WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: wording for accessible design in RFP

for

From: Mark Magennis
Date: Jun 28, 2011 3:57AM


James,

The Accessible ICT Procurement Toolkit (www.universaldesign.ie/useandsupply/ict/itprocurementtoolkit) gives suggested text for including in RFPs, which it calls Requests for Tender (RFTs). You'll find it in the 'Writing an RFT' section. It has different texts for different technologies, including websites. It's aimed at the Irish public sector but should be equally relevant to you too. Make sure you cover everything in your RFP, not just the accessibility of the website content. For example, if you're getting a content management system with your website, you'll want to specify that it should produce accessible code and possibly also be accessible to any content managers with disabilities, so you'll be talking abut ATAG compliance as well as WCAG or 508. You might also consider specifying a universal design process for the development, including stages of user input and user testing involving people with disabilities. All this is included in the Procurement Toolkit which cove
rs the whole procurement process, from writing an RFP, through development, implementation and ongoing maintenance. Accessibility is affected by every stage and they can all be addressed in the RFP.

Mark

Dr. Mark Magennis
Director of the Centre for Inclusive Technology (CFIT)
NCBI Working for people with sight loss
Whitworth Road, Dublin 9, Republic of Ireland

Tel: +353 (0)1 882 1956
Skype: markncbi
Web: www.cfit.ie



On Jun 27, 2011, at 9:17 AM, James L Bailey wrote:

> My school is a blend of in-house web design and using off-campus
> contractors. We want to add language to our RFPs that include the
> requirement for accessible web design. Does anyone have suggestions?
>


NCBI: Celebrating 80 Years

********************************************************************
National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) is a company
limited by guarantee (registered in Ireland No. 26293) .
Our registered office is at Whitworth Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
NCBI is also a registered Charity (chy4626).

NOTICE: The information contained in this email and any attachments
is confidential and may be privileged. If you are not the intended
recipient you should not use, disclose, distribute or copy any of
the content of it or of any attachment; you are requested to notify
the sender immediately of your receipt of the email and then to
delete it and any attachments from your system.

NCBI endeavours to ensure that emails and any attachments generated
by its staff are free from viruses or other contaminants. However,
it cannot accept any responsibility for any such which are
transmitted. We therefore recommend you scan all attachments.

Please note that the statements and views expressed in this email
and any attachments are those of the author and do not necessarily
represent the views of NCBI


********************************************************************