National Dialogue on Improving the Section 508 Program

sujatha.balakumar

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Ideas contributed by sujatha.balakumar

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  Product Accessibility »

  Use an Evaluation matrix instead of VPATS in procurement

  VPATS as the name implies is voluntary and federal agencies cannot hold the the vendor to compliance based on a VPAT. Instead an evaluation matrix is more effective as you make the vendors respond to the applicable provisions for their products and score them based on their compliance. This ensure fair and open competition as per the FAR and also ensures the agency buys the most compliant product. When vendors respond ...more »

  VPATS as the name implies is voluntary and federal agencies cannot hold the the vendor to compliance based on a VPAT.

  Instead an evaluation matrix is more effective as you make the vendors respond to the applicable provisions for their products and score them based on their compliance.

  This ensure fair and open competition as per the FAR and also ensures the agency buys the most compliant product.

  When vendors respond to a matrix and are awarded contracts based on it the agency can hold them to compliance and vendors have to make their products or services 508 compliant

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  4 comments for Idea: Use an Evaluation matrix instead of VPATS in procurement

  Submitted by sujatha.balakumar 1 year ago

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  Action Plan »

  Section 508 clauses must be incorporated by Procurement

  Section 508 clauses must be incorporated by Procurement in the base contract to hold the vendor to compliance. It should be part of the requirements and not an aftert hought. Our constant challenge with acquisitions and 508 compliance is that Section 508 is not part of requirements. The largest impediment to the implementation of Section 508 in the current requisition process is the absence of Section 508 clauses in ...more »

  Section 508 clauses must be incorporated by Procurement in the base contract to hold the vendor to compliance. It should be part of the requirements and not an aftert hought.

  Our constant challenge with acquisitions and 508 compliance is that Section 508 is not part of requirements. The largest impediment to the implementation of Section 508 in the current requisition process is the absence of Section 508 clauses in base contracts. The most critical action required is to make sure the correct applicable Section 508 clauses are in the Contract/Requests for Proposals and Statements of work. This is the only way to hold the vendor to compliance. If the critical language is not in the contract, vendors charge a considerable amount of extra money to bring the product to compliance. By ensuring Section 508 clauses are in the contract the Agency can save money. According to a case study by Pressman (2005), it is expensive to retrofit software to meet accessibility standards. The cost of revision is estimated to be one to six times greater during development than during the design phase and sixty to hundred times greater after release.

  So Section 508 should be part of the requirements and should not be an after thought.

  The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) should be used by federal agencies as guidance for developing procurement policies and procedures.

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  Add your comment for Idea: Section 508 clauses must be incorporated by Procurement

  Submitted by sujatha.balakumar 1 year ago

• I agree

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  Action Plan »

  Use Assistive Technology users for testing

  Projects should use native users of screen readers, magnifiers, voice command software to test their applications. The functional performance criteria (1194.31)is a very important Section 508 provision in the current standards -and the questions asked under FPC are simply whether some one who is blind can use the system, some one who has low vision can use the system, someone who is deaf , and some one with mobility ...more »

  Projects should use native users of screen readers, magnifiers, voice command software to test their applications.

  The functional performance criteria (1194.31)is a very important Section 508 provision in the current standards -and the questions asked under FPC are simply whether some one who is blind can use the system, some one who has low vision can use the system, someone who is deaf , and some one with mobility impairments problems can use the system.

  What better way to test it than with native users so we can get an accurate picture of the compliance level of the application.

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  5 comments for Idea: Use Assistive Technology users for testing

  Submitted by sujatha.balakumar 1 year ago

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  26 votes

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  Action Plan »

  Educate the developer community on Section 508

  In my experience interacting with developers - few have a knowledge of Section 508 and even less knowledge of the WCAG. With the WCAG 2.0 being such an intergral part of the Section 508 refresh, it is imperative that all web deveopers have solid knowledge of the WCAG 2.0 and program ground up for Section 508. A study reports that the cost of revision is estimated to be one to six times greater during development than ...more »

  In my experience interacting with developers - few have a knowledge of Section 508 and even less knowledge of the WCAG. With the WCAG 2.0 being such an intergral part of the Section 508 refresh, it is imperative that all web deveopers have solid knowledge of the WCAG 2.0 and program ground up for Section 508. A study reports that the cost of revision is estimated to be one to six times greater during development than during the design phase and sixty to hundred times greater after release.

