Purchasing/Procurement
EIT Accessibility & Procurement
All Electronic and Information Technology (EIT) or Information and Communication Technology (ICT) purchased, acquired, or used by the University must be accessible.
Entry into the procurement process
- There is an automatic accessibility review step in GrizMart.
- EIT (software/hardware) evaluation can be initiated by submitting the Software/Hardware review request form.
- There will be periodic audits of other procurement processes (for example, ProCards).
How you can help
UM Requesters will be asked to provide a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) or initiate communication with the vendor if a VPAT is not easily located.
In addition, you can help ATS speed up the process by answering these questions as your software enters the review process:
Please give a brief description of the software/program.
- Is it administrative or academic?
- Is the license/software you plan to purchase usable by many individuals? Do you plan to expand use?
- Is it likely to be shared? (Examples: network software, highly specialized dental or medical software, etc.)
- Do you know of any known category issues: Math/Stem, videos, GIS/maps, data visualization, screen sharing, spatial data relevant to an image (teeth, nursing. body, airline seats), or other visual representations?
- Is a product created (video, document, web page)? If so, the product needs to be tested also.
Replacement:
- Is this product replacing a product that we’re already using? If yes,
- Name of existing product:
- Status of product accessibility review (i.e., is it approved, given conditional use, or denied)
- If this is a renewal, has the current installation been upgraded since we last reviewed it? If not, is there an upgrade that still needs to be installed?
What you can expect
- Both standard hardware and software utilized by one or two people is usually passed quickly through the process.
- EIT submitted for review with a VPAT is usually processed within 5-7 business days unless vendors or EIT testing requires additional time.
- EIT submitted with a VPAT is processed as quickly as possible, although there may be delays in obtaining sufficient information for review.
Standards Details
EIT accessibility is currently defined by two standards – Section 508 for most categories and WCAG 2.1 AA for websites and programs. The software industry has standardized VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates) forms allowing vendors to list their product's accessibility according to each section of relevant 508 standards. VPATs are obtained from and filled out by the software vendors.