Accessing Higher Ground

Implementing an effective and scalable Accessibility Procurement Program
Friday, November 15 at 10:15 am in Penrose 1

Speaker(s)

• Aaron Page, Director of Accessibility, Allyant
• Marc Lind​​​​, Account Executive – Digital Accessibility, Allyant

When an educational institution considers the purchasing of new OR renewal of existing software, platforms, or other technological solutions, the question of whether they can be used by all students and staff, regardless of disability, should be central to the decision-making process. By moving this upstream in the procurement process, higher education institutions can ensure they understand and consider the implied risk of procuring or renewing a software that might not be accessible, while also building in specific requirements for that vendor to roadmap accessibility with clear milestones if an inaccessible product is procured.

As a live-user accessibility testing firm, having assessed thousands of websites and applications, Allyant understands the common issues and barriers generally faced for individuals with disabilities navigation software and the challenges with procuring accessibility technology. Additionally, Allyant’s Director of Accessibility Aaron Page has direct higher education procurement insights through working at the University of Montana as an Accessibility Specialist for over 7 years.

Building off this direct experience and expert knowledge, we have built a process of best practices for higher education institutions to consider and build into their current process to drive the procurement of accessible technology and a free manual testing service that was built specifically for higher education institutions to ensure accessibility is pivotal to the procurement process. This service includes third-party reviews of VPATs or HECVATs that your team might currently request of software vendors in your procurement process, and the potential pitfalls when these are submitted by a vendor.

Participants will learn about the step-by-step process of the assessment, the criteria that is critical to evaluating technology products, and how to interpret and utilize report to make choices that align with institutional goals and values.

Keypoints

• Best practices for considering product accessibility in your procurement lifecycles.
• Embedding live-user testing into your procurement assessments to make informed product decisions.
• Setting milestones for third-party vendors to ensure accessibility standards are met.