revised Section 508, European EN 301 549, and WCAG standards which are required by regulations in many jurisdictions. It is available in four editions:
The rows of each table in the VPAT address each accessibility requirement for ICT products. The rows are grouped into sections that match the organization of the particular standard. Standards typically have sections for different technology aspects of a product such as web content, software, documentation, hardware, two-way voice communications, and product support services. Each VPAT table has three columns. The first column identifies the individual requirement, the second column is where the level of conformance to the requirement should be documented, and the third column is used for remarks and explanations further describing the level of conformance.