In some cases, products and services are submitted for procurement with an extremely short period of time before they must be approved, and the university will lose access to or be unable to provide a critical service if they are not approved in time. In these cases, there may not be sufficient time for an accessibility review and exemption process to be completed before the deadline for PCS/contract approval.

If the university will lose access to a product or service if it is not renewed in 2 weeks or less from the time it is submitted (i.e., not including perpetual use licensed web apps where vendor support is not critical, where usage will not turn off if annual maintenance renewal is not completed), or if the university has a critical need to purchase a product or service within 2 weeks of the time it is submitted, an emergency accessibility exemption deferral can be requested through the Request for Emergency Exemption Deferral form.

Purchasers granted an emergency exemption deferral are required to meet with the Digital Accessibility Architect via Zoom or Teams within 2 weeks of approval (it is the responsibility of the purchaser to schedule the meeting), and the purchaser and vendor must complete the standard procurement accessibility process within 2 months. The Digital Accessibility Architect will explain the process and provide assistance to the purchaser.

Note that emergency exemption deferrals only apply to digital accessibility, and do not impact any other procurement requirements.