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Procurement of Accessible ICTs*

Fourth Session Of The Conference Of States Parties To The Convention On The Rights Of Persons With

Disabilities

UN Headquarters, New York, 8 September 2011

* Information & Communication Technologies

Governments/Organizations get

• Computers and software

• Telecommunications hardware and services

• Web sites and applications

• Office equipment (copiers, printers)

• Facilities (buildings, offices, meeting space)

• Furniture (desks, chairs, lighting)

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How? Through procurement.

Even better, through accessible procurement!

The Convention says…

Article 4:

• To undertake and promote R&D of universally designed goods, services, equipment and facilities…

Article 9:

• Promote the … production and distribution of accessible ICTs and systems…

Article 27

• Employ persons with disabilities in the public sector • Ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with

disabilities in the workplace

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Use your procurement power to purchase accessible ICTs, other goods and services and comply with these and other articles.

Laws / Policies

That mandate or support procurement of accessible ICTs

• United States of America – Rehab. Act, Section 508• United Kingdom – Disability Discrimination Act• European Union – Mandate 376 (still in draft)• Canada – Accessible Procurement Toolkit• Australia – Disability Discrimination Act• Ireland – Public Procurement Toolkit• Korea• and many more …

At least 20 countries have Web accessibility laws or policies

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Finding what you want…

Not every product may meet all applicable standards, so presumably you choose products that are “most” compliant

How do you identify compliant products?

• Test and certify products in-house

• Contract 3rd party experts to test and certify

• Allow manufacturers to self-certify

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VPATsVoluntary Product Accessibility Templates

At least 420 companies provide VPATs, including:

3M Adobe Apple Canon

Cisco Hitachi HP IBM

Kyocera Lenovo Microsoft Panasonic

Qualcomm Samsung Sony Xerox

= hardware, software, office equipment , computer peripherals, telecommunication systems and end-user devices

Microsoft and IBM have VPATs for almost 400 products each, Xerox 184, Canon 182, Apple 53

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Creating Procurement Documents

• Industry Canada’s Accessible Procurement Toolkit

• US GSA’s BuyAccessible Wizard!

Reference:

• National and international standards

• National and international guidelines and best practices

• Consult with persons with disabilities and their organizations

• GAATES and other service organizations

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Procure accessible ICTs!

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