Considering Accessibility First

Would you procure a service that a significant portion of your employees couldn't utilize? Would you purchase a product that not all students could access?

That could be the reality if accessibility is not considered first when procuring Electronic Information Resources (EIR). According to the Texas Department of Information Resources, more than four million Texans have disabilities that can affect their interaction with the Internet, the telephone, and other means of electronic communication. In the United States, nearly one in five Americans has some level of disability; One in four of us has a visual difficulty or impairment; one in four of us has a dexterity difficulty or impairment, and one in five of us has a hearing difficulty or impairment.

Why it's so important

• It's the right thing to do. It supports our long-standing tradition of inclusiveness and promotes a key Texas A&M mission of diversity.
• It makes sense. As an institution, it allows us to reach more individuals with our teaching and learning initiatives, with our research findings and with the real-life applications associated with each of them.
• It's required by law. As a state-supported institution, as well as one that receives federal funding for grants and initiatives, our university is required to provide accessible EIR.

What you can do

• Ask questions; if vendors have never heard of accessibility, chances are their products and services are not accessible.
• Request a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) from vendors; if they don't have one, ask them to fill one out.
• Make accessibility a part of RFPs, Purchase Order requests, and other essential parts of your business processes.
• If two or more products or services are comparable, choose the most accessible one.