5: Make Your Own Workplace Accessible

Exception Policy: What if I still can't make it accessible?


An office worker demonstrates the text device she uses to communicate with customers who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Caption: Contact your agency's accessibility coordinator for more information about getting an exception.

TEA strives to make all information accessible. Sometimes, circumstances related to difficulty or cost keep us from making information fully accessible. TEA agency policy allows you to provide accessibility through an alternative means by requesting an "exception." Exceptions can include alternate technologies or different means of accessing the same information.

For example, an employee assistance program that provides online counseling through an inaccessible website may, with an approved exception, provide an alternate means of access through telephone counseling while the website is revised.

Required documentation for getting an exception includes

  • justification for the exception based on significant difficulties or expenses.
  • the method that will be used to provide an alternative way to access the information or functionality that is covered by the exception.
  • the time-frame covered by the exception. (Note: an exeption only provides temporary suspension of accessibility requirements until the resourse can be made compliant. It is not a permanent solution.)
  • the approximate cost of providing the alternative means of access.

TEA OP 10-15 - ELECTRONIC AND INFORMATION RESOURCES (EIR) ACCESSIBILITY POLICY, requires the agency to document any request for exception to accessibility compliance requirements due to significant difficulty or expense.

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