Department's/Business Unit's Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the department/business unit to complete the steps found below when considering the use or deployment of a product or service within the University's academic digital environment.

Determining if a product or service under consideration meets accessibility standards is critical in the University's efforts to create an accessible digital environment. This process begins immediately when a digital product or service is being considered for use by a University department or business unit.

In accordance with University policy, IRM-008: University Information Technology Accessibility, it is the University’s responsibility to provide a digital environment that offers an independent user experience; complying with state and federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, as amended, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. To this end, it is important that digital assets deployed within the University’s digital environment meet the accessibility standards followed by the University; namely, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Understanding an asset’s level of conformance with these standards begins at the point a department or business unit considers a product or service for use within our environment.

NOTE: UVA's current standard for conformance is WCAG 2.2 AA. For a limited time, ACRs for Section 508 (with 255 as appropriate), or WCAG 2.1 can be accepted. The key is that the ACR be for the current version of the product under consideration.

Steps To Get Started:

The steps to determine the level of accessibility conformance and whether or not the asset should be a part of the University's academic digital environment include:

1. Your first step is to request the tool through Learning Tech where you will be asked to have a consultation before moving forward.
2. Learning Tech will work with you to:
   • Request information from the supplier
   • Review and evaluate this information
3. Develop use case scenarios for all aspects of the digital tool (as applicable); user, instructor, administrator, mobile.
4. Ask for a demonstration of how a person with a disability might use the product or service to accomplish these scenarios.
5. Determine the amount of work to be done by the department/unit obtaining the tool to address the areas on non-conformance, create Equally Effective Alternative Access Plans, determine the resources needed to accomplish these tasks, and then assess the appropriateness of adding this product or service to the University's digital environment.
6. Develop a plan to continue monitoring accessibility during the life cycle of this product/service at UVA.