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General Services Administration
Section 508 and the Buy Accessible Wizard
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
  (EIT) 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
• Its 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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How Well Are Federal Agencies Implementing
Section 508?
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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 (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

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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 EIT 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 (CA) 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_at_gsa.gov
• Helen Chamberlain helen.chamberlain_at_gsa.gov
• Bill Hetzner bill.hetzner_at_newvectors.net
• Jim Kindrick jim.kindrick_at_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 Reporting

• Solicitation 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