DHS s Department-wide Governance of 508 Compliance Bill

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DHSs Department-wide Governance of 508
Compliance

• Bill Peterson
• Executive Director
• Office of Accessible Systems Technology

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Birth of a Department

• September 11, 2001 Terrorists attack U.S.
• October 8, 2001 W.H. Office of Homeland Security
  created
• November 19, 2002 Legislation mandating DHS
  passed
• November 25, 2002 Homeland Security Act becomes
  law
• January 24, 2003 DHS becomes operational
• March 1, 2003 Agencies merged to form DHS
• March 21, 2005 Section 508 office created

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DHS Perspective - 2003

• 22 disparate agencies came together
• From 10 different locations
• Different missions
• Different cultures/histories
• Different IT infrastructures
• 16 legacy EAs, multiple email systems, etc.

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DHS Perspective - Today

• 18 major Components
• Roughly 240,000 employees
• Countless contractors
• Roughly 6.5 billion/year in IT investments
• Eight contracting organizations
• w/ decentralized procurement authority
• Fourteen CIOs (1 plus 13)
• Each controls their own budget

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DHS Components with CIOs

• DHS Headquarters (HQ)
• Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• Citizenship Immigration Services (CIS)
• U.S. Secret Service (USSS)
• U.S. Coast Guard (USCG)
• Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC)
• National Protection Programs Directorate (NPPD)
• Office of Intelligence Analysis (IA)
• Directorate for Science and Technology (ST)
• Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO)
• Office of Inspector General (OIG)

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OAST

• One of six primary offices within OCIO
• Uniquely positioned
• Report directly to DHS CIO and indirectly to the
  Officer for Civil Rights Civil Liberties (CRCL)
• Member of senior leadership in both the OCIO
  CRCL
• Currently slotted for a mix of 19 Federal and
  contract staff

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OAST Organization Chart
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OAST Mission

• Provide strategic direction, governance,
  technical support, and training to ensure DHS
  employees and customers with disabilities have
  equal access to information and data.

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OAST Guiding Principles

• Implementing Section 508 requires a change in
  culture
• Policies and procedures drive accessibility
• Standardizing accessibility solutions is the
  shortest path to full inclusion
• Accessibility is best achieved by including the
  needs of people with disabilities in all phases
  of a product lifecycle
• Accessibility benefits everyone

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Why OAST?

• There are 54 million Americans with disabilities
• Each has the potential of being one of our
  customers
• DHS employs more than 7,000 AWDs
• People are living longer
• Acquired disabilities increase with age
• People are working longer
• Worker retention is important

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Disability Employment

• As the Nation's largest employer, the Federal
  Government must become a model for the employment
  of individuals with disabilities.  Executive
  departments and agencies must improve their
  efforts to employ workers with disabilities
  through increased recruitment, hiring, and
  retention of these individuals. 
• President Barack Obama
• Executive Order
• July 26, 2010

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Technology

• For Americans without disabilities, technology
  makes things easier. For Americans with
  disabilities, technology makes things possible.
• - Mary Pat Radabaugh
• Study on the Financing of Assistive
  TechnologyDevices Services for Individuals
  with Disabilities

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Technology for the Disabled

• Need to focus on the WHOLE PERSON as they
  interact with society and the environment

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Technology for the Disabled

• Systems Level
• Individual Level

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Systems Level

• Enhance community integration , independence,
  and productivity by eliminating barriers found in
  large social systems such as public
  transportation, telecommunications, information
  technology, and the built environments.

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Individual Level

• Enhance the physical, sensory, and cognitive
  abilities of people with disabilities and to
  assist them to function more independently in the
  home, at work, in recreational settings, and at
  cultural and religious events.
• We call this assistive technology

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Question

• What is the most popular and widely used
  assistive technology yet created?

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Answer

• Optical -
• Prescription Glasses and Contact Lenses

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Goal of Assistive Technology

• AT enables people with disabilities to be as
  functionally independent as possible.

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What We Do

• Responsible for Department-wide implementation of
  Section 508
• Coordinate Section 508 Compliance Across DHS
• Liaise with 14 Component-level Section 508
  Coordinators each having a dotted line report to
  OAST
• Provide Program Management support
• Accessibility Compliance Management System
• Fully accessible enterprise management system
• 14 databases 17 preformatted reports 5
  repositories
• Used by OAST staff, coordinators, and testers
• Backbone of the DHS Accessibility Help Desk

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DHS Accessibility Help Desk

• Serves as single point of contact for
  disability-related issues
• Processed 2,551 tickets in FY11
• Technical assistance
• Application reviews
• Acquisition reviews
• Document reviews
• IT requests
• Reasonable accommodation requests
• Utilizes multi-tier approach
• Liaise with IT help desks and IT technicians

