ITI announces free training on authoring and reading ACRs/VPATs

This training will quickly teach you how to produce and consume essential documentation on product accessibility.

The Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) is the premier global advocate for technology, representing the world’s most innovative companies. ITI promotes public policies and industry standards that advance competition and innovation worldwide.

One of the things that ITI produces is the ACR/VPAT template.

• ACR is “Accessibility Conformance Report”
• VPAT is “Voluntary Product Accessibility Template”

Are the terms ACR and VPAT interchangeable?

No. Before Section 508 harmonized with the WCAG standard, there was only the VPAT, and it was a standalone document. Since the harmonization, what used to be the standalone VPAT has been integrated into a larger report, the ACR. Hence, the use of the term ACR/VPAT.

What accessibility standards are included in an ACR/VPAT?

There are four different editions of the ACR/VPAT template, enabling ICT manufacturers and vendors to create Accessibility Conformance Reports focused on the standards for their specific markets and contract requirements:

• VPAT 2.4 508: The U.S. Federal accessibility standard
• VPAT 2.4 EU: The European Union’s EN 301 549 “Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe.”
• VPAT 2.4 WCAG: WCAG 2.1 or ISO/IEC 40500 — the current W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• VPAT 2.4 INT: All three of the above standards, combined.

What is in the ITT ACR/VPAT training?

The free training covers basic knowledge of all four ITI ACR/VPAT formats and is located on ITI’s YouTube channel.

• There are eight modules altogether, ranging from 8 to 25 minutes each.
• All videos are captioned.
• The audio track is sufficient that no descriptive audio is required,

While students can pick and choose which modules they want to view, it is recommended to view them in order. The material covered in the first three modules is essential to understand subsequent modules.

• **Module 1: Introduction (@Michelle van D
• **Module 2: Preparing to write the ACR
• **Module 3: WCAG
• Module 4: Section 508
• Module 5: EN 301 549
• Module 6: What Makes a Good ACR
• Module 7: Your ACR is filled out. What’s Next?
• Module 8: ACRs for Readers and Evaluators
• * It is strongly recommended to take Modules 1–3 before proceeding to 4–7.

Contributions from HP, IBM, Lexmark, Intel, Oracle, and VMware helped make this ACR/VPAT training possible.

Please send back comments to info@itic.org