Procuring Accessible Products

Any digital product or service you seek to procure must comply with the Digital Accessibility Policy's standard.

These purchases can include, but are not limited to, third-party websites and microsites, and any product used in the creation, management, manipulation or dissemination of digital content (e.g. videos, web content, digital documents).

Assessing the accessibility of a product or service must include a vendor-provided Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) based on a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT).

This section defines those templates and outlines the steps for procuring accessible products.

What is a VPAT and an ACR?

A VPAT is a document that provides a general overview of a product's accessibility conformance. VPATs include a table that indicates whether the product supports each Success Criteria in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

An ACR is a report that contains the completed VPAT and information on which accessibility standards the product meets.

Deque University describes a VPAT as a "Nutrition Facts” label for a digital product or service -- giving a sense of how the product might impact people with disabilities.

Criteria are typically assigned one of five levels in a VPAT.

• Supports: The functionality of the product has at least one method that meets the criterion without known defects or meets with equivalent facilitation.
• Partially Supports: Some functionality of the product does not meet the criterion.
• Does Not Support: The majority of product functionality does not meet the criterion.
• Not Applicable: The criterion is not relevant to the product.
• Not Evaluated: The product has not been evaluated against the criterion. This can be used only in WCAG Level AAA.

Which VPAT version do I request?

There are a handful of different VPATs published by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC). The VPAT 2.4 WCAG is acceptable for assessing whether products meet EVMS' Accessibility Standard, as it includes both WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1.

Steps to procure accessible products

The following are steps must be completed prior to submitting a requisition for a new digital product or service. These steps also apply to any previously procured digital product or service that is up for contract or service agreement renewal.

1. Identify the product or service needed
   • Information Technology Security Review
   • Instructional Technology Advisory Group Review (ITAG) [if applicable]
2. Determine whether an RFP is needed
3. Working with the vendor
4. Accessibility evaluation
5. Digital Accessibility Advisory Group Review
6. Submit requisition to Materials Management

Note that steps 1 and 2 may be undertaken simultaneously in order to save time. Email accessibility@evms.edu if you have any questions about any of these steps.

1. Identify the product or service needed

You must determine whether a similar product has already been procured at EVMS.

Information Technology must be notified of any digital product or service being considered for procurement. IT will conduct a security review to confirm whether the product or service can be safely used within the EVMS network.

Email evmsit@evms.edu once you have identified potential vendors or have received submissions for an RFP (see Step 2).

If the product or service will be used for educational purposes, reach out to the Instructional Technology Advisory Group (ITAG). ITAG will review to determine whether there is an existing license for a similar product or service.

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2. Determine whether an RFP is needed

A request for proposal (RFP) must be issued by Materials Management for any purchase that requires bidding. 

This threshold is met when the cost for the product or service exceeds $100,000. Review the Competitive Bidding Thresholds Chart from Materials Management to determine whether bids are required for a purchase.

Once you have determined the cost for a product or service, reach out to Materials Management to begin the RFP process.

The RFP will include language requiring the vendor provides all necessary documentation to assess accessibility conformance.

This documentation is outlined in Step 4 and Step 5.

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3. Working with the vendor

Once you have identified the product and/or an RFP has been issued, it's time to work with potential vendors.

Your next step is communicating with the vendor to begin assessing the accessibility of their product.

If you have not already, this step must involve requesting the vendor provide a VPAT or ACR. It is also highly recommended that you also request answers to the Accessibility Survey for Vendors. 

What if the vendor does not have a VPAT?

If a vendor is unable to provide an ACR or VPAT, request other documentation or a statement outlining the accessibility conformance of their product or service.

If a vendor provides a VPAT with sections labeled "Supports with Exceptions" or "Not Supported," request additional documentation detailing any and all planned remediation efforts and roadmaps for achieving conformance.

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4. Accessibility evaluation

After you receive the ACR/VPAT from the vendor, as well as answers to the questions outlined in Step 3, it's time to evaluate the product or service.

The first step will be going through the VPAT to ensure all it supports all of the relevant criteria. It is important to keep an eye out for criteria labeled "Does Not Support" or "Partially Supports" as well as any notes from the vendor that may indicate remediation work.

Similar to testing for a webpage, manual testing using assistive technology should also be employed.

This can be accomplished by requesting the vendor demonstrate the accessibility of its product or by requesting a trial of the most updat-to-date version of their product.

Additional considerations

It may also be beneficial to request from the vendor documentation outlining their process for testing the accessibility of its product or service. That documentation may include, but is not limited to, any or all of the following:

• Code reviews by internal or external experts
• Evaluations with accessibility checking software
• Vendor testing with assistive technologies
• Testing by users with disabilities
• Testing by a third party organization

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5. Digital Accessibility Advisory Group Review

Once you have completed the above steps, submit the following documentation to the Digital Accessibility Advisory Group via accessibility@evms.edu.

• Information about the Vendor and product
• ACR, VPAT or other approved accessibility documentation 
• IT Security Review and approval
• Instructional Technology Advisory Group Review and approval (if applicable)
• Documentation of independent accessibility testing
• Answers to the Accessibility Survey for Vendors (if applicable)

The Advisory Group will review this documentation within five business days to determine whether the product or service meets the Policy's standard. If the request is approved, the department may move forward with a requisition.

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6. Submit requisition to Materials Management

Once you have gathered all the necessary documentation, and tested the product or service, it's time to begin the requisition phase.

You must have all of the following when submitting a requisition:

• VPAT/ACR from vendor
• IT Security Review and approval
• Instructional Technology Advisory Group Review and approval (if appicable)
• Documention of indeprendent accessibility testing
• Digital Accessibility Advisory Group Review and approval 

Requisitions must be submitted through OneSource Procurement (login required).

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