Jill Bateman
Digital Accessibility Coordinator,
Ohio University
Managing Risk in Procurement: Campus Experiences with the New HECVAT Accessibility Updates
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 | 2:15PM–3:00PM CT | Meeting Room 101 E, Level 1
Session Type:
Breakout Session
Delivery Format:
Presentation/Panel Session
Learn how campus purchasers and developers can use a free toolkit to streamline information sharing while building digital inclusion! This session presents new and improved workflows developed through partnerships between accessibility, security, privacy, and AI professionals in higher education IT. Consensus best practices for evaluating the accessibility of vendor products are now incorporated into the Higher Education Community Vendor Assessment Toolkit (HECVAT), a widely used tool originally focused on assessing risk for security compliance. Combining accessibility, security, and privacy risk reviews amplifies the importance of each. The HECVAT can help schools advance accessibility in partnership with vendors, moving toward compliance with existing requirements as well as upcoming federal regulations. Beyond technical reviews, presenters will discuss their organizational effectiveness and experiences using this framework as a catalyst for working across IT domains within higher ed institutions. Many opportunities for feedback and discussion will be provided. The session will share the HECVAT collaborative process and the resulting questions, themes, and rationale behind them. Features and updates will be reviewed. This session is of interest to all institutions that procure technology, as well as any businesses that provide technology to purchasers with accessibility requirements.
