The Alliance Electronic Resources Program (ERP) facilitates e-agreements on behalf of Alliance members for commercially-published electronic resources. These agreements address several aspects of content Accessibility:

• Consulting on resource offers, including discussions around platform and content Accessibility.
• Negotiating license terms and conditions, including Accessibility requirements.
• Collocating documentation, including content-provider VPATs (Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates) and ACRs (Accessibility Conformance Reports) and/or other Accessibility documentation (e.g., website links).
• Providing member feedback to content providers concerning functionality, including Accessibility, as part of the renewal cycle.

Since the Alliance’s opt-in ERP agreements do not involve direct control or management of commercial platforms provided by third party content providers, Alliance staff are not able to modify these electronic products to ensure compliance. It is incumbent on member subscribers to verify that a subscribed e-resource meets the needs and requirements of the member institution.

When subscribing to any e-resource through an Alliance agreement, member institutions should:

• Review the license terms to make sure that Accessibility standards meet the respective institution’s requirements.
• Liaise with local procurement officers to ensure that there are no conflicts with local purchasing policies.
• Understand that regardless of any assurances or development roadmap provided by a given content provider, resources are essentially provided “As-Is” with few enforceable means to compel compliance once a resource is ordered or renewed.
• Provide feedback concerning problems with Accessibility, particularly if there is a demonstrated inaccuracy in the VPAT/ACR and/or noncompliance with license terms.
• Opt out of any subscription that does not meet local requirements, including Accessibility functionality.

Alliance staff will work diligently to ensure that technical Accessibility requirements are reflected in agreements and that any Accessibility documentation provided from an Alliance content partner is made available. Alliance staff will advocate for improvements to Accessibility functionality as needed but does not have a mechanism for directly implementing any changes. 

Remedies for content provider noncompliance are limited to those assigned in the respective license and may not include a refund. Once a resource is licensed and invoiced, cancellation is at the sole discretion of the content provider. 

For addtional information about ADA Title II and related resources, see the Alliance’s Selected Resources.

Reporting an Accessibility Issue with Alliance-subscribed e-resources:

• When possible, accessibility issues should be reported directly to the designated contact at the content provider.
  • If there’s no designated accessibility contact, the issue should be reported to the respective technical support contact.
• Accessibility issues should be reported to us at eresources and we can pass the feedback along to our account contact(s).
• Reports to eresources do not need to be a separate message; we can just be copied on the message to the content provider.
• If the accessibility issue creates an acute liability, is believed to violate the terms of the agreement, or reveals a discrepancy in the VPAT or ACR, that should be noted in the message.
  • Because response and remediation efforts could vary, it may be necessary to turn off access to a resource until the issue is resolved.
  • If the content provider is unwilling or unable to meet local accessibility requirements in an acceptable timeframe, it may be necessary to cancel the resource.
• If the accessibility issue will result in a future non-renewal of a resource, that should also be noted in your communication to both the content provider and eresources.