Helen Chamberlain Office of Governmentwide Policy IT Accessibility

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detail on what is shown on slide.
General Services Administration
Section 508 and the Buy Accessible Wizard
Helen ChamberlainOffice of Governmentwide
PolicyIT Accessibility Workforce Division
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Why Section 508 is 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 is the Buy Accessible Wizard?

• The Buy Accessible Wizard is a web-based
  application 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 Wizard makes compliance with
  the requirements of Section 508 as easy and
  thorough as possible

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Getting Started

• Anyone can be a guest user on the public Wizard
  hosted at GSA but in addition with Wizard 3.0
• 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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The New Wizard 3.0 Functionality

• Additional support for the task of solicitation
  documentation, along with
• significant usability and security enhancements.
• For registered agency users Wizard 3.0 provides
  enhanced support for
• user authentication, and

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The New Wizard 3.0 Functionality

• user partitioning for data visibility (i.e.
  establishing data sharing groups), as well as for
  aggregate data management and reporting.
• Note also that Buy Accessible System Release 3.0
  will have Security CA from GSA.

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System Release 3 offers significant enhancements
over the current production Release 2
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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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Making the Most of New Features

• Simplified Search easier access to vendor
  provided information
• Usability enhancements for access to the Buy
  Accessible Data Center

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Making the Most of New Features

• Secure Wizard Data Storage getting started with
  agency registration
• Users save Wizard data to agency-specific
  database at GSA
• Secure, re-usable, and share-able
• Agencies manage users and aggregate user data
• Individual user id and password, Management
  reporting agency usage
• What can you do to help your agency prepare?

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Enhanced Reporting

• Solicitation Documentation using the GPAT and
  Wizard suggested solicitation language
• Screen shots illustrating new capabilities
• Slide 6 GPAT
• Slide 7 detailed solicitation checklist items
• Program Need, Product Requirements, Service
  Requirements, Evaluation Factors, and deliverable
  Acceptance Criteria
• Slides 8 summary solicitation checklist and
  documentation reporting options
• Slide 9 suggested language in Solicitation
  Template

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Simplified Search

• Easier access to vendor provided information
• Usability enhancements for access to the Buy
  Accessible Data Center
• Screen shots illustrating new capabilities
• Slide 11 simplified keyword and category display
• Slide 12 refine search by category
• Select category displays sub-categories or
  launches search
• Slide 13 search results for market research
  review
• Slide 14 market research documentation

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Secure Wizard Data Storage

• Getting started with agency registration what
  can you do?
• Screen shots illustrating new capabilities
• Slide 16 guest or registered user login screen
• Slide 17 registered user MyBuyAccessible
  console with saved sessions and shared data from
  group members
• Slide 18 agency administrator use(r) metrics

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What Can You Do to Prepare 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

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What Can You Do to Prepare for R3?

• Decide who are the Wizard users in your agency to
  be registered
• 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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What Can You Do to Prepare for R3?

• Decide if the Wizard user base should be
  organized in 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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What Can You Do to Prepare 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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Be Our Guest for a Test Drive

• We invite you to test drive the latest version of
  the Buy Accessible Wizard system (Release 3). To
  access the beta version of the Buy Accessible
  Wizard Release 3 go to http//buyaccessible.net/ba
  w/ and use the Guest Access login provided on the
  home page.

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Thank you

• Production Wizard and Data Center
• http//www.buyaccessible.gov
• Buy Accessible Testbed
• Wizard 3.1 at http//buyaccessible.net/baw3.1
• 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