ANSI Accreditation of American National Standards Developers

To learn more about American National Standards and the value of the ANS designation, click here. ANSI does not itself develop standards. Rather, the Institute accredits standards developing organizations to create and maintain American National Standards (ANS). Applying for Accreditation Maintaining Accreditation

Applying for Accreditation

A U.S.-based standards developing organization whose procedures meet the requirements for due process and criteria for approval and withdrawal of ANS, as described in the ANSI Essential Requirements: Due Process Requirements for American National Standards, may apply to ANSI for accreditation as a standards developer.

While the vast majority of ANSI Accredited Standards Developers (ASDs) are members of the ANSI Federation, membership is not a requirement. However, all prospective ANSI ASDs are required to either become full ANSI organization members or pay an equivalent annual maintenance of accreditation fee. Non-members do not receive the many benefits of ANSI membership.

Persons interested in applying for accreditation should complete the Application for Accreditation as a Developer of American National Standards. Applications (including a copy of the developer’s proposed operating procedures) should be submitted to ANSI with payment of the one-time application fee of $4,000.00.

Please submit the application package, or any questions relating to accreditation, to ANSI’s Procedures & Standards Administration Department (psa@ansi.org),
Attention: Jim Thompson (e: jthompso@ansi.org; 212.642.4913) or
Anne Caldas (e: acaldas@ansi.org; 212.642.4914).

 NOTE: A separate accreditation process exists for U.S. TAGs to ISO.

Maintaining Accreditation

Periodically, the PSA staff will issue to all ANSI-accredited standards developers a compilation of changes to the standards developing process that have been approved by the Institute’s Board of Directors. This will usually take the form of a revised set of procedures.

Accompanying these revisions will be a compliance form that must be signed and returned to the PSA Department after a review of the revisions and comparison with the SDO’s accredited procedures. The compliance form will specify a date by which all ANSI-accredited SDOs must be in full compliance with the approved revisions.

In order for the developers of American National Standards to be aware of any changes that may be in progress, it is recommended that these developers regularly visit the ANSI Online Public Document Library, which contains information concerning procedural changes under consideration by the Executive Standards Council (ExSC), those undergoing public review (which are also published in Standards Action), and those recently approved by the Board of Directors.

Reading the documents under public review also affords ANSI-accredited SDOs the best opportunity to make their opinions about proposed changes known to the ExSC.