1. 1 This Presentation is printed on recycled materials

2. U.S. General Services Administration General Services Administration Policy, the Procurement Process and Purchasing Section 508 Products & Services Section 508 and the Buy Accessible Wizard Helen Chamberlain Office of Governmentwide Policy IT Accessibility & Workforce Division

3. 3 Why is Section 508 Important?  Section 508 creates binding and enforceable provisions and incorporates these provisions into the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).  Section 508 technical provisions need to be used in all electronic and information technology (E&IT) acquisitions of products and services.

4. 4 Why is Section 508 Important?  Eliminates barriers for people with disabilities  Supports Federal initiatives  Benefits everyone  Achieves legal compliance  Promotes positive public image and facilitates public access to Federal information It’s the law!

5. 5 What does Section 508 Apply To?  Section 508 applies to ALL contract vehicles and procurement actions, including micro-purchases.  All EIT that is “procured, maintained, developed, or used”

6. 6 Who does Section 508 Apply To? Section 508 applies to the Federal Government and the US Postal Service

7. 7 What Are Agencies Required To Do?  Agencies are responsible for Section 508 compliance, not industry  Agencies must determine if and how the Section 508 Standard applies, not industry  Agencies must conduct accessibility market research, not just pick a product  Agencies must reflect their Section 508 requirements in acquisition solicitations

8. 8 Section 508 Policy  Section 508 Refresh  FAR  Procurement  Section 508 Due Diligence  OMB Directives  Buy Accessible Wizard Tool  Section 508 Assessments

9. 9 How Well Are Federal Agencies Implementing Section 508?

10. 10 What is the Buy Accessible Wizard?  The Buy Accessible Wizard is a web-based tool that:  Guides users through the acquisition process, gathering data and providing information about electronic and information technology (E&IT) and Section 508 compliance  Compiles a running summary documenting the process and its results  The Buy Accessible Products and Services Directory  Access to vendor provided accessibility information  The Buy Accessible System makes compliance with the requirements of Section 508 as easy and thorough as possible

11. 11 Who Should Use the Wizard?  Micro purchasers (IT) with government purchase cards  Program technical specialists (IT) that determine acquisition requirements  Program requirements officer – responsible for program requirements documentation development, consolidation  Contract officers that specify (IT) requirements on behalf of agency programs

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13. 13 Market Research Why do it?  FAR Requirement  Used to gauge the state of the E&IT industry in meeting your requirements with products and services  Method for identifying products that claim to meet section 508 requirements

14. 14 Questions for Market Research  How well does the product/vendor meet:  Functional and technical requirements?  Applicable section 508 standards? –Ability to meet deliverable schedule  Cost considerations?  What test approaches does the vendor use to assure compliance?

15. 15 What Are You Buying?  Product  Commercial off-the shelf (COTS)  In-house IT development or customization  Government off-the-shelf (GOTS)  Services  Integration  Training  Design and development  Audio-visual/Multimedia  Maintenance  Help Desk  Documentation  Combination

16. 16 Buy Accessible System Release 3 offers significant enhancements over the previous production Release 2

17. 17 New Wizard Release 3 Functionality  Enhanced Reporting and additional support for the critical task of solicitation documentation  Significant Usability and Security enhancements  Buy Accessible System Release 3 has security Certification and Accreditation (C&A) from GSA  For Registered Agencies, Wizard R3 provides management support for:  user authentication  user partitioning for data visibility, i.e. establishing data sharing groups  aggregate data management and reporting

18. 18 How Can the Wizard Help Your Agency?  Standardize the process you use for each acquisition.  Document your procedures to demonstrate due diligence  Maximize market research. Use vendor-supplied accessibility information about the commercial availability of accessible EIT products and services prior to solicitation.  Tailor your solicitations. Ensure there is specific Section 508 language in each solicitation that includes EIT.  Require accessibility information.  Document accessibility as a factor in source selection  Document accessibility as a factor in inspection and acceptance

19. 19 Getting Started……  Anyone can be a ‘guest’ user on the public Wizard hosted at GSA – but in addition with Wizard R3 …  Agencies may also register with GSA to utilize secure database storage and manage their own Wizard users Benefits:  Individual user ID and passwords  Save Wizard sessions to resume or re-use  Share data with other users as appropriate  Repository of Section 508 compliance documentation  Management reporting over summary results

20. 20 Be Our Guest for a Test Drive  We invite you to test drive the Buy Accessible Wizard Release 3  To access the Buy Accessible Wizard Release 3 go to: http://www.buyaccessible.gov/ and use the Guest User login http://www.buyaccessible.gov/

21. 21 Thank you  Contact Information  Terry Weaver terry.weaver@gsa.govterry.weaver@gsa.gov  Helen Chamberlain helen.chamberlain@gsa.govhelen.chamberlain@gsa.gov  Bill Hetzner bill.hetzner@newvectors.netbill.hetzner@newvectors.net  Jim Kindrick jim.kindrick@newvectors.netjim.kindrick@newvectors.net

22. 22 Decisions to make for R3  Decide if your agency wants to register with GSA or use the Wizard as guests  Identify an individual (or set of individuals) who will act as the Wizard administrator  Decide who are the Wizard users in your agency to be registered

23. 23 Decisions to make for R3  Decide if the Wizard user base should be organized into separate groups  Based on geography location – e.g. DC office, St. Louis office, …  Based on functional division – e.g. IRS, OCC, OTS, Mint, …  Based on contracting office

24. 24 Decisions to make for R3  Identify an individual who will act as the administrator for each group  Decide if and what use metrics the administrator will track / report on (and to who)  Identify the kind of aggregate acquisition reports your agency would like to produce

25. 25 Making the Most of New Features  Enhanced Reporting: using the GPAT and suggested solicitation language  Government Product/Service Accessibility Template (GPAT) –Specific requirements and vendor information  Solicitation Template –Suggested language for applicable solicitation checklist items

26. 26 Enhanced Reporting Solicitation Documentation:  GPAT  Detailed Solicitation Checklist items –Program Need, Product Requirements, Service Requirements, Evaluation Factors, and deliverable Acceptance Criteria  Summary Solicitation Checklist and documentation reporting options  suggested language in Solicitation Template

27. 27 Making the Most of New Features  Enhanced Reporting: Supplemental Guides for post-solicitation support  Evaluation Guide: GPAT with market research commercial availability results  Acceptance Guide: generally accepted inspection and test methods for conformance  Design Guide: qualified development resources

28. 28 Making the Most of New Features  Simplified Search: easier access to vendor provided accessibility information  Usability enhancements for accessing the Buy Accessible Products and Services Directory

29. 29 Simplified Search Easier access to vendor provided information  Usability enhancements for accessing the Buy Accessible Products and Services Directory  Simplified keyword and category display  Refine search by category –Select category displays sub-categories or launches search  Search results for market research review  Market research documentation

30. 30 Making the Most of New Features  Secure Wizard Data Storage:  Agencies manage users and aggregate user data –Individual user id and password, Management reporting: agency usage  Users save Wizard data to agency-specific database at GSA –Secure, re-usable, and share-able  What can you do to help your agency prepare?

31. 31 Secure Wizard Data Storage Registered agencies manage users and aggregate user data, Users save Wizard data to agency-specific database at GSA  Guest user login screen  Registered user login screen  Registered user ‘MyBuyAccessible’ console with saved sessions and shared data from group members  Agency administrator console  Agency administrator use(r) metrics