Guidelines for Vendors

All vendors must agree to the clause below as part of Bucknell Technology Terms & Conditions which is included in all contracts/agreements involved in the purchase or use of a technology tool.

Accessibility
COMPANY represents and warrants that at all times during the Term of this Agreement, the products and services provided by Company shall be in compliance with all applicable federal disabilities laws and regulations, as well as, at a minimum, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 level AA. COMPANY agrees to promptly respond to, resolve and remediate complaints regarding the accessibility of the products and services provided herein, at no cost to Bucknell.

Some examples are goods and/or services that fall into one of the following categories:

  • Telecommunications Products
  • Information Kiosks
  • Web-based Applications and Tools
  • Desktop Software
  • Mobile Applications
  • Multimedia Tools
  • Electronic Office Equipment (such as copiers and multi-function devices)
  • Videos
  • Any device or system that is used in the creation, conversion, or duplication of data or information

    Demonstrating Accessibility - What We Need To Know

    In order to demonstrate software accessibility vendors will be asked the following questions as part of the evaluation process. 

    • Does your company have a Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) for a current version of your product that documents product conformance with WCAG standards?
    • If your company has a VPAT, please provide it to your College contact (example: Google's VPAT for Gmail). If your company does not have a VPAT, please describe your perspective on accessibility and any exceptions you believe are applicable.
    • Please describe your accessibility conformance testing process.
    • Does your company have an Accessibility Roadmap to remediate any accessibility gaps in a reasonable period of time? An Accessibility Roadmap can be a list and description of accessibility gaps, including the current resolution status of each gap and a specific timeline for remediation. An Accessibility Roadmap also lists any known workarounds to provide end-users access until the vendor has resolved each of the accessibility gaps. If an Accessibility Roadmap is available, please provide it as an attachment in response to this email.
    • Can you share with us your company's Accessibility Mission Statement or equivalent?
    • To whom in your company should we direct our accessibility questions should we have any (name and contact information)?
    • Could you show us how your application works using only the keyboard to navigate? In other words, please do not use the mouse to get to the various sections of the page - use only the keyboard to do so. If this is not possible, can you show us how it works using a screen reader? Acceptable screen readers are JAWS and NVDA for windows or VoiceOver for Macs.

    Recommended Tools for Testing Accessibility

    * These tools are ones we have found most informative

    WCAG Information

    If you are interested or need to know more about how to apply WCAG standards, the W3C has a very useful reference guide that provides a good starting point. The other resource we have found useful when learning about web accessibility is WebAIM.