1. 1 This Presentation is printed on recycled materials

2. U.S. General Services Administration General Services Administration Policy, the Procurement Process, the Buy Accessible Wizard, and Purchasing Section 508 Compliant Products & Services 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 (EIT) acquisitions of products and services.

4. 4 Why is Section 508 Important?  It eliminates barriers for people with disabilities  Supports Federal initiatives  Benefits everyone  Achieves legal compliance  Promotes positive public image  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 market research to determine Section 508 requirements, 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 Long can you wait for Section 508 Compliance?

10. 10 How Well Are Federal Agencies Implementing Section 508?

11. 11 How Well Are Federal Agencies Implementing Section 508?

12. 12 Buy Accessible  What is it?  Who should use it?  Why Use it?  What will it do for me?  How do I learn to use it?  Market Research

13. 13 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 (EIT) 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

14. 14 Who Should Use the Wizard?  Requirements Officials – responsible for providing requirements for the procurement  Technical specialists (IT) - determine IT requirements  Procurement officials – responsible for monitoring procurements and regulations  Contract officers – responsible for the contract award process  Micro purchasers (IT) with government purchase cards  Anyone else involved in the procurement process

15. 15 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

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17. 17 Market Research Why do it?  It’s FAR Requirement  It’s used to gauge the state of the EIT industry in meeting your requirements with products and services  Method for identifying products that claim to meet section 508 requirements

18. 18 The New and Improved Buy Accessible

19. 19 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

20. 20 Getting Started……  Anyone can be a “Guest” user  Agencies may also become “Registered Users” to utilize secure database storage and manage their own Wizard users (GSA hosted secure database) Benefits of becoming a Registered User:  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  A BAW Demo is next

21. 21 It’s the BLOB!!!!!! No, it’s the new Section 508 Blog http://buyaccessible.net/bloghttp://buyaccessible.net/blog. Stop by and take a look!

22. 22 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

23. Buy Accessible Wizard Demo 23

24. 24 Being a Buy Accessible Registered User vs. Guest User  First decide if your agency wants to register with GSA or use the Wizard as a guest  If you want to register your agency you need to:  Identify an individual (or set of individuals) who will act as the Wizard administrator  Decide who the Wizard users in your agency are and get them registered

25. 25 More Decisions for Registered Users  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

26. 26 Then you need to:  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

27. 27 New Features Solicitation Documentation:  Government Product/Service Accessibility Template (GPAT) –Specific requirements and vendor information  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

28. 28 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

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 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

31. 31 BAW Quick Links

32. 32 Section 508 Quick Links for the BAW  Expedient ways to:  Identify applicable provisions for deliverables from the Section 508 Standard  Enhance accessibility market research  Develop solicitation language.  Designed to make it easier for a user to consider applicable provisions.  It is the “sole responsibility” of the department/agency to determine applicable provisions, not the vendor.

33. 33 Section 508 Quick Links  Will identify deliverables (from a list or keyword) and present one of the following:  1. Technical provisions from the Standard that typically apply to that deliverable, listed as “yes”  2. Technical provisions that may apply to that deliverable, listed as “maybe”  3. Functional Performance Criteria will apply for all deliverables  4. Information, Documentation and Support provisions will also apply for all deliverables 33

34. 34 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