Buying Guide for Digital Accessibility Compliance

Table of Contents

• Overview
• The Buying Process
• Digital Accessibility Questions For Vendor Proposals
• Interviewing Vendors For Digital Accessibility
• Buying With Digital Accessibility In Mind Conclusion
• Want help figuring this out?
• Additional Digital Accessibility Resources 

Purpose
This Buying Guide is for organizations who want to start purchasing digital products and or services compliant with the updated 2024 rules of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and or Title II and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act-which advanced digital accessibility compliance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA. 

Who Is Impacted?
→ Non-profits and businesses open to the public.
→ Government agencies, federal contractors, beneficiaries, and recipients of federal financial assistance or grants.

What’s In Scope?
→ All Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that is used, maintained, developed, or procured.
Examples of ICT include websites, mobile apps, software, social media, blog, and video content, electronic files, kiosks, computers, hardware, and telecommunications equipment.

 What’s The Law?
→ An overview of the Americans with Disabilities Act digital accessibility compliance requirements can be found here.
→ An overview of the Section 508 digital accessibility requirements can be found here.

How Do You Get More Help?
→ Schedule time to speak with an Accessibility Consultant for free.
→ Call an expert now: 518.718.2383
→ Review our fully managed accessibility services, staffing solutions, and training options.

Compliance Disclaimer.
Following this digital accessibility compliance buying guide supports the best-practices, policies, and processes required to procure digital products and services that will achieve and maintain compliance standards as detailed above, but following these practices does not guarantee you will procure compliant products or services from vendors, your vendors will maintain accessibility compliance over time through version updates, your organization will eliminate legal risk, reduce unknown costs, reduce Total Cost of Ownership, and or other financial or resource intensive consequences.

For businesses and organizations with new, growing, or complex digital accessibility needs, it is recommended to seek guidance from an accessibility consultancy with experience supporting other organizations achieve similar goals to yours.

The Buying Process

Incorporating the following in your procurement policies and processes will help you purchase digital products, services, or ICT solutions that meet digital accessibility compliance standards.

The most crucial step is the first one – set expectations. Ensure every vendor knows your expectations for digital accessibility compliance. Here’s what you need and what to communicate to your prospective and existing vendors.

1. Policy On Digital Accessibility Compliance.
If your agency does not have a digital accessibility policy, develop one immediately. Refer to the Dazzle Dry accessibility statement and AccessAbility Officer accessibility policy as examples.

2. Accessibility Narrative.
Whether it’s your organizational mission, interwoven into your value system, charitable causes, or employees, communicating to vendors the narrative of Why accessibility is important will help establish the expectations for earning your business.

3. Purchase Commitment.
Communicate to your vendors your commitment to only purchase digital products and solutions that meet or exceed minimal compliance standards according to the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act as amended. You can directly state to vendors, “We will not purchase any digital products or services, nor renew our contracts with existing providers of digital products and services, unless they meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, and can demonstrate an ability to maintain compliance longitudinally.”

4. Proposal Review Policy.
Communicate to vendors that proposals without answers to all digital accessibility questions that meet your expectations will not be considered. Making this the policy and prerequisite for entertaining a proposal will minimize the likelihood of purchasing from a vendor whose products or services do not achieve compliance.

5. Vender Code of Conduct.
If digital accessibility compliance standards according to Section 508 and the ADA are not included in your vender code of conduct, including the timely reporting of new accessibility compliance bugs and or risk updates, update your vendor code of conduct immediately.

We want to be good customers. But we also want good vendors who deliver what they promised in exchange for what you’re paying. Incorporating the above five policies, processes, and communicating this information to your existing and prospective vendors will have a positive impact on your digital accessibility compliance, brand, and overall user experience.

Next, we will be uncovering the questions you must ask each vendor throughout the buying process, from the questions answered in their proposal to the answers to your questions in a live interview.

Digital Accessibility Questions For Vendor Proposals

Ask your vendors these questions during the buying process to minimize risks of purchasing non-compliant digital products and services. Not considering complete proposals is a best practice, but venders without detailed, accurate answers to your digital accessibility questions are high risks for hidden costs, accessibility lawsuits, and damage your brand.

1. What is your company’s digital accessibility policy? Please provide the full statement here and a link to the published policy.
2. Who is responsible for ensuring digital accessibility compliance? Please include name, job title, department, and contact information. If multiple people are responsible, provide the two (2) most senior contacts.
3. Does your product/solution currently meet or exceed WCAG 2.1 AA guidelines? If ”no,” which component(s) and core functionality(ies) are inaccessible?
4. Has your product/solution been audited for accessibility by a third-party? If yes, please provide when the last audit was conducted, by whom, and full report as an attachment to your proposal.
5. Using a screen reader in an 8 min video, demo your product’s or service’s core functionalities.
6. What is your digital accessibility testing process? Please describe in full.
7. What is the process when digital accessibility bugs are reported? Please detail in full.

Interviewing Vendors For Digital Accessibility

If your organization is unable to hire an accessibility partner, without exception conduct a live interview with the vendor’s technical team and stakeholders responsible for digital accessibility compliance.

Ensure all relevant stakeholders are present to prevent vendors from researching and finding the answers to your questions rather than knowing and providing the answers directly, honestly.

When responding to interview questions live, and answering questions detailed in your RFP, venders should:

• Demonstrate strong knowledge of accessibility laws and WCAG guidelines.
• Know and can articulate detailed descriptions of digital accessibility testing methodologies throughout the SDLC
• Can provide recent digital accessibility reports and answer questions in detail regarding the data in those reports
• Uses simple language to explain complex digital accessibility concepts to executives but can also demonstrates deep technical knowledge when answering technical questions
• Directly employs or contracts people with disabilities to perform digital accessibility and usability testing
• Demonstrates experience and knowledge beyond assistive technologies, such as articulating specific use cases
• Can describe in detail the difference between automated, accessibility, and usability testing as well as the pros and cons for each.

Buying With Digital Accessibility In Mind Conclusion

Broken down, here’s the steps you need to take to hold your vendors accountable for digital accessibility compliance, while also protecting yourself from brand damage, poor user experiences, and legal troubles because you unknowingly violated the Americans with Disabilities Act!

1. Update RFPs with recommendations, language, and questions to protect your organization from legal risks and preventable costs.
2. Update Master Service Agreements and vender contracts to be in alignment with new purchasing policies and processes.
3. Set clear expectations for proposals of digital products and services with vendors.
4. Update existing vendors of your new requirements for digital accessibility compliance.
5. Identify internal accessibility subject matter experts to assess vender proposals for technical merit.
6. Hire an accessibility partner to evaluate a vendor’s products and services for digital accessibility compliance prior to executing a contract.

Want help figuring this out?

→ Schedule time to speak with an Accessibility Consultant for free
→ Call an expert now: 518.718.2383
→ Review our fully managed accessibility services, staffing solutions, and training options.