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Governance/Compliance

• 508 is baked into all DHS IT governance bodies
• ITSGB, ICCB, RAC, ITAR, EACOE, SELC, S/HER, TAF
• Infrastructure Change Control Board
• 4,246 CRs in FY11
• IT Acquisition Review Audit Operations
• OAST responsible for everything over 2.5M
• Components responsible for under 2.5M
• TA-FISMA Section 508 Compliance Audit Program
• Enterprise Architecture and Life Cycle Compliance
• Web Accessibility Remediation Program

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Program Services

• Section 508 Technical Support Program
• Technical assistance
• Program reviews
• IT Application Accessibility Testing Program
• Web, software, COTS/GOTS
• Document Accessibility and Remediation Services
• E-Learning and Multimedia Accessibility Services
• Reasonable Accommodation Support Services

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Program Management

• Office Support (budget, policy, SOPs, asset
  management, etc.)
• Section 508 Training Training Development
• 11 different trainings (online, hands-on,
  classroom)
• Outreach Activities
• Enterprise Applications Support
• ACMS, CS, ECMF, DART
• Computer Training Facility Operations/Support
• 20 computer stations

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Trusted Tester Program

• Purpose
• To expand DHS capability to test applications
• Create consistent reliable compliance testing
  across DHS
• Reduce redundant testing of applications
• Add to DHS Application Test Repository

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Trusted Tester Program

• Evolution of TT Program
• Today Four-day class
• Day 1 SW and Web Technical Standards
• Lecture
• Followed by Quiz
• 70 or better to advance to days 2-4
• Stats 148/154 passed Avg. score 86
• Days 2, 3 and 4 Testing Process
• DHS process and testing tools
• 2.5 days of hands-on testing practice
• Followed by EXAM

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How its going
13 classes (Jan 2011 to Dec 2011) 151 took the
class 121 passed 47 Trusted Testers to date 20
failed
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ACCOE

• Accessibility Compliance Center of Excellence
• Recently chartered to provide DHS IT Program
  Managers (and their teams) with proven best
  practices, guidance, processes and standards,
  workforce training development, and expert
  consultation support for Section 508 compliance
• Roughly 900 IT Programs (Levels 1-4)
• Services include
• Baseline assessments of existing programs
  compliance
• Assistance with preparing SELC artifacts
• Assistance with Market Research, Analysis of
  Alternatives, and Alternative Analysis
• Coordination of accessibility test evaluation
• Training and workforce development

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Section 508 Program Dashboard

• Purpose
• Create ability to formally monitor 14
  Component-level Programs
• Combine 3 different reports into one Dashboard
• Identify key program challenges successes
• Identify opportunities for cross component
  coordination
• If you measure it, it will get done.

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Section 508 Program Dashboard

• Challenges
• How do we measure success of a program?
• What common metrics can we use to track
  performance
• How do we balance expectations between small and
  large components programs?

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Section 508 Program Dashboard

• Report Format
• Metrics based upon requirements for successful
  programs
• Scorecard is divided into three sections
• Program Management
• Governance
• Services
• Information fields are used as indicators of
  Program Readiness and Activity

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Section 508 Program Dashboard

• Program Readiness (Basic infrastructure
  requirements)
• Is there a Complaints Management Plan in place
• Is there a dedicated 508 Coordinator
• Is there a Component-level 508 policy in place
• Is there a Training Plan in place
• Is there an Outreach Plan in place
• Is there a plan for addressing 508 Exceptions
• Are IT Acquisition Review processes in place
• Are 508 requirement imbedded into EA/Lifecycle
  Reviews
• Are OAST approved Testing Processes in place

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Section 508 Program Dashboard

• Indicators of Activity (Provides visibility into
  program activities)
• Number of people trained
• Number of outreach activities conducted
• Number of 508 exceptions reviewed/authorized
• Number of IT acquisitions reviewed under 2.5 M
• Number of TAF systems successfully reporting on
  508
• Number of EA/lifecycle reviews conducted
• Number of IT applications reviewed
• Number of technical assistance requests processed
• Web accessibility scores imported from WARP report

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Section 508 Program Dashboard

• Reporting Scoring
• All plans, policies and processes must be
  approved by OAST before Yes is recorded
• The Program Readiness Score is the percentage of
  Yes/No questions answered affirmatively
• Indicators of Activity come from the OAST
  Accessibility Compliance Management System (ACMS)
• Web Accessibility and TAF scores are imported
  quarterly
• OAST reports on Dashboard quarterly to CIOC

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OAST Highlights

• Established network of 14 Component-level Section
  508 Programs
• Created Accessibility Compliance Management
  System (ACMS)
• Created DHS Accessibility Help Desk
• Established standardized contract language for
  Section 508 (DART)
• Established Department-wide Web Accessibility
  Remediation Program
• Established repeatable, reliable Section 508
  compliance testing procedures
• Established consistent Section 508 compliance
  within DHS Governance processes (ITSGB, ICCB,
  EACOE, ITAR, RAC, SHER, TAF, SELC)
• Established Accessibility Compliance Center of
  Excellence (ACCOE)
• Created DHS Component Section 508 Program
  Dashboard to measure program success

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• Bill Peterson
• 202-447-0304
• bill.peterson_at_dhs.gov