Following the U.S. Department of Justice’s April 2024 Title II rule requiring WCAG 2.1 Level AA compliance for public institutions, accessibility documentation such as VPATs is increasingly used to screen vendors during RFPs. Roughly 70 percent of edtech tools now publish VPATs. The implication is that accessibility compliance increasingly determines vendor eligibility in institutional procurement cycles.
Today’s deep-dive covers:
Why Is Digital Accessibility Becoming a Procurement Gate in Higher Education Software Markets?
How Is Accessibility Compliance Risk Moving Up the Institutional Governance Hierarchy?
Why Are Software Vendors Integrating Accessibility Into the Product Development Lifecycle?
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I. Why Is Digital Accessibility Becoming a Procurement Gate in Higher Education Software Markets?
Digital accessibility is increasingly functioning as an early procurement filter in higher education software markets. Regulatory enforcement, particularly the U.S. Department of Justice’s April 2024 Title II rule under the Americans with Disabilities Act, requires digital services used by state and local governments, including public higher education platforms, to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards.
The regulatory change places legal responsibility on the institution that deploys the software rather than on the vendor that provides it. Universities, colleges, and public education systems, therefore, bear legal liability if the digital tools they adopt are not accessible to users with disabilities.
Because institutions carry this liability, procurement processes increasingly include accessibility screening mechanisms. Many RFPs now require vendors to provide Accessibility Conformance Reports or Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates demonstrating WCAG compliance before products can advance in the evaluation process. Vendors that cannot provide credible documentation are often excluded to reduce institutional legal exposure.
Evidence from the edtech market suggests this shift is already underway.
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