VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)
A VPAT is a standardized document, published by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI), that vendors use to declare a product's conformance with Section 508 / WCAG accessibility standards.
Detailed explanation
The VPAT is the most widely used accessibility-conformance disclosure format in US federal and enterprise procurement. The current version, VPAT 2.5 (published 2024), has four editions: 508 (Section 508), WCAG (WCAG 2.x), EU (EN 301 549), and INT (combined international).
A completed VPAT lists each applicable success criterion and declares one of three statuses: "Supports", "Partially Supports", or "Does Not Support", with explanatory remarks. The accompanying Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) is the actual filled-in document; the VPAT is the empty template.
VPATs are not legally binding, but procurement officers rely on them to assess vendor accessibility before purchase. A VPAT with multiple "Does Not Support" entries can disqualify a vendor from federal contracts.
How this applies to Shopify stores
B2B Shopify stores selling to enterprise or government buyers are routinely asked to provide a VPAT. AccessComply ships a VPAT generator that turns a scan result into a draft ACR — fill in 8 fields, get a signed VPAT 2.5 .docx ready for submission.
What merchants should check next
Treat this term as a practical audit prompt, not just a definition. Check the storefront pages where the concept shows up in real customer journeys: product discovery, add-to-cart, cart drawer, checkout handoff, account login, and support contact flows. If the issue affects code, verify the rendered HTML and computed browser output after the theme change. If it affects copy or media, keep the merchant-facing wording accurate and easy to maintain.
Primary source: itic.org