Digital Accessibility and ALA

Compliance documentation requests and staff awareness

Digital accessibility and libraries –recent rules impacting procurement

There was a recent rule finalized that has a direct impact on Title II entities and the accessibility of their websites and mobile apps, and a big part of the rule highlights the importance of accessibility of third-party services. With that, we’ve had several entities already reach out across various ALA channels to inquire about our compliance status, and some have noted that they won’t be able to move forward with their current ALA product(s) until receiving our documentation.

What requests your unit may receive

This request might come in the form of folks asking for one of the following at it applies to a specific ALA digital service, product, or platform:


1. VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template)
2. ACR (Accessibility Conformance Report)
3. Accessibility Statement , Policy, or Action Plan
4. General Website Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Compliance

Who to contact when a request is received

To align communication and help us centrally track requests and responses, please forward any inquiries received regarding our compliance level, documentation, or policy to myself, and I will work with IT and the unit to provide further resources and/or follow up with any questions for ALA staff or the requestor.

Hillary Pearson, Program Manager, Accessibility Services: HPearson@ala.org

Available accessibility information

  1. ALA does have an Accessibility Commitment Statement that is publicly available on the footer of our main domain, which details as a high-level our current measures to support accessibility on the ALA Domain, what accessibility features are included, and pathways to share feedback. This commitment is part of a larger conversation around ALA’s digital infrastructure strategy and is intended to be revisited as plans evolve.
  2. ALA currently has accessibility auditing of the ALA.org domain through our developer, Urban Insights, and they have provided us with an Accessibility Compliance Report from their most recent audit. This report is available to vendors by request.