Accessibility procurement for colleges and universities

Why this matters

An inaccessible registration form, learning platform, library resource or payment workflow can prevent a student from participating independently. Procurement is an opportunity to identify those barriers before purchase and to establish clear vendor follow-up after implementation.

The ADA Title II web and mobile accessibility rule applies to state and local public entities, including public colleges and universities. Its technical standard is WCAG 2.1 Level AA. Private institutions have other accessibility obligations; their legal requirements should be confirmed separately.

As of October 16, 2026, DOJ’s published guidance lists April 26, 2027 for public entities with populations of 50,000 or more, and April 26, 2028 for smaller public entities and special district governments. A university’s student enrollment does not determine its deadline. Confirm your institution’s classification and deadline with its legal and ADA teams. Existing accessibility obligations continue.

Read DOJ’s guidance, including deadlines and vendor responsibilities.

Standards and evidence you can trace

We currently evaluate accessibility against WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the default standard. WCAG 2.2 AA or other applicable standards can be agreed by request. Each engagement identifies the product version, intended workflows, selected standard, evidence and limitations.

A documentation review examines an ACR, completed VPAT, accessibility statement or supporting evidence. Live testing of keyboard, screen-reader and other agreed workflows is a separate, expressly scoped service. A report or score does not establish that the entire institution or product complies with the law.

We monitor changes in standards and regulation and adjust service scopes and methods accordingly. Historical findings retain their original basis; a new standard or material product change may require another review.

Professional expertise, connected to your team

The Accessican team brings a practical approach to accessibility evidence, assistive technology and procurement review. We examine what the documentation supports, where evidence is incomplete and how identified barriers may affect the people using a product. Every delivered recommendation receives professional quality review.

We collaborate with disability services, ADA coordinators, faculty, procurement, IT, security and legal teams. Our role is to make the evidence usable, keep follow-up organized and support informed decisions. Your institution retains purchasing, exception and risk-acceptance authority.

A register that connects the work

Maintain vendor and product records before, during and after review. Record business owners, departments, critical workflows, lifecycle, renewals and institution-defined data classifications. Link accessibility reviews without allowing inventory edits to change professional scores or findings.

Security teams can use institution-reported HECVAT coordination fields to identify who owns the next step and when a review is due. HECVAT covers cybersecurity, privacy, IT accessibility and compliance. These coordination fields do not constitute a cybersecurity review or transfer security approval to Accessican.

Learn about HECVAT from EDUCAUSE. Inventory and review records can be exported for institutional use.

A practical way to control effort and cost

Start with a defined portfolio and review allowance. Reuse your own authorized evidence, avoid repeated intake work, follow up consistently and plan reviews around renewals. Agree additional work before it proceeds. We can compare baseline staff time and turnaround with pilot results to evaluate whether the arrangement saves your institution time and money.

Each institution has its own controlled workspace. Dedicated institution deployment can be discussed as a separate managed implementation, with hosting, updates, backups and support explicitly agreed. It is not included automatically with an ordinary service account.