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RFP Boilerplate for Accessibility

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From: Peter Shikli
Date: Jan 23, 2019 9:05PM

Coming our way was yet another case of an agency paying for a website
that turned out to be inaccessible.  The audit and remediation business
is good, but I have to empathize with the procurement folks catching
management wrath.

Like many RFPs, theirs left it to the vendor to claim that they were
accessible, and nothing more.  Since interpretation of standards like
WCAG can be subjective, particularly for procurement folks untrained in
the subject, and the vendor can always later claim an accessibility
complaint was caused by staff content -- or that the website was
accessible when they delivered but no longer.  Lots of easy wiggle room.

I googled around looking for website procurement instructions to avoid
this all too common outcome, something accessibility professionals
helped write, something that could be added to RFP boilerplate.  I found
nothing.  Has anyone ever heard of something like that?

Cheers,
Peter Shikli
Access2online
A Division of Bizware Online Applications, Inc.
29030 SW Town Center Loop East
Suite 202-187
Wilsonville, OR 97070
503-570-6831 - <EMAIL REMOVED>
Cell: 949-677-3705
FAX: 503-582-8337
www.access2online.com
Prison inmates helping websites become accessible