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Re: RFP Boilerplate for Accessibility

for

From: Ryan E. Benson
Date: Jan 23, 2019 9:30PM

I have experience with the other side of the isle. Unless the COR calls my
team in to help with the selection process, most of the people are left in
the dark. From the perspective of replying to an RFP, generally speaking
you should outline what you can do and what you can't. When I see vendor
proposals, I have seen people who essentially can't spell 508 (or
accessibility), to providing 15 pages of fluff, to their approach to making
something accessible is to run some automated software, to know the basics,
to actually go beyond the letter of the law.

Honestly if I saw the same company state the exact same thing for two
different RFPs, I'd flag it as a caution to the internal review.

Ryan E. Benson


On Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 23:15 Peter Shikli < <EMAIL REMOVED> wrote:

> 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
>
> > > > >