Key Takeaways
Nearly all hospitals and about 92% of doctors fall under this rule through Medicare and Medicaid participation.
The risk lives in the product, not only the marketing website, and extends to third-party tools such as embedded forms and payment widgets.
A VPAT is increasingly required before procurement discusses price or features.
Accessibility must be a company-wide mandate, with marketing and product serving as champions.
TL;DR
B2B health tech vendors selling to hospitals, health systems, or providers that receive federal financial assistance from HHS, including Medicare and Medicaid payments, now face digital accessibility requirements under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Products must meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard by May 2027 for organizations with 15 or more employees and May 2028 for smaller ones.
A conversation between Alex Ferraro, ABF Marketing, and Phil Yatvin, Accessibility Strategist at Name Role Value (NRV)
A growing number of B2B health tech companies are learning that accessibility carries real consequences: patients who encounter inaccessible platforms can face delays, barriers, or exclusion from care, and the company behind it can face procurement delays, lost deals, reputational damage, and credibility issues.
I recently sat down with Phil Yatvin, Accessibility Strategist at Name Role Value (NRV), an accessibility strategy agency that helps organizations move from fragmented accessibility efforts to clearer decisions, coordinated action, and sustainable progress. We talked about why accessibility keeps surfacing in unexpected places, who inside an organization should actually own it, and what marketing and product teams can do before it becomes a crisis. A few identifying details below have been changed to protect client confidentiality.
Product accessibility is becoming a visible B2B health tech risk
Alex: Why is product accessibility becoming such a visible risk in B2B health tech specifically?
Phil: The real exposure usually lives in the product. Procurement teams increasingly ask vendors to submit a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT), sometimes called an Accessibility Conformance Report, before a deal can move forward. If a vendor can’t produce one, or the one they have doesn’t hold up, they can be delayed, challenged, or eliminated before anyone even discusses price or features.
Hospitals and health systems that accept Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement receive federal financial assistance, which puts them under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. HHS has extended the compliance deadlines to around May 2027 for organizations with 15 or more employees and May 2028 for smaller ones. A hospital system can love your product, your pricing, and your team, and still walk away if you can’t show your platform meets WCAG 2.1 AA.
Third-party tools are part of the risk
If a third-party tool lives on your site or in your app — whether it’s a sign-up form, map, or payment widget — you are responsible for making sure it’s accessible, even though you didn’t write the code. Build an inventory of every third-party tool, then work backward to figure out which ones need attention first. The real fix begins earlier: add accessibility language to contracts and RFPs before a dependency is built.
Accessibility needs company-wide ownership
Accessibility tends to live wherever someone happens to care about it rather than with a team accountable across every touchpoint: the marketing site, product, mobile app, and internal tools. It can’t live in marketing alone. Ideally, it’s a mandate above any single department, with marketing and product acting as champions and educators who carry it forward.
Start with practical, visible wins
A brand color and contrast review can identify which combinations meet contrast standards and update the palette teams use every day. An alt text guide helps teams produce meaningful descriptions for images, video, and social content. A VPAT or accessibility conformance report for the product supports procurement conversations and can signal operational maturity to investors. Internal, employee-facing systems also need review — not only public websites.
Accessibility is a revenue and leadership conversation
Accessibility is becoming part of the trust story investors and partners look for, especially in healthcare. A documented VPAT and a track record of addressing accessibility let a company speak to procurement risk before it ever comes up in a deal. Start now, while you still have the luxury of being proactive instead of reactive. The hard part is waiting until a buyer, auditor, or deadline forces the issue.
If you sell into hospitals, health systems, payers, or public-sector healthcare buyers, start by asking three questions: Do we have a current VPAT or Accessibility Conformance Report? Have we reviewed the product experience, not just the marketing website? Do we know which third-party tools could create accessibility risk for our buyers?
Frequently asked questions
What digital accessibility standard applies to B2B health tech products?
Products used by covered healthcare organizations should meet the WCAG 2.1 AA standard, the benchmark regulators and procurement teams use to assess accessibility.
What is a VPAT?
A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template is the document buyers use to understand how a product conforms to accessibility standards. It is increasingly requested during procurement.
Are third-party tools included in accessibility responsibility?
Yes. Embedded forms, maps, payment widgets, and other third-party tools used on a site or in an app can create accessibility exposure for the company using them.
Where should a health tech company start?
Start with a current VPAT, a product accessibility review, an inventory of third-party tools, and clear ownership across marketing, product, legal, and leadership.
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