Assessing accessibility ICT procurement process throughout the ICT procurement process Brigitta Norton Source: http://ozewai.org/2018/schedule.php

Accessible products and services, setting standards OZeWAI 2016 John Sheridan shared the Accessibility requirements suitable for public procurement of ICT products and services Towards an Australian ICT Accessibility Standard, recorded at OZeWAI: http://livestream.ssc.gov.au/ozewai/29november2016/webcast4/ Soon after Australia, adopted directly the European standard EN 301 549,

Accessible products and services, question assumptions Awareness “ that already, what we were doing in the public service, was trying to ensure that people who needed special consideration in terms of extra equipment or something like that were actually having their needs met after the fact” John shared an experience that made him aware that some assumptions are worth revisiting.

Accessible products and services, listening to users Understanding the problem I had an opportunity to talk to a group of APS employees as part of a round table Opportunity to share their stories Understand how they are supported and where there are gaps Identified the problems in use of enterprise-wide software and hardware This opportunity highlighted the current state of procurement of ICT products and services, especially enterprise-wide software or hardware Eg. was that one of these users was unable to access TRIM using their assistive technology

Embedding accessibility early in the procurement process Benefits Meet Australian Standards Ensure new products are usable and accessible in the workplace VPAT, reuse of a global template Development and update costs are reduced Education and training of SMEs This opportunity highlighted the current state of procurement of ICT products and services, especially enterprise-wide software or hardware Eg. was that one of these users was unable to access TRIM using their assistive technology

Accessible products and services, putting ideas into practice Collaboration Bringing together procurement officers, accessibility practitioners and industry Understand the roles and needs Experiment with international templates Identify opportunities for education and training Education and Training – targeted for 3 areas initially: Procurement officers – understand their responsibilities not just in procurement but what they can do to spot check, assess along the way Industry – understand how to develop templates (VPAT, Conformance Statements, etc) to describe and document default and accessibility issues Accessibility practitioners – understand how to assess for software/hardware using templates There is others areas we have not talked about but are important, security and ICT – testing for SOEs