How to Write Accessibility Into an RFP So You Actually Get It

Most public-sector accessibility problems are procurement problems that arrived two years earlier. An agency buys a platform, a website, or a document production service; the solicitation says something like “must be ADA compliant”; the vendor agrees; and the obligation quietly evaporates because nobody defined what compliance meant or asked for proof.

Then the deadline arrives, the agency owns an inaccessible system it cannot easily replace, and the contract offers no leverage at all.

Writing the requirement properly costs a paragraph. Here is what that paragraph needs.

Why does “must be ADA compliant” fail?

Because it is not a specification. The ADA does not contain technical criteria — it is a civil rights statute. A vendor can agree to it sincerely and deliver something unusable, and you would struggle to say they breached anything.

Three things are missing from that phrasing:

• A standard, with a version and a level
• A scope — what exactly is covered
• Evidence — how conformance will be demonstrated and when

If the distinction between the statutes and the technical standard is unclear, Section 508 vs ADA vs WCAG separates them.

What should the clause actually say?

Name the standard precisely:

All deliverables shall conform to WCAG 2.1 Level AA.

Use 2.1 AA even where a federal Section 508 procurement technically points at WCAG 2.0 AA via 36 CFR Part 1194. It is a superset, it satisfies both, and it aligns with the ADA Title II and HHS Section 504 rules — so you are not buying something that meets today’s floor and misses the one you are actually working to. Which of those rules binds you, and by when, is in the ADA Title II deadline post.

Then define scope explicitly. This is where most solicitations lose the argument later:

Conformance applies to all user interfaces, all content supplied by the vendor, all documents and reports generated by the system, all data exports, all administrative interfaces, and all end-user documentation and training materials.

Every clause in that list exists because a vendor once argued the opposite. Generated output and admin interfaces are the two most commonly excluded, and the two that cause the most trouble — an inaccessible admin interface means an agency cannot employ a blind administrator.

What evidence should I require?

Ask for four things, at named points in time.

1. A current, dated conformance report at proposal. A VPAT completed as an ACR, dated within the last twelve months, naming the specific version of the product being offered. Not “our platform” — the version you would be buying. What is a VPAT covers what a useful one looks like.

2. A description of how it was tested. Manual testing with assistive technology, the tools used, and who did it. An automated scan alone is not a test, because automated tools cannot judge whether alt text is correct or whether reading order makes sense.

3. Acceptance testing against the standard. Make conformance part of what “done” means, so a failure is a defect rather than a change request. This is the single highest-leverage clause available to you.

4. Remediation obligations with timeframes. What happens when a conformance failure is found after acceptance, how fast it is fixed, and at whose cost.

A fifth, if you are buying something long-lived: require that the conformance report be refreshed at defined intervals, so a product that conforms at purchase does not silently drift.

What vendor answers should worry me?

• A VPAT claiming “Supports” on every criterion. Nobody fully supports every criterion. This means the form was filled in by sales, not tested.
• An undated report, or one for a different product or version.
• An accessibility overlay offered as the answer. A widget that adds a contrast toggle does not make underlying content conform, and it does nothing at all to documents. If the response to your clause is a script tag, the clause was not met.
• “We are working toward compliance.” Fine as a statement, but it needs a date and a scope attached, and it belongs in the contract rather than in the cover letter.
• A refusal to include generated documents in scope. This tells you what the reports will look like.
• A guarantee that you will be compliant. No vendor can promise that; your obligation covers your whole estate. A vendor offering it is either misunderstanding the requirement or selling past it.

Do not forget the documents

If the procurement involves producing content — reports, notices, forms, manuals, translations — the documents are the deliverable and they need the same specificity. Say tagged. Say correct reading order. Say table headers programmatically associated. Say alt text.

And if any of it is multilingual, say so explicitly:

Translated deliverables shall conform in the target language, including document and passage-level language declaration, alternative text authored in the target language, and correct logical reading order for right-to-left scripts.

That clause exists because the default outcome is a Spanish PDF tagged as English with English alt text — technically translated, functionally unusable. Translated documents and WCAG language of parts explains why, and Arabic and RTL PDF accessibility covers the harder scripts.

A short checklist

• Standard named with version and level (WCAG 2.1 AA)
• Scope lists interfaces, content, generated output, exports, admin, and docs
• Current dated ACR required at proposal, for the offered version
• Test method disclosed, including manual assistive-technology testing
• Conformance included in acceptance criteria
• Post-acceptance remediation obligations with timeframes
• Multilingual clause if any deliverable is translated
• Refresh interval for the conformance report

Where Taika fits

We work on the delivery side of these clauses — remediating documents and content to WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508, across languages. If you are an agency writing the requirement, we are happy to look at your draft language; if you are a vendor who has just been handed one, we can tell you what meeting it actually involves.

Start at accessibility and compliance services, document accessibility, or Section 508 remediation.

Drafting or responding to one now? Request a quote with the clause text and what is being delivered, and we will come back with a concrete read on scope, effort, and sequence. To see where an existing document set stands, start with the PDF accessibility checker.