Inventory IT for Accessibility

Inventorying products, applications, and systems in use is the first step to managing accessibility across a portfolio of information technology (IT).

The goals of an inventory are to:

• List IT products the unit is responsible for
• Record factors that determine risk, and therefore priority for review and remediation
• Develop good data practices for data-informed decision making
• Raise awareness of existing risk and plan mitigation strategies

Scope of Inventory

IT includes but is not limited to:

• Websites
• Web applications
• Mobile and desktop applications
• Learning materials
• Documents
• eBooks
• Media (video, audio)

A complete inventory includes all areas of IT.

Inventories are most valuable when comparing similar items. After initial information gathering, it is good practice to divide applications, websites, documents, and other categories into separate lists.

How to Inventory

In order to address accessibility compliance, you will need to collect specific information for your unit's IT. This will need to be a team effort.

Include Stakeholders

• System owners
  • Owners know their IT and can answer questions better than anyone else
  • Any inventory will be a living document and need updates 
• Unit DEI teams
  • Accessibility at its core is about DEI: creating digital information and systems that work for a diversity of people, ensuring equitable access to all, and promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities
  • DEI teams can drive efforts across organizations and emphasize how digital accessibility relates to DEI goals
  • DEI teams often have support from leadership, commitment of resources, and relationships across cross functional teams

Collect Information

For each system or system, list:

• Description of the IT, what it is, and what it does
• Audience/users (students, staff, faculty, external users)
• Estimated number of users in each role who use the IT
• Owners or managers (those who can authorize work on the IT and can delegate)
• Criticality of the IT to the unit and university
• Existence of accessibility compliance documentation, if any
• Whether there has been prior accessibility testing
• Is the IT ready for testing, including test accounts and QA scripts
• Who controls the application (unit controls, vendor, mixed)
• If there are existing analytics: usage patterns, numbers
• How frequently the IT is updated
• The vendor and/or technology stack
• IT lifecycle: is the system new, growing, mature, or ready to be retired?
• Existence of other systems that perform the same function

Also list whether the "owner" (whether an individual, team, vendor, mixed) of the system:

• Has a demonstrable understanding of the university's obligations regarding accessibility
• Has a demonstrable understanding of the accessibility compliance guidelines
• Trains its members in accessibility
• Has an accommodation plan in case barriers are encountered
• Includes accessibility in company or team policy
• Has compliance documentation
• Tests for accessibility
• Prioritizes fixing accessibility errors
• Commits to having a roadmap for remediation in case the system turns out not to be accessible

Tips for Efficiency

Since you'll be inventorying all the IT in your unit, there are a couple of best practices that might make the process easier:

• Segment it into logical functional parts
  • This is especially important if a given IT is very extensive, as it will help in later steps of the process
• Consider starting prioritization during inventory
  • By prioritizing IT as you inventory, you can determine which products are very low risk
  • Low risk IT should be included but may not require the same effort to gather all the information outlined above