Accessibility for Procurement

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” – Tim Berners-Lee, Inventor of the World Wide Web

Procurement Toolkit

The Accessibility Procurement Toolkit is designed to assist State of Colorado executive branch agencies, excluding the Colorado Department of Education and Colorado Department of Higher Education, in procuring accessible Information and Communications Technology (ICT) vendor products and development services. This Toolkit includes a number of resources to help with the vetting process to ensure you are procuring the most accessible products possible.

Other state agencies and local government entities are more than welcome to use this toolkit as a guide for their own procurement efforts.

Tools

Standard operating guide for procuring accessible IT

• State contract boilerplate language
• Additional accessibility language

Accessibility risk assessments

• Vendor checklist questions
• Risk assessment matrix (Google Sheets)
• Guide to rating
• What happens if a product receives a low rating?

Vendor letter template

Additional resources

• Accessibility Procurement Toolkit (Google Doc)
• Strategies for Procuring Accessible IT (Google Slides)
• Understanding an Accessibility Compliance Report (Google Slides)
• Alternative Product Accessibility Template (APAT) (Google Doc)

Definitions to know

• WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) covers a wide range of recommendations for making web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content more accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities and address accessibility of web content, including websites, applications, documents, etc., on desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices. The State of Colorado is required to follow the current release version of the WCAG guidelines at both levels A and AA.
• VPAT: A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) is used to identify whether a product is WCAG compliant for every success criteria element of the guidelines. It uses a table structure that shows the linked success criteria, whether the product passes, partially passes, or fails each success criteria, and a notes column to incur details on what might be failing (or partially failing) and sometimes a timeline or details for when the issue will be fixed.
• HB 21-1110: House Bill 21-1110 requires all Colorado government entities to be compliant with OIT’s accessibility standards by July 1, 2024. The bill also states that a statutory fine not to exceed three thousand five hundred dollars would be payable to each plaintiff for each violation. 
• SB 23-244: Senate Bill 23-244 allows OIT to promulgate, or create, rules around accessibility. These rules can include a number of things that help clarify the original HB21-1110 statute.
• ADA: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, State and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications. It also applies to digital technology.
• ICT: Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is defined as a diverse set of technological tools and resources used to transmit, store, create, share or exchange information.

For additional definitions, please view the definitions outlined in OIT’s accessibility technical standards.

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