[Athen] benefits of accessible purchasing language

[Hall, Enjie]

Dean,

In my experience, accessibility language is crucial to purchasing the most accessible technology option. We have standard language and almost 100% of the time, the language has had to be modified depending on the response from the vender and/or we needed to include roadmap/timeline information for the vender to remedy inaccessibility. The language serves as a commitment from the vender to address accessibility or to continue addressing accessibility for the duration of the contract. The vender then is responsible to "promptly address any accessibility issue brought to their attention" rather than expecting only the university to develop work-arounds to compensate for the inaccessibility. We can also point to the contracts in the case that legal action is taken against us and demonstrate that we attempted to mitigate the risk by working with the venders and holding them to meeting accessibility standards.



Enjie Hall
ADA Compliance Officer
Internal Audit & Compliance
enjie.hall at utoledo.edu<mailto:enjie.hall at utoledo.edu>
Office Phone:       419-530-5792
Office Fax:           419-530-3035
ADA/504 Hotline: 419-530-1232
The University of Toledo
2801 W Bancroft
Toledo, OH 43606-3390



From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Nast, Joseph M
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2016 10:20 AM
To: ATHEN mailing list
Subject: Re: [Athen] benefits of accessible purchasing language

FYI UC Berkeley has implemented institutional accessible purchasing guidelines. If you're attending this year's CSUN conference, I believe Lucia Greco will be presenting on the subject.

http://www.csun.edu/cod/conference/2016/sessions/index.php/public/presentations/view/226

The NCDAE has an excellent resource for this topic:

http://ncdae.org/resources/articles/procurement.php

Hope that helps!

From: athen-list [mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman13.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Brusnighan, Dean A.
Sent: Friday, March 11, 2016 7:58 AM
To: ATHEN mailing list
Subject: [Athen] benefits of accessible purchasing language

Hi,

An upper level administrator has posed this question to me.

For those universities who have included accessible purchasing language in contracts and RFPs, what benefit(s) did they see?

I believe the administrator is looking for a measurable benefit as opposed to "it's the right thing to do". Do you have suggestions for how I might respond? Thanks.

Dean

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Dean Brusnighan
Assistive Technology Specialist
Purdue University, Young Hall
155 S. Grant Street
West Lafayette, IN 47907-2108
Phone: 765-494-9082
dabrus at purdue.edu<mailto:dabrus at purdue.edu>
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