  Agencies should proactively send developers to section 508 training classes.

  In my experience project achieved success with accessibility when developers were provided training with Assistive technologies like Jaws, Dragon and Zoom text.

  That really helped them understand the difficulties AT users experience and they created access keys for an technology which was inherently inaccessible.

  Education and awareness is the key.

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  9 comments for Idea: Educate the developer community on Section 508

  Submitted by sujatha.balakumar 1 year ago

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  Product Accessibility »

  The sole source

  The sole source justification is often used as a loop hole to buy non compliant products in federal agencies. There are some genuine sole source products which are crucial to the functioning of the agencyand are not compliant. Even if they invoke the sole source justification agencies should work with the vendors and formulate a mitigation plan and a timeline to bring the product into compliance. So even if the product ...more »

  The sole source justification is often used as a loop hole to buy non compliant products in federal agencies.

  There are some genuine sole source products which are crucial to the functioning of the agencyand are not compliant.

  Even if they invoke the sole source justification agencies should work with the vendors and formulate a mitigation plan and a timeline to bring the product into compliance.

  So even if the product is not compliant when brought into the agency, the agency should work with the vendor to make the product compliant and the the Section 508 language should be part of the contract.

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  2 comments for Idea: The sole source

  Submitted by sujatha.balakumar 1 year ago

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  23 votes

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  Strengthen Accountability »

  508 compliance testing plan should be part of the deliverables

  A 508 test plan should be part of the acceptance criteria by Procurement and should be included as part of the deliverables for contractor services for software/web development. This will force vendors performing contractor services to incorporate Section 508 in the requirements and will make them code ground up for 508 from the beginning. This is not only cost effective and efficient but will ensure the vendor tests ...more »

  A 508 test plan should be part of the acceptance criteria by Procurement and should be included as part of the deliverables for contractor services for software/web development.

  This will force vendors performing contractor services to incorporate Section 508 in the requirements and will make them code ground up for 508 from the beginning. This is not only cost effective and efficient but will ensure the vendor tests the application for 508 compliance. 508 will not be an afterthought.

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  6 comments for Idea: 508 compliance testing plan should be part of the deliverables

  Submitted by sujatha.balakumar 1 year ago

• I agree

  Voting is Disabled

  9 votes

  I disagree
  This idea is active.
  Strengthen Accountability »

  "Beautiful Language" in the base contract on acquisitions

  Our constant challenge with acquisitions and 508 compliance is that Section 508 is not part of requirements. The largest impediment to the implementation of Section 508 in the current requisition process is the absence of Section 508 clauses in base contracts. The most critical action required is to make sure the correct applicable Section 508 clauses are in the Contract/Requests for Proposals and Statements of work. ...more »

  Our constant challenge with acquisitions and 508 compliance is that Section 508 is not part of requirements. The largest impediment to the implementation of Section 508 in the current requisition process is the absence of Section 508 clauses in base contracts. The most critical action required is to make sure the correct applicable Section 508 clauses are in the Contract/Requests for Proposals and Statements of work. This is the only way to hold the vendor to compliance. If the critical language is not in the contract, vendors charge a considerable amount of extra money to bring the product to compliance. By ensuring Section 508 clauses are in the contract the Agency can save money. According to a case study by Pressman (2005), it is expensive to retrofit software to meet accessibility standards. The cost of revision is estimated to be one to six times greater during development than during the design phase and sixty to hundred times greater after release.

  So Section 508 should be part of the requirements and should not be an after thought.

  The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) should be used by federal agencies as guidance for developing procurement policies and procedures.

  « less full details »

  4 comments for Idea: "Beautiful Language" in the base contract on acquisitions

  Submitted by sujatha.balakumar 1 year ago

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