Re: Is the accessibility of a 3rd party that represent me still my concern?

Hello:

I don’t know what your industry is, but I can tell you that in higher education, universities have been cited for not ensuring that students have access to course content or other services in an accessible manner even when it was hosted “in the cloud”.  A recent example was Miami University of Ohio in which the U.S. Department specifically cites Turnitin as providing accessibility barriers and this IS a cloud service.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/14/justice-department-moves-intervene-disability-discrimination-lawsuit

You can see a list of lawsuits at http://www.washington.edu/accessibility/requirements/accessibility-cases-and-settlement-agreements/
Looking at the description, you will see that a lot of them cite inaccessible software licensed by the university.

Elizabeth


> On Mar 28, 2016, at 4:20 PM, Druckman,Geri <GDruckman@mdanderson.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Here’s a dilema I have, and I seek your advice hoping any of you have had to deal with a similar situation before.
> The institution I work for is in negotiations over a contract with a vendor that will supply us with a web based application solution.  This will NOT be hosted on our servers in any way, it is 100% on the vendors side, and our clients will receive an email with a link, directing them to the vendors site, where they will need to interact with said application.
> 
> At the moment to vendor claims not to be section 508 / WCAG compliant and is seeking an exemption in the contract.
> 
> My dilemma is, although we have nothing to do with the development or hosting of said application, we are still sending our clients over to that site to interact with it.  Is it still within my institutions responsibility to make sure that this vendor is accessible, or is this all on them?
> 
> Any information is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Geri Druckman
> 
> (cross post with WebAIM)
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Elizabeth J. Pyatt, Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
Teaching and Learning with Technology
Penn State University
ejp10@psu.edu, (814) 865-0805 or (814) 865-2030 (Main Office)

210 Rider Building  (formerly Rider II)
227 W. Beaver Avenue
State College, PA   16801-4819
http://www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/psu
http://tlt.psu.edu

Received on Monday, 28 March 2016 21:01:19 UTC