Acquiring or Building Digital Products

All digital products must be verified to ensure they meet Ohio State's accessibility standards. This includes any product that is: built (whether built in-house or by hiring a third-party vendor to build to Ohio State’s specifications); purchased from a vendor; or acquired for use.

What is a Digital Product?

Digital products include any software, freeware, computer or mobile application, website or other digital service used by the university community.

How do I ensure Digital Products are accessible?

Digital products must meet Ohio State's Minimum Digital Accessibility Standards (MDAS) which adopt the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 as a minimum standard.

Note: If you are creating content to post on a website or application, please review the Producing Accessible Digital Content page.
 

Contact Your Coordinator

Each unit has its own unique process for implementing digital products, whether built or purchased. When starting the process, please contact your unit's Digital Accessibility Coordinator to ensure the proper process is followed for your unit.
 

Training and Resources for Builders

If you are a web or mobile app developer, skills training courses and resources are available to assist you in learning how to build accessible websites and applications.

View All Training and Resources

An accessibility evaluation needs to be done for ALL digital products, whether purchased or built. The level of scrutiny to which a product will be subjected depends upon its risk level in the Ohio State Accessibility Risk Management Framework. Some lower-risk products will only require a basic accessibility evaluation, while higher-risk products will require a more rigorous, comprehensive evaluation.

Accessibility evaluations generally increase both the time and money required to implement a digital product. Plan accordingly for your project timeline and your budget. All evaluations must be completed and, if necessary, an approved exception must be in place, BEFORE a product may go live.

When a Full Manual Evaluation is required for a product, it 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.

Accessibility Evaluation Suppliers

The following suppliers have been awarded the RFP for Accessibility Evaluation Services at Ohio State and can be used when an OSU ADA Certified Evaluator is not available to run a full manual evaluation.

Suppliers' contact information is provided below. We recommend filling out the following sections of the Accessibility Evaluation Template [MS Word] and sending it to the vendor(s) of your choice to initiate communication regarding your request for an estimate:

• Product Description
• Proposed Scope of Work
• Use Cases

You should expect a quote back within one week, and you can request that the vendor(s) include a timeframe regarding when they will be able to perform the evaluation. (Additional resources for requesting an evaluation can be found in "Completing the Evaluation," on the Full Manual Evaluations page.

FAQs