Federal technology development lacking initial accessibility may lead to potential issues
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Office of Inspector General recently conducted a review on the compliance of its IT systems with federal accessibility standards under Section 508. The review focused on the process involved in ensuring that the VA was procuring IT equipment and communication technologies in compliance with Section 508.
The review sampled 30 systems that the VA had acquired in recent years, focusing on critical or bedrock systems. However, it was found that the VA's Section 508 Compliance Office was not involved in the procurement process, a concern raised during a previous review. This lack of involvement led to a reliance on vendors' statements for 508 compliance, without verification.
As a result, many of the systems failed the 508 compliance check after the fact, once the 508 Office reviewed it after they had already obtained it. The review found that simply including the provisions in the solicitation was not sufficient to ensure compliance.
The focus of the review was to see what steps were taken during the procurement process to ensure that they are acquiring the most 508-compliant products available at the outset. It is crucial to get the 508 Office involved on the front end, not just checking on the back end to see if you're compliant, but building 508 compliance requirements on the front end to ensure compliance.
If systems are found to be incompatible or have accessibility issues after procurement, it requires a lot of work from system owners and program offices to fix the issues, which may result in additional costs. Now, it's on the system owners to get the issue fixed, which generally means they would have to go back to the vendor to fix what needs to be compliant.
To improve compliance, the VA could have reduced the risk of acquiring inaccessible technologies by improving communication, coordination, training, and understanding of roles and responsibilities. Federal agencies commonly face challenges in ensuring Section 508 compliance for their IT systems, but they can mitigate these challenges by adopting systematic accessibility testing, integrating accessibility requirements into procurement and development workflows, providing ongoing training for staff, and utilizing available compliance tools and checklists to guide remediation efforts.
Four out of the 30 sampled IT systems met federal accessibility standards under Section 508. Four recommendations were made to the VA, including training for staff, clarifying roles and responsibilities in policy, ensuring future procurements are communicated with the 508 Office, and collaboration between the 508 Office and the Office of Acquisition and Logistics to implement procedures for compliance. The VA has agreed to implement the recommendations, with some progress already made, such as coordinating training offerings for acquisition staff and outlining duties in the policy handbook.
The federal workforce needs to reimagine its approach towards Section 508 compliance, particularly in the procurement process of technology. To achieve this, improving communication, coordination, training, and understanding of roles and responsibilities within the workforce is crucial.
Systematically integrating accessibility testing into procurement and development workflows, ensuring the 508 Office's involvement on the front end, and providing ongoing training for staff can help federal agencies, such as the VA, mitigate the challenges in ensuring Section 508 compliance for their IT systems.
