Accessibility risk describes the expected impact of an accessibility barrier in a given digital product, application, or resource.
- Higher accessibility risk: a barrier is more likely to prevent or significantly impact access for more users or more critical tasks
- Lower accessibility risk: a barrier is less likely to have a severe impact on critical tasks
Determine accessibility risk prior to:
- Purchasing, renewing, or adopting digital products or services
- Requesting a Digital Accessibility Review for Procurement
Calculate Accessibility Risk
Evaluate the accessibility risk factors below and add up the points value to calculate total accessibility risk score:
- Higher accessibility risk = 7 to 9 points
- Lower accessibility risk = 3 to 6 points
IMPORTANT: Products offered at the enterprise level, that exceed $50,000 in value, that have received accessibility barrier reports, or that are for the explicit purpose of supporting access for users with disabilities are considered higher accessibility risk, regardless of score.
More about Accessibility Risk Factors
Number of users
How many people will interact with the product, service, and related outputs?
- This is important because a product or service used by more people has a greater total impact
- Example: for an email marketing software, count the number of employees who will use the software to create email campaigns as well as the number of people who will receive the email campaigns produced with the software.
- For new purchases, you may need to make an educated guess about user number
- Factor in expectations for how user and/or audience numbers will change over the time period when you intend to use the product or service.
Essential Product or Service
Are people required to use the product or service to work, study, communicate, participate, or manage safety or security?
- This is important because an essential or required product has a greater impact on people who use it
- Examples:
- Essential Product: A unit purchasing a subscription to an online platform that will create, host, and accept submissions for student assignments would be considered essential because students will be required to engage with the platform to complete course requirements.
- Recommended Product: A unit is purchasing digital templates for faculty to submit information about service contributions prior to annual career evaluations. Use of the templates will be optional, but encouraged by college leadership because it will ensure all needed information is presented in a standardized structure and easier to evaluate.
- If you plan to provide an alternate means of access for a required product, the product is still essential. If the default expectation is that the majority of affected employees, students, or other individuals will utilize the product or service, it is essential
- Example: All students are required to log in to an online portal to apply for university jobs, but staff are on call to provide phone support. The online portal is still essential.
Expected Length of Agreement or Use
What is the expected length of the contract or service agreement with the supplier? Or, how long will the product be used?
- This is important because the length of an agreement affects how often U-M is able to set digital accessibility expectations with the supplier and evaluate whether the supplier is meeting expectations
- Example: A clinic is licensing kiosk check-in software for 3 years with the possibility of a 1 or 2 year extension. So the expected agreement duration would be 3+ years for this product. Use your best guess based on expectations and experience with similar products or services.