Libraries within academic institutions need to comply with federal disability law. Specifically, the Section 508 Amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires electronic and information technology to be fully accessible to individuals with disabilities. Hence, Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs), provided by vendors based on their reported compliance to the recently updated Section 508, are being collected by librarians. However, they can be difficult to understand and are not always reliable, so VPAT verification and functional testing are recommended. The purpose of this paper is to document how two major public university libraries are approaching VPATs in a workable and time-effective manner during e-resource acquisitions and remediation workflows.

With higher education increasingly being online or having online components, it is important to ensure that online materials are accessible for persons with print and other disabilities. Library-related research has focused on the need for academic libraries to have accessible websites, in part to reach patrons who are participating in distance-education programs. A key component of a library’s website, however, is the materials it avails to patrons through vendor platforms outside the direct control of the library, making it more involved to address accessibility concerns. Librarians must communicate the need for accessible digital files to vendors so they will prioritize it. In much the same way as contracted workers constructing a physical space for a federal or federally funded agency must follow ADA standards for accessibility, so software vendors should be required to design virtual spaces to be accessible. A main objective of this study was to determine a method of increasing the visibility of vendor accessibility documentation for the benefit of our users. It is important that we, as service providers for the public good, act as a bridge between vendors and the patrons we serve.

Library database vendors often revamp simpler interfaces of their database platforms with script-enriched interfaces to make them more attractive. Sadly, these enhancements often overlook users who rely on assistive technology, leaving electronic content difficult for this user base despite the potential of electronic materials to be easier for them to access and read than print materials. Even when providers are somewhat aware of this user group's needs there are questions about the effect of their efforts to date and whether accessibility documentation from them can be relied upon. This study examines selected vendors’ VPAT reports (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) through a manual assessment of their database platforms to determine their overall accessibility.

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