1. (a) For the procurement of EIR made directly by an institution of higher education or through the department's information technology commodity procurement contracts entered pursuant to Texas Government Code § 2157.068, the institution shall require a vendor to provide accessibility information for the purchased products or services, where applicable, through one of the following methods:

   1. (1) inclusion of URLs to manufacturer's VPATS or ACRs for applicable Commercial Off the Shelf products or services;
   2. (2) other documents / forms requested by the institution that provide credible evidence of the vendor's capability or ability to produce accessible EIR products and services. Such evidence may include, but is not limited to, a vendor's internal accessibility policy documents, contractual warranties for accessibility, accessibility testing documents, and examples of prior work results; or
   3. (3) If credible accessibility documentation cannot be provided, then the EIR shall be considered noncompliant.
2. (b) An institution of higher education shall implement a procurement accessibility policy, and supporting business processes and contract terms for making procurement decisions. The institution of higher education shall monitor the procurement processes and contracts for accessibility compliance.
3. (c) This subchapter applies to EIR developed, procured, or materially changed by an institution of higher education, or developed, procured, or materially changed by a contractor under a contract with an institution of higher education, which requires the use of such product to a significant extent in the performance of a service or the furnishing of a product.
4. (d) Unless an exception is approved by the president or chancellor of an institution of higher education pursuant to Texas Government Code § 2054.460 and §213.37 of this subchapter or unless an exemption is approved by the department pursuant to Texas Government Code § 2054.460 and §213.37 of this subchapter, all EIR products developed, procured or materially changed through a procured services contract, and all electronic and information resource services provided through hosted or managed services contracts, shall comply with the provisions of Chapter 206 and Chapter 213 of this title, as applicable.
5. (e) An institution of higher education must include accessibility testing, planning, and execution criteria for EIR development and implementation projects.

6. (f) Accessibility testing:

   1. (1) requires one year or longer to reach operations status;
   2. (2) involves more than one institution of higher education or state agency; or
   3. (3) substantially alters work methods of institution of higher education or agency personnel or the delivery of services to clients.
7. (g) Nothing in this subchapter is intended to prevent the use of designs or technologies as alternatives to those prescribed in this subchapter provided they result in substantially equivalent or greater access to and use of a product for people with disabilities.

Source Note:The provisions of this §213.38 adopted to be effective September 16, 2008, 33 TexReg 7744; amended to be effective November 17, 2009, 34 TexReg 8027; amended to be effective September 18, 2014, 39 TexReg 7565; amended to be effective December 12, 2019, 44 TexReg 7679; amended to be effective June 16, 2026, 51 TexReg 3877.