Why Accessibility Matters When Buying Technology (and Other Most Asked Questions)

We surveyed our CTO Hiram Kuykendall and accessibility policy expert Kathy Keller on some of the often-asked questions we hear from both purchasers and public sector contractors faced with ensuring accessibility during the technology purchasing process.

Why Accessibility Matters

Why does accessibility matter in the purchasing process?

Kathy: Including accessibility in purchasing eliminates countless hours of dealing with non-compliant, inaccessible ICT and the problems it creates not only for people with disabilities but also for the business. An organization where I worked purchased survey services. Federal funds were involved, and there was a mandated deadline to meet. The results were delivered on time, but the document was inaccessible and didn’t meet the accessibility policy requirements. It was the vendor’s responsibility, but going back to the vendor to make the document accessible surpassed the timeline and created some drama. There was a lot of sweating and some swearing, as I recall.

Hiram: I dislike being the person who calls out the legal requirements, but if you are a public entity, you are required to evaluate products and services for accessibility. For federal agencies, the legal requirement falls under Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. State agencies generally fall under state law. For example, in Texas, we have TAC 213, which has extensive purchasing requirements. The private sector does not have the same explicit procurement requirements but rather runs a risk of procuring inaccessible goods and services. As a simple example, we have worked with numerous organizations that integrated inaccessible shopping carts into their product. While there was no direct purchasing law violated, these companies either received a demand letter or lawsuit under Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Had they taken the time to investigate the shopping cart accessibility upfront, they would have saved legal fees and the cost of having to remediate the product.
One more quick note. I think we forget that accessibility laws like the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disability Act are Civil Rights Laws. They are in the same category as age discrimination, the civil rights act, fair housing, the voting rights act, etc. It is funny how people who would never question the Voting Rights Act waver when accessibility requirements show up in their organization.

How can organizations do a better job of purchasing accessible products and services from their contractors?

Kathy: I have been doing this for 20 years, and here is a list of action items that will get you down the road:

• Have an accessibility policy for accessible ICT procurement.
• Have a governance structure with roles and responsibilities clearly defined to ensure accessibility compliance within the organization.
• Make an effort to insert accessibility into existing procurement processes. No need to recreate the wheel, just improve the one that’s already in motion.
• Have a training program to support staff in making accessible purchases. Make short, succinct modules that address specific aspects of the process, and make it easy to find so staff will use it.
• Consider outreach within the organization to promote awareness of accessibility and clearly define where staff can find help.

Hiram: Those are great, Kathy. I also have had the good fortune to work on procurement process engagements with a wide variety of organizations in both the public and private sectors. And many of those have been with Kathy {laugh}. What I have learned is that the culture of the organization and the maturity of an overall accessibility program will heavily influence how they will address accessibility in the procurement process. So let me give you my boots-on-the-ground tips:

For organizations that are new to accessibility, you need to build some muscle memory. Step one of that is requesting a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template – aka VPAT – for all technology purchases. In short, a VPAT is a vendor’s accessibility assessment of their product. You wouldn’t believe how hard it is just to get purchasers to ask for the document. But if I can get them to ask for a VPAT, I have a foothold on the next step: interpreting a VPAT.

Next, have accessibility requirements in your standard terms and conditions. I can’t tell you how many public and private sector organizations I have worked with that had no accessibility requirements in their T&C. Your contract is your relationship with the vendor, no matter how much you like them. Having standard purchasing language at least alerts the vendors to your requirements and gives you leverage if things do not go according to plan.

And I have to reiterate what Kathy said. You need a policy and processes. Without that, accessibility requirements have no weight in an organization.   I realize this is a high-level discussion, but if you want to find out how mature your organization’s accessibility structure is, Google Policy-Driven Adoption for Accessibility (PDAA). Sanjay, I will send you a link. This not only has an outline that goes from “we are thinking about accessibility” to “we have a monitoring process to assure accessibility,” but it has a great write-up on time estimates to reach various stages of maturity.

What are some challenges for organizations in purchasing accessible technology?

Hiram: Just thinking about the organizations I am currently working with, one of the biggest challenges is not having enough qualified resources to evaluate all the products and services and organization will procure.

Kathy: I agree. Even though more and more vendors are getting onboard and offering accessible products, there are so many products out there that are not accessible. Staff need to know to what to look for, and where to find help if they need it.

Vetting for accessibility may require testing. Testing ICT for accessibility is a technical skill. It’s necessary to have staff with those skills or have a relationship with a vendor like Microassist who can provide those services.

What roles need to be involved in procurement to ensure accessible technology purchases?

Hiram: I have been waiting for this question {laugh}. The roles you need are:

• Purchaser – someone who will engage the vendor and make a product selection. And this can be someone outside the purchasing department. For example, institutions of higher education allow the individual departments to buy directly if it is under a dollar threshold.
• Credible Evidence Reviewer – for technology purchases, someone has to review the credible evidence, such as a VPAT.
• Accessibility Monitor – Someone needs to check to ensure the organization’s purchasing policies are followed BEFORE a check is written.

Kathy:  I would add to this that the requester needs to do preliminary work before submitting to purchasing. This involves looking for an accessible version of the product, searching for a VPAT or requesting a VPAT from the vendor, searching the vendor’s website for accessibility information about the product, and looking to see if the vendor has an accessibility statement or policy posted.

