Just 3 percent of agency solicitations for electronic and information
technologies met accessibility standards called for under the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973 — designed to ensure federal employees and others with
disabilities are able to use government information, OMB has said
following a recent assessment by GSA.
OMB said agencies were not adequately incorporating applicable standards
in their solicitations under section 508 of the act. It called on CAOs
and CIOs to review their procurement and IT acquisition policies and
procedures to validate that the section 508 standards are appropriately
considered and clearly stated in solicitation documents.
It also recommended that CAOs consider sampling and amending procurements
containing electronic and information technology, as well as using GSA’s
criteria in that sampling effort.
If GSA finds no mention of section 508 in a solicitation, it’s coded red,
while solicitations that mention section 508 requirements that generally
apply to product, labor hour or information content deliverables are
scored as yellow, and when broad sections and or specific provisions
of the access board standards are included the solicitation is scored
green, OMB said.
