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What is a VPAT?

A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or “VPAT” is a document that technology providers are required to complete that defines how their product(s) meet Section 508 compliance.

Make Sense of Vendor Smoke and Mirrors
Are you making the biggest, most common mistake when it comes to understanding a VPAT? If you believe that because a company HAS a VPAT – their product will ensure Section 508 compliance you would be wrong. The “real” question is: “What does their VPAT actually say?”

Here are some examples of deceptive text you might see in a VPAT:

• “We achieve Section 508 compliance by letting you create a text-only version of the course in another technology…”
• “…some form fields, such as on the Short Answer quiz, do not have labels and the radio buttons on the True and False quiz are not properly grouped.”
• “The person authoring the course can provide the necessary elements to make the course accessible…”
• Building alternative versions of a course or relying on reams of “tips and tricks”, “accessibility how-to guides”, etc.
• It does not have to be that way.

A few additional resources

• A deep dive on the difference between other “authoring” tools and CourseAvenue’s elearning platform?
• How is CourseAvenue different from other learning authoring tools?
• Does your dog bite? Understanding deceptive marketing in Section 508 compliance for elearning.
• E-learning at scale – a timeline of the USDA’s adoption of CourseAvenue’s elearning platform.

The CourseAvenue Studio Difference

Other authoring products generally require the author to be “all-knowing” when it comes to accessibility, especially about Section 508, WCAG 2.1, etc. These products assume that the author is already an accessibility expert. Becoming an accessibility expert is a lot of work.

For that reason, we assume you are not an accessibility expert.  CourseAvenue users do NOT need to be “all-knowing” accessibility experts.

Why?

​Because CourseAvenue’s development team spent the time to embed accessibility into the core product. Accessibility is built-in. In fact, we guarantee the courses you create with CourseAvenue will pass a 508 review. Want details of this industry leading guarantee?