1. Assessing accessibility ICT procurement process
throughout the
ICT procurement process
Brigitta Norton
Source:

2. 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:
Soon after Australia, adopted directly the European standard EN ,

3. 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.

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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