You've just received an urgent call from a contracting officer. Her agency wants to buy your AV products, but needs to comply with Section 508, the new law that requires the federal government to buy electronic and information technology for use by disabled federal employees and accessible to disabled citizens. You want to help the contracting officer, but you already know that you shouldn't certify in blank that your products are Section 508 compliant. Section 508 compliance is for the agency to decide -- and, in any event, depends on how the agency uses your product. What do you do?
Previously we discussed how Section 508 was affecting both contractor and agency procurement activities. Now let's delve into the some of the details of how to respond to an agency's request for help in determining whether Section 508 applies to a procurement.
While a contractor's responsibility under Section 508 is primarily informational in advising the agency which of the contractor's products are compliant with what Section 508 technical standards, just telling a contracting officer just to go look at your Web site, or handing him some product literature, may not be enough. Your competitors who are more skilled and versed in the ways of handling a request for help on Section 508 compliance may result in your loss of a sale.
Yes, compliance with Section 508 is the agency's responsibility, and yes, your Web site discusses the features of your products that provide assistive technology, but you need to be sensitive to the agency's need for Section 508 assistance. Remember, your customer's problems are your problems, too.
First, talk to the customer. Find out about the customer's mission and about how your company's products will be used. If the customer is a defense or intelligence agency and the products will be used in intelligence, cryptologic, command and control, or weapons system activities, the national security exception will apply and exempt the procurement from compliance with Section 508. Or perhaps the products will be used primarily in areas used for the maintenance of systems, which is another exception. Unless you communicate with the customer, you will not be in a position to help them.
Second, help the procurement officer understand how your product works. Contracting officers buy a wide variety of equipment and will not necessarily understand your equipment as well as a user. Once understanding how your products works in the field, the contracting officer may determine that compliance with Section 508 is not required because it would pose an undue burden on the agency, which is defined as "significant difficulty or expense." Included as an undue burden is the "fundamental alteration" exemption, which states that a product is not required to conform to a specific technical standard when to do so would require a "fundamental alteration" of the nature of product or its components.
As an example of the fundamental alteration exception, the regulations describe a handheld wireless small screen device used for mobile operations. The small screen as produced for the commercial marketplace does not meet the Section 508 technical standards for visual acuity. In fact, the small screen would not pass Section 508 muster even with improvements in its resolution.
However, to enlarge the small screen to a larger screen would defeat the purpose of deploying a handheld wireless mobile device, since the enlargement of the screen would make the device less than mobile. Thus, even though the small screen device falls with the definition of EIT and within the limits of the technical standards and provisions promulgated to enforce Section 508, the acquisition of the handheld wireless small screen device would be exempt under the fundamental alteration exception.
Third, conduct your own market research about the accessibility features of products in your industry. An agency is required to purchase a commercial item that conforms to Section 508 standards only if such a product is commercially available or will be available within the time required by the agency. Accordingly, the agency must determine whether any products that meet the identified applicable standards are commercially available. Providing your market research to agency officials could assist them in ascertaining commercial availability of products compliant with Section 508.
Back to Part One
