Andy Keyworth

5 Things to Consider Before Hiring an Alternative Format Accessibility Vendor

Vendors of accessibility services can provide excellent solutions that help you meet legal obligations without the need for your own infrastructure. This is especially true for alternative formats that require expert knowledge and specific technology. However, if you’re responsible for choosing a vendor for your organization and lack experience in this area, you may struggle to narrow down your options. This article focuses on key criteria for selecting an accessibility services vendor.

Familiarize Yourself with the Standards First

You should familiarize yourself with the basics of accessibility standards. While you will rely on the vendor to provide accessibility services, it’s important to understand their work. Most standards have easily comprehensible documentation to help you get acquainted. For example:

Does the Vendor Have an Accessibility Policy and Set of Practices?

When investigating vendors, review their accessibility policy and business practices. Ensure that these align with your company’s standards. Review their website, including the posted policy and any other materials they make available to the public. Are these publicly available materials accessible to people with disabilities? Ask the vendor questions about their accessibility practices. This will give you a solid index for their ability to live up to their own accessibility policy.

Can the Vendor Provide an Accessibility Conformance Report?

An Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) is a form completed by digital technology manufacturers to report the conformance of their products with widely accepted digital accessibility standards. An ACR can be completed by filling out a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) and defining the product against relevant standards such as WCAG 2.1 or Section 508. If they produce their own software or hardware, they will likely have reports or documentation about those products.

Can the Vendor Articulate Details About Their Processes?

A worthwhile partner should be able to provide details about the process for designing and developing accessible products and services—and how they conduct testing and accessibility verification. These include:

  • What metrics were used to track progress?
  • What tools and methods were used in testing?
  • What client platforms, desktop and mobile operating systems, browsers, assistive technologies, and versions were used as part of the test bed?
  • Can they provide testing results?
  • If issues were found, are they acknowledged and paired with an action plan to remediate?

Another important consideration is whether the vendor employs or contracts people with disabilities. Did they engage with users who could speak directly to the requirements of accessibility within a product or software application?

Include Accessibility Provisions in the Contract

Once you are confident that your prospective vendor can meet your accessibility needs, it’s time to define your contractual relationship. Ensure that accessibility expectations are clearly outlined in the contract. These requirements should specify the measures the vendor will take to guarantee accessibility, including the steps they will take at different project phases, their testing methods and technologies, and the compliance standards they must meet. Additionally, consider requiring the vendor to provide a VPAT for their work.

Continue to Monitor and Work with the Vendor

Touch base with the vendor across the duration of the contract. Review their work and interim deliverables. Read any reports they provide and ask informed questions. Request clarifications where necessary. If any problems emerge, including accessibility issues or delays, work with the vendor to update expectations as soon as possible.

Having a good point of contact and a good relationship with the vendor is extremely important. Solutions may include changing deliverable dates, changing deliverable expectations, clarifying platforms, and ensuring resources are available.

Allyant has a great deal of experience working with both sides of this relationship. We serve a wide variety of customers, including educational institutions, utilities, banks, other financial institutions, and various levels of government. Our customers rely on our alternative format solutions in a wide range of volumes and capacities.

Additionally, many of our customers require us to handle documents and information in highly secure environments, which we are fully equipped to do. Allyant offers solid security to protect all our customers and their end users. We also work with our own vendors and require measures like those outlined above.

If you represent an organization that needs or has a stake in alternate formats, contact Allyant about our portfolio of products and solutions.