Internal Product Owners
- Engages the accessibility team in the overall procurement process, ensures any products being reviewed are tested, and leverages the team’s findings to make a procurement decision.
- Supports the accessibility team in meetings with the vendor.
- Engages the accessibility team in any upgrades and roll outs of new features.
- Ensures the escalation process is upheld with vendors that refuse to comply with digital accessibility laws and standards.
- Communicates any critical issues to campus governance and support teams so they are aware of the issues and how they are being addressed. Brings in the accessibility specialist when a demo of the issue is needed for more clarity.
- Emphasizes the importance of digital accessibility to campuses and governance.
- Advocates for a product replacement when all avenues have been exhausted. Note that most vendors work with us to resolve issues as we are willing to partner with and educate them on the issues, so we have only taken this route once (Adobe Sign).
Product Owners can become stronger advocates for accessibility by completing Digital Accessibility Training, so they are aware of common accessibility issues and the barriers those issues create.
President’s Office Digital Accessibility Team
The Digital Accessibility team reviews all third-party products owned and managed by the President’s Office to ensure they meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
The Digital Accessibility Team's testing responsibilities include:
- Reviews an Accessibility Conformance Report from the vendor (if one is available) along with any additional accessibility materials the vendor sends over.
- Reviews a completed Accessible Procurement questionnaire from the vendor.
- Engages campus accessibility teams in testing process when a product will be used by the President’s Office and other campuses.
- Tests the product through a demo environment to identify any critical accessibility barriers.
- Provides accessibility compliance scores during the RFP process.
- Works with Procurement and the General Counsel to update a vendor contract with an accessibility remediation timeline.
- When a vendor introduces a new issue during an upgrade or feature roll out, the accessibility team documents the issue and works with the vendor to fix it.
- Escalates critical issues to legal following the accessibility issue escalation process when a vendor refuses to address the issue and is in violation of their contract.
Important: The President’s Office Digital Accessibility Team does not review third-party products that are owned and managed by a campus. The testing of these products is a campus responsibility currently as we do not have a centralized Accessibility office.
Procurement
Procurement ensures the Digital Accessibility team is engaged in both the procurement of products and the contract renewal process.
- Ensures the Digital Accessibility team is part of the technical team for reviewing any President’s Office RFPs related to digital products or software that will be used by employees, students, or the public.
- Ensures the Digital Accessibility team is alerted of a contract renewal underway for any digital product or software that is used by employees, students, or the public. This allows the Digital Accessibility team to work with the General Counsel to build in an accessibility remediation timeline for any products that are not compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
General Counsel
The General Counsel provides legal guidance around vendor digital accessibility compliance.
- Maintains the standard RFP and Contract language around accessibility compliance.
- Works with the UPST, the Product Owner, and the Digtal Accessibility Team to provide an accessibility remediation timeline in new or updated contract, when needed.
- Reviews any changes vendors have to the accessibility compliance language in Contracts.
- Keeps informed of where we stand from a compliance perspective.
- Provides legal advice when the Digital Accessibility team and Product Owner are unable to get an existing vendor to comply with WCAG.
- Engages the Digital Accessibility Team, Product Owner, and Executive Leadership of any accessibility issues that have been escalated to the General Counsel by a campus when the product is owned by the President's Office.