Play 6: Collaborate with the Federal Accessibility Community

A strong and successful Section 508 Program is not built in isolation. Collaborating with federal partners helps your agency benchmark progress, adopt proven best practices, and tap into shared resources. Governmentwide engagement can strengthen your program’s maturity, efficiency, and impact. Depending on your agency’s size and capacity, community collaboration may also open the door to shared services—and potential cost savings for everyone involved.

Key Questions

Are you actively involved in interagency forums on technology accessibility?
In what ways do you engage with Section 508 Program Managers from other federal agencies to exchange and develop best practices?
How has collaboration helped advance the maturity or performance of your Section 508 Program and reduce implementation costs of accessibility activities?

Checklist

Table 1: Play 6 Checklist
Item	Actions
	Include your agencywide Section 508 Program Manager in policy reviews: Route incoming draft interagency IT-related or acquisition-related directives—such as from OMB or GSA—to your Section 508 Program Manager for input. Ensure your Section 508 Program Manager is listed as a required reviewer for ICT-related policy reviews and responses.
	Be an early adopter of governmentwide Section 508 initiatives. Dedicate resources to pilot implementation and provide feedback for improvement on best practices guidance. Adopt and share standardized testing methodologies, such as DHS Trusted Tester. Use and contribute to interagency testing results and tools, including the ICT Accessibility Testing Baseline.
	Subscribe to the Section 508 and IT Accessibility Community Listserv to connect with peers, share information, and get support for your accessibility questions and initiatives. Share your program's progress and successes by submitting proposals to present at recurring federal events, such as the bi-monthly Section 508 Program Manager Huddle, IT Accessibility Community Meetings, and the Section 508 Best practices Webinar Series. Collaborate with event organizers to sponsor, co-host or present at larger gatherings like the Interagency Accessibility Forum (IAAF). To the extent possible, collaborate with others. Attend external digital accessibility events and conferences to network and exchange ideas with federal colleagues and industry experts.
	Share digital accessibility news and tips across your agency. Subscribe to and share news and event information available in the Section 508 IT Accessibility Newsletter. Subscribe via GovDelivery. Subscribe to and share accessibility tips available from the Accessibility Bytes newsletter. Subscribe via GovDelivery.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

This section outlines Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track and measure accessibility testing, remediation, and overall Section 508 conformance across web, intranet, and enterprise ICT solutions.

Generic KPI: In FY2X, conduct outreach to at least X# of disability-related advocacy organizations to garner feedback and incorporate into agency policies, process and standard procedures.

Generic KPI: By FY2X, ensure that at least XX% of all ICT related shared services fully conform to applicable Section 508 standards.