An Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) does not have a formal expiration date, but most organizations update theirs at least once per year or after any significant product change. The right update ACR frequency depends on how often your product changes and how heavily procurement teams rely on your documentation.
| Key Point | What It Means |
|---|---|
| Formal Expiration | ACRs do not formally expire, but outdated reports lose credibility in procurement reviews. |
| Common Cadence | Annual updates are the most common baseline for stable products. |
| Cost Per Update | ACR issuance ranges from 300 dollars to 1,000 dollars, plus the cost of a new audit if needed. |
| Events Prompting Updates | Major redesigns, new features, framework migrations, or a shift in WCAG version referenced. |
What Prompts an ACR Update?
Product changes are the primary driver. A redesigned interface, a new user flow, or a migration to a different front-end framework can all alter the conformance status documented in an existing ACR.
Procurement is another factor. When a prospective buyer requests your Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) documentation and the ACR on file is two or more years old, it raises questions about whether the data still reflects the current product. Some enterprise buyers explicitly reject ACRs older than 12 months.
Annual Updates as a Cost Baseline
For SaaS products with regular release cycles, an annual update keeps the ACR current without excessive spending. The ACR itself costs 300 dollars to 1,000 dollars to produce, but the larger cost factor is the audit that informs it.
Most accessibility audits range from 1,000 dollars to 3,000 dollars. If the product scope has not changed dramatically since the last evaluation, some organizations conduct a focused re-evaluation of changed pages rather than a full audit. This reduces cost while keeping the ACR accurate.
When Annual Is Not Enough
Products with frequent, large-scale UI changes may need updates every six months. A product that ships a complete redesign mid-year will have an ACR that no longer describes the actual interface. Waiting until the next annual cycle creates a gap where the documentation and the product do not match.
Organizations referencing a specific WCAG version in their ACR should also consider an update when they decide to target a newer version. Moving from Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA to 2.2 AA, for example, requires a new evaluation against the updated criteria.
When Less Frequent Works
Static products or internal tools with minimal interface changes can stretch to 18 or even 24 months between updates. The key factor is whether the product has changed enough to affect the conformance data in the ACR. If the answer is no, the existing report remains accurate.
Factoring Update Frequency into Your Budget
The total annual cost of keeping an ACR current depends on whether a new audit is needed or a partial re-evaluation is sufficient. At the low end, a focused re-evaluation plus ACR issuance might cost 1,300 dollars. A full audit with a new ACR for a larger product could reach 4,000 dollars.
Building this cost into an annual accessibility budget removes the pressure of ad hoc spending when a procurement request arrives.