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This Presentation is printed on

recycled materials

U.S. General Services Administration

General Services Administration

Policy, the Procurement Process, the Buy Accessible Wizard, and Purchasing Section

508 Compliant Products & Services

Policy, the Procurement Process, the Buy Accessible Wizard, and Purchasing Section

508 Compliant Products & Services

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 (EIT) acquisitions of products and services.

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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!

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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 market research to determine Section 508 requirements, 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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How Long can you wait for Section 508 Compliance?

1010

How Well Are Federal Agencies Implementing Section 508?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Oct-09 Nov-09 Dec-09 Jan-10 Feb-10 Mar-10 Apr-10 May-10 Jun-10 Jul-10 Aug-10 Sep-10

FY10 - Combined Civilian and DoD Monthly Solicitation Results

x.x% G/Y CombinedFY 2010

Goal

1111

How Well Are Federal Agencies Implementing Section 508?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

FY07 FY08 FY09 FY10

Solicitation Assessment Progress (FY 07, FY08, FY09, FY10 to date)

83.1% 75.3% 52.8%

10.3% 6.5% 7.4%

15.4%17.3%

31.7%

53.6%

28.7%

17.7%

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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

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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? 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

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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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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

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The New and Improved Buy Accessible

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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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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

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It’s the BLOB!!!!!!

No, it’s the new Section 508 Blog

http://buyaccessible.net/blog.

Stop by and take a look!

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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

Buy Accessible Wizard Demo

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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

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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

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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

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New FeaturesSolicitation 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

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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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Simplified SearchEasier 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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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 Quick Links

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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.

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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

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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