An important way to support better web and digital accessibility is to make sure your suppliers – both software vendors and digital agencies – have the right knowledge, processes and focus on accessibility. A platform such as a CMS or the work carried out by a digital agency both need to be accessible from day one; they should then give you the right foundations to maintain and improve accessibility.

Getting the right suppliers starts with your approach to procurement and your Request for Proposal (RFP) or product evaluation process. Recently we wrote about the reasons your procurement function should embrace accessibility and some of the ways to make it happen including ensuring that your accessibility is covered in RFP and RFP processes. In this follow-up post we’re going to take a deeper dive into this point and look at the areas to cover in your RFP process and documentation.

Documentation

It’s worth asking for the standard documentation that an agency or vendor produces relating to accessibility, for example either for RFP situations or in response to customer questions. This documentation will reflect the company’s policies on accessibility and provide answers or background to some of the other questions you may want to ask.

Having standard documentation in place can reflect a mature approach to accessibility and related compliance; if a vendor or agency does not have standard documentation in place this may reflect a more ‘ad hoc’ approach to accessibility that may not meet your requirements.

Roles

Always ask about the roles that a software vendor or agency has relating to accessibility, and some of the detail around this. Does a vendor have a full-time role responsible for accessibility? Does an agency have a dedicated accessibility expert? Are they employed or are they an associate consultant? What is the level of their expertise? What proportion of their time is actually focused on accessibility?

Again, this information can give you a good indication of the level of commitment and experience relating to accessibility. For example, there may be a usability expert who also covers accessibility but may not have as in-depth knowledge as you would like. Here, it’s also important to get roles in perspective. A smaller agency, for example, might rely on an associate consultant who is not directly employed or on external expertise, and this arrangement could actually work very well.

Experience

A key input for any decision on any vendor or agency is the level of experience they have with digital accessibility. Here, make sure you get the detail behind the experience, and ask for how they went about making a specific product or project accessible to meet particular needs. A list of websites with AA level compliance is not enough.

It’s also likely that in any RFP process you will want to speak to previous clients to see what it’s like working with a vendor, agency or product; here make sure you ask questions about accessibility.

Compliance

An obvious question to ask in any RFP will be the extent to which a product or the output from a project will be compliant with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. Detail is important again here; ask how a solution is compliant, how they know it’s compliant and how you as a customer can demonstrate to both internal stakeholders and external parties that it is compliant. You can also ask whether they have any sort of guarantee around compliance and whether non-compliance would come under warranty or is covered by any contracts or agreements.

Processes

Asking about your potential supplier’s processes relating to accessibility regards to products and projects will give you a good idea of the extent to which accessibility is ‘hard-baked’ into the way they work or is more of an ad hoc approach. Processes to ask about could include:

• External reviews, audits and testing relating to accessibility (see below!)
• Accessibility training and awareness for staff
• Ensuring accessibility compliance in projects
• Supporting customers in maintaining and improving
• Ensuring accessibility in your product roadmap
• Keeping up to date with accessibility developments and changes
• Responding to specific accessibility-related issues.

 Testing

Testing is an area which we feel is particularly critical as it helps to establish compliance, maintain compliance and drive improvement. Without any kind of testing in place, it is very difficult to be compliant. An RFI or RFP process should always uncover the detail around testing, and the approach in products and product updates, as well as projects. If engaging with a digital agency, ask about the stages at which testing takes place. Do they test both the CMS but also when the content that gets added? If they are going to continue working with you do they test regularly? If so, which products do they use?

Knowledge

It is also worth trying to ascertain the depth of knowledge and understanding of the people who are going to be responsible for accessibility. You could ask them about the issues most clients face? What are the latest developments? What is on the horizon? How do they cater for different types of disabilities? These are probably more likely to be the questions to ask in any interviews rather than necessarily covered in documents. Ultimately, you should get a sense of the level of expertise of those involved in the product or your project relating to accessibility.

Make sure accessibility is covered in your RFP

You’ll be working with suppliers and products whose approaches to accessibility will ultimately impact the accessibility of your digital channels. Make sure accessibility is adequately covered in your procurement and RFP processes.