The five-page report, “Accessibility and Procurement 101: Checklist,” released Wednesday, offers a practical framework for procurement and IT teams, from considering accessibility from the start of a project to reviewing vendor deliverables.
The checklist breaks accessibility into 10 steps, beginning with policy and planning — making the case for accessibility, setting expectations and training staff. It then focuses on procurement itself: updating templates, defining requirements, researching vendors and validating products before final acceptance. The final steps emphasize long-term accountability through remediation, monitoring and ongoing improvement.
The update comes after accessibility made its first appearance as a NASCIO Top 10 CIO priority, on the organization’s “State CIO Top Ten Policy and Technology Priorities for 2025,” released in December 2024 — and arrives as governments are readying for federal accessibility requirement deadlines.
Under a 2024 final rule issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), all state and local government websites and mobile apps will need to adhere to federal Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA — requiring, generally, accessibility for all government content. Large jurisdictions with more than 50,000 residents need to comply by April 24, 2026, while smaller and special district governments have an April 26, 2027, deadline.
In its final rule document, the DOJ described accessible web content as essential to equal participation in government, and said it is the digital equivalent of ensuring everyone can enter a public building.
NASCIO’s checklist aligns federal mandates to state-level implementation. It outlines steps such as developing clear accessibility policies, training procurement staff, assessing vendors’ accessibility documentation and ensuring testing before final acceptance. It was written by Kalea Young-Gibson, NASCIO policy analyst, with support from Marie Cohan, Texas statewide digital accessibility program administrator, and John Estill, Michigan’s digital information accessibility coordinator.
“Building accessibility into the procurement and purchasing life cycle ensures that vendors deliver solutions usable by everyone,” the authors wrote. Accessibility, they noted also supports legal compliance and risk reduction, while encouraging vendors to design inclusively from the outset.