Hiram: Kathy, you hit on one of my favorite topics, including the requestor in the accessibility procurement process. One of the biggest challenges an organization faces is having enough resources to review a VPAT. By including the requestor in the accessibility procurement process, you get two benefits. The first is you build an army. There are not enough resources. So if you have the requestor at least collect a VPAT and do a preliminary review, they are more likely to weed out vendors who have not included accessibility in their product. The other benefit is trying to keep the requestor from falling in love with the vendor {laugh}. Once a requestor selects a product, they do not want to have to rethink it. Getting a requestor to look for another product due to accessibility causes a lot of dissatisfaction, to put it mildly.

Kathy: you can add to existing roles. For example, higher education has a security check tool called Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit or HECVAT for evaluating products. It was developed as a security tool. But version 3.0 was launched with accessibility features.  This is a tool that can be added to existing roles in an organization.

Some organizations Hiram and I have worked with are considering adding an accessibility review to existing roles.

Many organizations have struggled with accessibility and purchasing, and we’ve seen many organizations fail to overcome these difficulties. Is there anything you suggest for companies searching for methods to integrate accessibility into their procurement process?

Kathy: Sure. Here’s another list of action items to help.

• Don’t wait for a letter from the DOJ, an OCR complaint, or other action. Go ahead and create an accessibility policy and begin to take steps toward accessibility compliance.
• And make sure staff understand the rules, so use plain language when writing your policies.
• Create a simple checklist for requestors to follow to help them prepare a purchase and another one for purchasing to follow that ensures accessibility has been included.
• Have an accessibility clause in contracts. Insert it in all contracts or at least in those involving ICT. Insert Terms and Conditions into contract language, as Hiram mentioned earlier.
• Next, think about how you can ensure that staff knows what is expected of them. Develop an accessibility training program or contract with a vendor like Microassist to develop or deliver training in accessible procurement.
• And this is important: get support from the executive office. Find a champion. When the people upstairs are behind accessibility, the obstacles are easier to overcome.
• Finally, think about accessibility the same way you think about security. If you do that you can ensure compliance.

Hiram: I think Kathy pretty well nailed it. To go back to one of the things she said, having executive support paired with policies and procedures is essential for success. Working with the private sector, especially startups, the focus is on getting the product and service out with very little regard for accessibility. It is not until the organization starts losing opportunities or gets a lawsuit that they begin considering accessibility. And even then, purchasing is not a top priority. It is not until an organization connects profits and attracting talented staff that the private sector connects purchasing with barriers. There seems to be a minimum size before a private sector company will consider accessibility in purchasing. Public sector is different. The laws are different. There is much more of an awareness. But once again, if the executive level does not give support and the organization lacks policies and procedures, then it will be business as usual.

What are some of the things organizations overlook in the process of purchasing technology from an accessibility perspective?

Kathy: When Tableau first hit the market people were blinded by the bells and whistles. Data visualization software at that time was notoriously difficult and time consuming to make accessible, and often involved the creation of documents in another format. Staff only realized Tableau’s accessibility limitations after many hours of development had been completed. They then had many more hours of discovery to determine how to address the problems and then to complete the work needed for accessibility. Improvements have been made since then in Tableau but I see this is still happening with other types of software, such as course-building tools, financial software, project management software, for example. If the purchasing process for these types of technologies had included an accessibility check, the organization could have been better prepared to integrate the product. So I am not saying they shouldn’t buy these technologies. They need to be aware of the technology limitations, and how they will integrate them. A Corrective Action Plan or CAP should be developed for inaccessible ICT at the time of purchase.

Hiram: I like what Kathy said. There are instances that an individual purchase will have a high risk. In these cases, it may be appropriate to perform your own testing. We see that requirement in some state laws, such as Texas Administrative Code 213. In this law, there are conditions requiring agencies to test technology and not just rely on a VPAT.

Kathy: Organizations also forget to insert accessibility into renewal processes. Renewals may happen automatically with very little review. Watch out for these. They think since it’s a renewal it doesn’t need to be vetted for accessibility. Staff may see renewals as “one and done” and pushback against the time involved in vetting ICT that is already part of the business process.

Hiram: This gets a little off topic, but it is more than just “purchased” technology. There are many zero-dollar acquisitions. Open-source software. Software provided for free by an industry. And vendors will often offer software for free to get it in the door. So the conversation is really about technology acquisition which should go through the same process as purchased technology. But we can save that for another time.

Any final words on accessibility and purchasing?

Hiram:  First, it is possible to have viable policies and processes for procuring technology. I guess I did not emphasize this earlier, but there will be times when you have to buy inaccessible products. The challenge is to create purchasing policies and procedures that evaluate accessibility, and then plan for inclusion, minimizing barriers to staff, customers, the public, and the products the organization provides.

Kathy: Rome wasn’t built in a day. If accessible purchasing is new to you, you may feel like you are building Rome. Take a breath. Think about the things we’ve been talking about today. Find the low-hanging fruit in your organization, and as you move forward, develop some short-term and long-term goals.

Begin to develop a plan for accessibility and track your progress. Next year, when you look back, you can feel good about the steps you’ve taken to level the playing field for people with disabilities.

Related Posts

Accessibility Policy Implementation: What You Need to Know

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VPAT: What Technology Vendors Need to Know