E-Access Bulletin Live

A detailed online resource to help employers purchase effective accessible technology through their procurement processes has been released.

The guide, called ‘Buy IT!’, has been produced by the US-based Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology (PEAT).

The introduction to Buy IT! states that a successful accessible ICT purchasing strategy means: “doing vendor research, specifying your requirements, and validating the accessibility of your product choices prior to accepting and implementing them. Most importantly, it means approaching ICT procurement with an eye toward accessibility and usability from the very beginning.”

A detailed step-by-step plan for employers and purchasing staff is then set out, explaining how to work towards an accessible procurement programme in three sections: planning, solicitation and ‘post-award’.

The ‘planning’ section explores how employers can gain executive support for accessible procurement and what to look for when researching vendors. ‘Solicitation’ gives a thorough grounding in writing an accessibility-focused procurement solicitation, including requesting accessibility information from vendors and contractors, and ensuring that the solicitation documents are fully accessible. As the guide points out, this last step “is especially useful for attracting vendors that may employ people with disabilities who may not otherwise be able to access your solicitation.”

The final section, ‘post-award’, gives a detailed breakdown of steps to take when employers are ready to make a contract award. The guide emphasises the importance of ‘testing and validation’ here, to avoid potentially difficult scenarios in the next stage of the process: “All too often, customers take vendors at their word when they say a product is accessible, and then accept it without testing the product and validating the claim,” the guide says.

The key to avoiding this situation is ‘acceptance testing’, claims the guide, which helps determine whether a procured product meets the necessary criteria drawn up in the sales contract. The guide then goes on to outline models to test for ICT accessibility.

Read the full Buy IT! resource for purchasing accessible technology at the PEAT website.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 27th, 2017 at 8:26 pm and is filed under IT procurement, News, Work access. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.