Accessibility in Texas A&M Procurement

Texas laws require that Electronic and Information Resources (EIR)--also known as digital resouces--used, developed, procured, or distributed by Texas agencies and institutions of higher education are accessible to people with disabilities.

As part of Texas A&M University’s procurement process for products and services that meet the definition of Electronic and Information Resources, accessibility conformance documentation must be submitted by vendors for each offering, or family of similar offerings.

1. 1. For commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software and online applications, accessibility conformance is determined by vendor evaluations of each offering or family of similar offerings against a set of accessibility standards as defined in Texas Administrative Code 1TAC 206 State Websites and 1TAC 213 Electronic and Information Resources Accessibility. Vendors should document the results of these evaluations within a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template^® (VPAT^®), and the resulting document is known as an Accessibility Conformance Report, or ACR.
      
      Note: ACRs must be included as part of responses to Texas A&M University solicitations.
      
      
   2. For Texas A&M solicitations related to development services for software, websites, web applications, etc., VPAT^®  documentation is not applicable; however, in accordance with 1 TAC 213, vendors will be asked to provide credible evidence of their capability or ability to produce accessible EIR products and services. Such evidence may include, but is not limited to, internal accessibility policy documents, contractual warranties for accessibility, accessibility testing documents, and examples of prior work results. (The Technology Services IT accessibility team may also request completion of a Vendor Accessibility Development Services Information Request--or VADSIR--in these cases.)