Accessibility Considerations for Third Party Tools

Jason Carroll Updated by Jason Carroll

Overview

This article outlines principles to follow and considerations to be made when a need arises to incorporate a new third party tool or resource into a course.

Licensing Considerations

The first thing that should be determined when considering the implementation of a new tool or resource is whether or not using it will require a new licensing agreement. In most cases, this comes down to whether or not it is free to use.If it does require a license to use, this in some ways simplifies the process for accessibility evaluation, as all licensed tools must go through the standard university procurement process, which includes accessibility evaluation by CIT’s Web Accessibility Team. More information on this process is provided below.

If it does not require a license to use, it is our sole responsibility to evaluate whether it is sufficiently accessible for inclusion in our courses. Recommended steps for this evaluation are included below.

Accessibility Evaluation for Licensed Tools

If a new tool or resource requires a license to use, it must go through the standard university procurement process which involves a statement of need, technical risk assessment, and web accessibility review. This process is generally facilitated by the Instructional Technologies Group (ITG).It is best to contact Ted Blanchard and Casey Shew as soon as you are aware of the need for a new tool such as this, providing which course or courses this new tool is intended to be used for, how exactly it is intended to be used, and links to any resources pertaining to it. They will then be able to facilitate the procurement process if it is determined that the need for the tool cannot be met by other tools we currently use, and if the licensing costs are affordable given the scope of use. It will then go through the procurement process which involves web accessibility review,if it has a web front end. If it passes, licensing will be secured.

Accessibility Evaluation for Free/Unlicensed Tools

If a license is not required for this new tool or resource, the eCornell project team will conduct the accessibility evaluation internally. The first thing to check is if this tool’s provider has a public Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, or VPAT, available. Any software company of significant size should do their own accessibility testing, and they often provide VPAT documents to their users that outline their level of accessibility compliance. If such a document is available, and they claim the level of compliance that meets or exceeds the claim on eCornell’s accessibility page, we can justify its use.

If a VPAT document is not publicly available or their reported level of compliance is below the level we claim on the accessibility page on our website, then further evaluation must be conducted using tools such as SiteImprove, WAVE, or AXE Devtools.

The Instructional Technologies Group (ITG) can aid in this evaluation. It is best to contact Ted Blanchard and Casey Shew as soon as you are aware of the need for a new tool, so that a collaboration can be had regarding its evaluation.

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