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Full Manual Evaluations

Full manual evaluations are required for all new digital products that have a risk level of A3 (High) or A4 (Critical). They are also required for all OSU Built Products that have a risk level of A2 (Medium) through A4 (Critical). These evaluations help to identify accessibility issues in products being considered for purchase or build by Ohio State.

Who can perform full manual evaluations?

Full manual evaluations must be performed by an OSU ADA Certified Evaluator, which includes internal staff who have successfully completed the ADA Coordinator's Office accessibility evaluation training, or an OSU-Approved Accessibility Evaluation Supplier. Contact information for OSU-Approved Accessibility Evaluation Suppliers can be found on the Acquiring or Building a Product page.

Completing the Evaluation

A full manual evaluation consists of full use case testing with a screen reader, keyboard, and color contrast testing to Ohio State standards.

Some additional resources to help complete the Accessibility Evaluation Template [MS Word] include:

After Your Evaluation is Completed

Any application that requires a Full Manual Evaluation must receive a rating of “Meets Accessibility Standard” to be compliant with policy.  If an application does not receive a rating of “Meets Accessibility Standard”, the report from the evaluator will contain information on the issues and barriers that are keeping the application from receiving a successful evaluation. Arrangements should be made to remediate the issues within the report in a timely manner.

Once all of the barrier issues contained in the report have been remediated, that remediation must be tested and confirmed by a certified evaluator in order to receive a successful “Meets Accessibility Standard” rating for the application. The remediation testing often will consist of a retest of the issues that previously caused the application to fall below standard. However, in some cases, either due to development required by the remediation or other further development, applications that have had significant functional alterations since the first test will require a new Full Manual Evaluation.

Significant functional alterations causing the need for a new Full Manual Evaluation can take many forms. If the structure of the page is changed significantly, workflows are altered, or new interactive experiences are added, these can cause issues outside of the originally reported and remediated features. Consult with your evaluator about what changes were made to determine the level of remediation testing needed.

After you receive a compliant evaluation, complete the rest of your unit’s required work procedures to implement the product.  All evaluations must be retained and may be audited at anytime. This includes Quick Tests, Full Manual Evaluations, as well as third party vendor evaluations.

FAQs

Can the full manual evaluation requirement ever be waived?

Yes, in limited cases. You may request a waiver of the full manual evaluation requirement in a variety of situations where it may not be necessary to perform a full test. Examples of times when a waiver may be requested include:

  1. The vendor provides a full, thorough accessibility evaluation that demonstrates that comprehensive accessibility testing has already been performed by an independent third party.
  2. Your web framework has been tested and is accessible. You are spinning up a new website from that framework. No new features are being used.

There may be additional circumstances when a full manual evaluation is not warranted. If you believe circumstances exist that may not warrant the need for a full manual evaluation for a product, please contact the Digital Accessibility Center at accessibility@osu.edu to discuss individual situations with us in more detail.

How do I request a waiver for a full manual evaluation?

To request a waiver of the full manual evaluation requirement, please send an email to accessibility@osu.edu with “Waiver Request” as the subject. In your email, please include:

  1. A full description of the product you are interested in purchasing, including:
    1. The name and version of the product
    2. The intended audience/user base for the product
    3. The expected number of users
    4. The product’s risk level
    5. The use cases for which you plan on using the product
  2. A thorough description of your reasoning for requesting the waiver, and
  3. Any documentation supporting your request.

Once your waiver request is received by the ADA Coordinator's Office, they will review it and determine if the circumstances supporting your waiver request justify granting an evaluation waiver. After the ADA Coordinator's Office decides, they will email you to let you know the outcome of your request.