“This has been a topic of discussion for a long time,” Robinson said. “The recognition here is that state governments really have not had a focused plan or approach to address accessiblity requirements as part of IT procurement. It’s been isolated and not done universally. We want to use this as an opportunity to connect the dots between enterprise architecture, PDAA and procurement done in a strategic way.”
This announcement serves both to inform state government that this is an area of need, Robinson said, but also to drive accessibility in the marketplace.
The four-page brief outlines the problem facing accessibility in IT, explains that PDAA provides a framework for including accessibility in IT planning and explains why IT accessibility is important. About 19 percent of the population has disabilities, the report states, meaning that IT resources not conforming to accessibility standards may be inaccessible to millions of users. The report also outlines challenges state government will face in their approach of PDAA.
The second part of the brief, to be released in August, will describe the components of PDAA and explore case studies of states that have experience using the approach.