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Software/Hardware Procurement, Distribution, and Licensing
Accessible Product Evaluation Guidelines
Learning technologies should always be evaluated to ensure they are universally accessible. Can everyone who needs to use them do so, or are they inaccessible to some learners or instructors? When the very nature of a technology imposes a barrier to its use, those individuals with certain types of disabilities will not be able to benefit from using it. It can be considered inaccessible along a continuum. What does this mean?
Technological tools aren’t purely “accessible” or “inaccessible,” but rather, they are accessible or inaccessible by degree, depending on who is able to access and how much they are able to access. As you evaluate accessibility of a product, consider for whom the product may be inaccessible and to what degree this inaccessibility hampers its usefulness. This will inform your purchasing decisions as well as enable you to prepare alternatives for certain learning populations.
In this plan, UT Knoxville’s Office of Innovative Technologies offers a staged process as a comprehensive guide for individuals or units evaluating accessibility of products and proactively preparing to provide equitable alternatives for known accessibility limitations.
Persons Responsible
Departments and programs purchasing products are responsible for ensuring the accessibility of the products prior to purchasing or licensing. If a product is purchased or licensed that has known accessibility limitations, the said department or program should be prepared with equally effective alternatives for users who would be affected by those accessibility limitations.
Accessible Evaluation Guidelines
The process involves four main stages, as follow.
Select a drop-down menu for sub-steps associated with each step in the process. If you have questions about using this process or the documents therein, please contact the OIT HelpDesk at 865-974-9900 or submit a request online.
Gather information. What is available regarding the accessibility of this product?
- Product Functionality/Performance/Impact Document (PFPID) (.docx, documentation)
- Example: Techsmith Camtasia (PFPID)
- VPAT or similar and Accessibility Road Map
- 3rd party Accessibility Audits
Analyzing and report information. Is the information to which we have access reliable? Do we need to take action or have the vendor take action to ensure an accurate understanding of potential accessibility limitations of this product?
- Accessibility Documentation
- VPAT Analysis (resource)
- Understanding VPAT (resource)
- If the vendor doesn’t have a VPAT or the VPAT is poor quality, we encourage you to push back on the vendor to improve the VPAT or hire a third party to conduct a VPAT analysis.
- Sample letter to vendors to request quality VPAT (.docx, resource).
- Search for existing Accessibility Reports from other organizations such as the Big 10 Alliance (resource).
- VPAT Analysis (resource)
- Determine additional necessary steps for Accessibility Performance Report, as needed.
- Vendor demo (accessibility features)
- Automated testing (targeted or comprehensive)
- Manual testing (targeted or comprehensive)
- Questions to Ask (resource)
- Code review
- Choose a vendor to conduct testing or push back on product/service vendors to do this.
Report on the Analysis. If reasonably possible, document the findings of the analysis for future reference and utility.
- Conduct Accessibility Performance Report (APR) (.docx, documentation)
- Example: NKoda (APR)
- Example: Geofacets (APR)
- Purchaser (and others as needed) review Accessibility Performance Report, make decisions.
Develop an Equally Effective Alternative Access Plan (EEAAP). This plan proactively determines how individuals who find the product inaccessible can receive an equitable alternative to access the benefits of the product.
- Equally Effective Alternate Access Plan (EEAAP) (.docx, documentation).
In some cases, additional steps may be warranted, including ensuring accessibility of authored content and providing access to grievance reporting. Here are some additional resources for those purposes:
- For authoring tools, use the Accessibility Evaluation and Implementation Tool (AEIT) (resource; Currently available for MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Techsmith Camtasia, Canvas, and WordPress.)
- It’s best practice to provide an accessibility grievance form and procedure. The Office of Equal Opportunity and Accessibility (EOA) has a general accessibility grievance form, or you may make your own. (resource, documentation).