Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) #104144

New Issue

Harley Acheson · 2023-01-26T01:12:46+01:00

Harley Acheson commented

2023-01-26 01:12:46 +01:00

There are many jurisdictions in the world (nations, states, NGOs, and large corporations) that are required by law or regulation to consider accessibility issues when selecting or recommending software.

The standard, and generally required, method is for vendors to supply voluntary product accessibility documents following ICT Accessibility 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines for the United States, and ETSI EN 301 549 for the European Union.

Note that our compliance with these standards will include a lot of "Does Not Support", which is to be expected for our type of product. But we do report marginally better than our competitors. However without this documentation we would not even be considered.

This issue was brought up in the BlenderChat #Docs channel by Jay Wyant, the Chief Information Accessibility Officer for the State of Minnesota on January 25th 2023. That state is required to consider accessibility for software used by public employees. US Federal agencies also require a VPAT.

Jurisdictions requiring this documentation will almost always refer to these as a "VPAT", even if technically incorrect. The completed document is actually an "Accessibility Conformance Report" (ACR), created from a blank template that is a "Voluntary Product Accessibility Template". But "VPAT" is usually used to refer to the completed report.

Note also that some information and links below are regarding W3C/WAI WCAG, which is an accessibility standard for websites and is therefore not applicable to the program itself. Included here though because all these standards are often considered together.

Links:

Templates

The documents below should be the completed documents, each in editable OTD format and in PDF (PDF/A) formats. These should be checked for typos and correctness, (hopefully) approved, and then placed somewhere on the public website.

There are many jurisdictions in the world (nations, states, NGOs, and large corporations) that are **required** by law or regulation to consider accessibility issues when selecting or recommending software. The standard, and generally required, method is for vendors to supply voluntary product accessibility documents following *ICT Accessibility 508 Standards and 255 Guidelines* for the United States, and *ETSI EN 301 549* for the European Union. Note that our compliance with these standards will include a lot of "Does Not Support", which is to be expected for our type of product. But we do report marginally better than our competitors. However without this documentation we would not even be considered. This issue was brought up in the BlenderChat #Docs channel by Jay Wyant, the Chief Information Accessibility Officer for the State of Minnesota on January 25th 2023. That state is required to consider accessibility for software used by public employees. US Federal agencies also **require** a VPAT. Jurisdictions requiring this documentation will almost always refer to these as a "VPAT", even if technically incorrect. The completed document is actually an "Accessibility Conformance Report" (ACR), created from a blank template that is a "Voluntary Product Accessibility Template". But "VPAT" is usually used to refer to the completed report. Note also that some information and links below are regarding W3C/WAI WCAG, which is an accessibility standard for websites and is therefore not applicable to the program itself. Included here though because all these standards are often considered together. Links: - [ITI Accessibility Conformance Report Home ](https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat) - [Training Modules and Resources ](https://www.itic.org/policy/accessibility/vpat-training) - [VPAT 2.4 Rev 508 - U.S. Federal accessibility standard ](https://www.access-board.gov/guidelines-and-standards/communications-and-it/about-the-ict-refresh/final-rule/text-of-the-standards-and-guidelines) - [VPAT 2.4 Rev EU: EN 301 549 - Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services in Europe ](https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_en/301500_301599/301549/03.02.01_60/en_301549v030201p.pdf) - [W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - not applicable. ](https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21) Templates - [VPAT 2.4 Rev US ](https://www.itic.org/dotAsset/353efda0-598d-4593-aa53-f4f1f0f61d82.doc) - [VPAT 2.4 Rev EU ](https://www.itic.org/dotAsset/2e0ea4cb-5aec-417a-8046-8efbe478ccbd.doc) - [VPAT 2.4Rev WCAG ](https://www.itic.org/dotAsset/7edcd54d-c6a6-4649-8375-4a0f0c68eff2.doc) - [VPAT 2.4Rev INT (US, EU & WCAG ](https://www.itic.org/dotAsset/e201819b-a04e-43fa-b789-43a4080b2f7a.doc) The documents below should be the completed documents, each in editable OTD format and in PDF (PDF/A) formats. These should be checked for typos and correctness, (hopefully) approved, and then placed somewhere on the public website.

Blender_VPAT_EU.odt

47 KiB

Blender_VPAT_US.odt

37 KiB

Blender_VPAT_US.pdf

426 KiB

Blender_VPAT_EU.pdf

550 KiB

Harley Acheson self-assigned this 2023-01-26 01:12:46 +01:00

Harley Acheson commented

2023-01-26 01:12:46 +01:00

Added subscriber: @Harley