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Disability Inclusion · Strategic leadership
Build accessibility into what the agency buys, builds, publishes and approves, so barriers are prevented at the contract and the charter instead of discovered at launch.
48–56 minutes · 5 lessons · Voluntary learning
See how a single inaccessible system can lock people out of a job, a benefit, a class or a public meeting, and why the leaders who approve technology own that outcome.
Learn what a solicitation must require, what evidence to ask for, how to read a vendor’s conformance claims, and what remedies the contract needs.
Decide what to do when a product under contract turns out to be inaccessible, using a learning platform that cannot be navigated by keyboard as the case.
Place accessibility requirements, testing and sign-off at the right stages of a project so retrofits become rare, and see what it costs when they are not.
Set the policy language and the content process requirements so documents, forms, communications and rules are accessible when created, not repaired afterward.
Pull the last technology or content solicitation issued in your area. Check it for the standard, the evidence required and the remedies. Send what is missing to procurement and the accessibility lead with a request to update the template.
Most of the technology and content staff and the public use every day was bought or approved by someone with the authority to require accessibility and no habit of doing so. This course is about building that habit into the agency’s systems: solicitations, contracts, vendor evaluation, technology selection, project governance and content processes. It works through a realistic decision about a learning platform that cannot be used by keyboard, and it shows how accessibility written in early costs a fraction of what a retrofit costs later. You will leave with contract and charter language you can use.
Standard, evidence, remedy. Impact, contract, interim access, prevention.
Keep the questions that prevent barriers at hand when approving a purchase, a project gate, a rule or a template.
Check your area’s solicitation template and project approval template for the standard, the evidence, the remedy and a criterion at every gate.
Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
Federal guidance on writing accessibility requirements into solicitations, evaluating conformance reports and managing vendor accountability.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and their conformance levels, the technical standard named in most procurements.
Guidance on evaluation, including the value of involving users with disabilities throughout a project.
The Section 508 standards for information and communication technology that many state requirements follow.
The State of Minnesota accessibility standard and resources for state agencies, including procurement and content guidance.
Department of Justice guidance that state and local government web content must be accessible to people with disabilities.