{"id":73627,"date":"2025-11-12T17:10:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/?p=73627"},"modified":"2025-11-12T17:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:12:14","slug":"nascio-accessibility-procurement-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/nascio-accessibility-procurement-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"How states can make IT procurements accessibility-friendly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The National Association of State Chief Information Officers on Wednesday published a guide designed to help states ensure that \u201caccessibility is covered in all stages of the procurement life cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascio.org\/resource-center\/resources\/accessibility-and-procurement-101\/\">five-page guide<\/a> contains 10 steps designed to further a priority that has <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/accessibility-nascio-state-priority-2025\/\">grown in importance<\/a> in recent months among states\u2019 top technology leaders. Accessibility last year entered the association\u2019s annual list of technology priorities, which is based on a survey of its membership. The growing emphasis on accessibility in states could be a result of next April\u2019s Department of Justice deadline, which requires state and local governments to make their websites and other digital properties <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/government-web-accessibility-deadline\/\">adhere to accessibility standards<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The guide, which was authored by Kalea Young-Gibson, NASCIO\u2019s policy analyst, advises technology leaders first to \u201cbuild the case for accessibility,\u201d perform market research and validate product accessibility, along with seven other steps. In a recent interview, Young-Gibson said that procurement is an important aspect of states\u2019 accessibility pursuits, noting that the DOJ guidance will also penalize vendors for compliance failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDOJ has broad authority to investigate complaints,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can mandate remediations, issue legal findings and also file lawsuits against noncompliant entities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASCIO issued <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nascio.org\/resource-center\/resources\/accessibility-in-it-procurement-part-1\/\">a similar, two-part guide<\/a> a decade ago, when adherence to the Americans with Disabilities Act was far more scarce online. NASCIO\u2019s 2015 guide shows that while most states at the time were mentioning to vendors the need to meet accessibility standards, the approach was only \u201cmarginally successful.\u201d Government has long been asking for accessibility, but technology firms hadn\u2019t yet developed products to meet that demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt&#8217;s not something that anyone can really ignore anymore,\u201d Young-Gibson said. \u201cThe general consensus is <em>yes, this is good, we need it, we understand why.<\/em> But states are still in very different places when it comes to the how and the what.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Young-Gibson acknowledged that funding is a perennial challenge for states hoping to instate accessibility changes to their vast IT enterprises. NASCIO\u2019s most recent annual report, <a href=\"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/nascio-2025-annual-survey\/\">published last month<\/a>, noted that many states are expected to miss full compliance by next April. But she said the advice in the 2025 version of the guide can be followed \u201cwithout doing too many drastic changes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new guide from NASCIO offers states tips and tweaks to ensure their IT purchases meet upcoming Department of Justice requirements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":205,"featured_media":65282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4677],"tags":[136,234,699,5550,25989,25990],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[4696],"class_list":["post-73627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","tag-guide","tag-nascio","tag-research","tag-accessibility","tag-publication","tag-kalea-young-gibson","author-colin-wood"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium 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