IT Accessibility - Procuring IT

Review the below information to learn how you can ensure your Electronic Information Resource (EIR) acquisitions meet accessibility requirements. 

ADA Cart 2.png

EIR for Individual Use

  • If an EIR is being procured for a single user, no formal accessibility review by the IT Accessibility team is needed, and any accessibility hold may be removed by procurement personnel. However, the requesting party should still examine accessibility conformance reports based on the VPAT template (to be completed by the vendor; WCAG version found at the bottom of the ITI VPAT web page). The EIR selected should reflect the most accessible solution that meets your business need when analyzed in conjunction with comparable products.

ADA Cart 1.png

  • Additionally, the approval of procurement by a supervisor indicates that the unit is assuming the risk for noncompliance, if any. In some cases, this may involve the additional costs of replacing the EIR if a user becomes disabled, if a user is replaced due to employee attrition, or if additional users within the same team or work group choose to use the EIR as a team tool. In these cases, an alternate means of access could be provided for the user(s) who need them, or a temporary reassignment of duties could be made until the EIR can be replaced. (The latter is not an ideal solution.)


Consultation
Prior to requisitioning software, please make sure that the vendor meets Texas Administrative Code 206 and 213 rules. It is faster to purchase accessible software that requires minimal review than it is to have inaccessible software go through a time-consuming exception process.

Furthermore, if a software exception is granted, this does not preclude a person with disabilities from filing a lawsuit against the university. The Office for Civil Rights will take any exceptions under consideration, but their priority is to ensure that discrimination based on EIR does not occur.

Resource:
Accessibility Requirements Tool (ART) (section508.gov)