# VPATs explained: when an online store actually needs one

Source: https://suitshieldhq.com/blog/2026-10-22-vpat-explained-for-stores.html

Reviewed October 22, 2026


Somewhere in a sales conversation or a procurement form, a store gets asked for a VPAT and has to Google it mid meeting. What a VPAT is, who it is really for, and the honest answer to whether a typical ecommerce business needs one.

## What a VPAT is

A VPAT, Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, is a standardized form used to report how a product or service conforms to accessibility standards. Filling one out produces an Accessibility Conformance Report: a criterion by criterion account of whether your site or app supports, partially supports, or does not support each requirement, with remarks explaining the state of things.

The template exists in editions matched to standards: WCAG, Section 508 for US federal procurement, and EN 301 549 for Europe. The form itself is free. The expensive part is the evaluation behind it, because an honest report requires the same testing work as an accessibility audit, expressed in this particular format.

## Who asks for one

Government buyers ask, routinely. US federal agencies and many state and local bodies must buy accessible technology, and the VPAT based report is their standard evidence. Large enterprises with mature procurement and legal teams ask too, especially universities, healthcare systems, and finance, because their own accessibility obligations flow downstream to vendors.

If you sell to consumers through your own storefront, nobody in that chain asks for a VPAT, and producing one proactively is usually unnecessary. If you sell services, software, or wholesale arrangements to institutions, the question will arrive eventually, typically attached to your biggest deal so far, which is the worst possible moment to start from zero.

## What producing one involves

You cannot fill in a credible report from optimism. The remarks column asks how each criterion was evaluated and what the known gaps are, and buyers who request these documents read them comparatively; a report claiming perfect support across the board is a known red flag, because no real product earns it.

The normal route is an accessibility audit against the same standard, then translating findings into the template, with remediation of the worst gaps either completed or honestly scheduled. Many businesses hire the audit firm to draft the report as part of the engagement, which costs less than the internal time of learning the format for a single use.

## The practical advice for stores

Know which of your revenue lines could trigger the request. Pure direct to consumer: low priority, spend the money on fixing issues instead of documenting them. Any institutional sales motion: get the audit done before the request arrives, because procurement timelines do not wait for a three week audit plus remediation.

And keep the underlying evidence regardless. Whether or not a VPAT ever gets requested, the audit and fix records behind one are the same documentation that demonstrates diligence in every other accessibility context, including the legal one. The template is paperwork. The work it describes is the substance.

## Related reading

If this topic is useful, these earlier guides go deeper on connected questions: [Alt text audits: the gaps that show up again and again](https://suitshieldhq.com/blog/2026-10-21-alt-text-audits-common-gaps.md), [What an accessibility statement page should actually include](https://suitshieldhq.com/blog/2026-10-21-accessibility-statement-page-what-to-include.md), and [How website accessibility claims get tested: what auditors and plaintiffs look for](https://suitshieldhq.com/blog/2026-10-20-how-accessibility-claims-get-tested.md).

## Frequently asked questions

### Is a VPAT legally required for my online store?

Not for a typical consumer facing store. VPATs are a procurement convention, required in practice when selling to government agencies and many large institutions. Your legal exposure around accessibility exists independently of the document and is addressed by the site's actual accessibility.

### Can I fill out a VPAT myself?

You can, but an honest report requires real evaluation against each criterion, usually an audit's worth of testing. Self assessments that claim full support everywhere are distrusted by experienced buyers and can create liability if they misrepresent the product.

### How long does a VPAT stay valid?

There is no formal expiry, but the report describes a specific version of your product at a point in time. Major redesigns or platform changes make an old report misleading, and institutional buyers commonly expect reports reflecting the current version.

### What is the difference between a VPAT and an ACR?

The VPAT is the blank template; the ACR, Accessibility Conformance Report, is the completed document produced by filling it in. People use the terms interchangeably in conversation, but when a buyer asks for your VPAT they mean the completed report.