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This Presentation is printed on

recycled materials

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

Policy, the Procurement Process and Purchasing Section 508 Products & Services

Section 508 and the Buy Accessible Wizard

Helen ChamberlainOffice of Governmentwide PolicyIT Accessibility & Workforce Division

Helen ChamberlainOffice of Governmentwide PolicyIT Accessibility & Workforce Division

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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.

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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!

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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”

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Who does Section 508 Apply To?

Section 508 applies to the Federal Government and the US Postal Service

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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

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Section 508 Policy

Section 508 Refresh FAR Procurement Section 508 Due Diligence OMB Directives Buy Accessible Wizard Tool Section 508 Assessments

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GFY07 GFY08 GFY09 to date

Green 7% 7% 12%

Yellow 10% 17% 33%

Red 83% 75% 55%

Green + Yellow 17% 24% 45%

BuyAccessible Team Meeting – Charleston, SC – June 23-24, 2009

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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

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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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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

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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?

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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

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Buy Accessible System Release 3 offers significant enhancements over

the previous production Release 2

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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

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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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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

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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

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Thank you Contact Information

Terry Weaver terry.weaver@gsa.gov Helen Chamberlain helen.chamberlain@gsa.gov Bill Hetzner bill.hetzner@newvectors.net Jim Kindrick jim.kindrick@newvectors.net

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Enhanced ReportingSolicitation 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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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BAW KwikLinks

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Section 508 KwikLinks 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.

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Section 508 KwikLinks

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

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KwikLinks Survey Information

Please go to:

http://www.buyaccessible.org/wizardsurvey.html

And fill out the online survey