Digital Accessibility Compliance Platform

The Vendor is required to provide a comprehensive, cloud-based digital accessibility compliance platform and related professional services.
- The city requires both continuous web accessibility monitoring and document accessibility review and remediation as core components of the proposed solution.
- Accessibility platform requirements
1. Automated accessibility scanning
•    Weekly automated scans (or on demand) for stpete.org and city microsites.
•    Ability to scan public-facing html pages, templates, and components.
•    Ability to detect violations under WCAG 2.1 AA (minimum) and 2.2 AA (preferred).
•    Color contrast testing, aria validation, heading structure, keyboard access, and form validation checks.
•    Identification of repetitive issues across templates and components.
•    Historical tracking of issues and improvements.
2. Manual testing support
•    Manual testing workflows
•    Assistive technology testing guidance
•    Support for screen reader testing protocols
•    Ability to tag issues, assign tasks, and track remediation progress
•    Workflow tools that allow administrators to assign flagged issues to specific SMEs or departments
•    Status tracking, comments, and notifications for assigned tasks
3. PDF and document accessibility
•    Manual testing workflows
•    Assistive technology testing guidance
•    Support for screen reader testing protocols
•    Ability to tag issues, assign tasks, and track remediation progress
•    Workflow tools that allow administrators to assign flagged issues to specific SMEs or departments
•    Status tracking, comments, and notifications for assigned tasks
4. PDF and document accessibility
•    Automated pdf scanning for accessibility errors
•    Bulk upload and batch processing (preferred)
•    Ability to provide hands-on pdf remediation services or clearly defined remediation workflows, including tagging, structure correction, reading order, form fields, and table remediation
•    Clear distinction between issues that can be remediated within the platform versus those requiring professional services
•    Option vendor-performed remediation services for high-volume or high-risk documents
•    Ability to re-test remediated documents and verify conformance
•    Training for editors on accessible documents
5. Reporting and dashboards
•    Citywide accessibility status
•    Department-level reporting
•    Historical trends
•    High-risk issues
•    Compliance scoring
•    Role-based dashboards that limit visibility by department, website, or assigned responsibility
•    Ability for administrators to view all sites and issues, while individual departments only see their content
•    Exportable reports for executive leadership, HR, and legal
•    Ability to generate reports for DOJ readiness, including audit trails
•    Identification of outdated or low-value content to support archival or removal decisions as part of accessibility risk reduction
6. Broken links, spelling, and quality checks (optional but preferred)
•    Broken link monitoring
•    Misspelling detection
•    Page inventory summaries
•    Heat-maps, analytics, and low-traffic pages to support content lifecycle management
- Document authoring and office file support
1. The platform and vendor services must support accessibility guidance for non-pdf documents, including Microsoft word, PowerPoint, excel and similar authoring tools, prior to export or publication
•    Accessibility checks or guidance for word and PowerPoint files
•    Best-practice authoring guidance for headings, tables, lists, links and images
•    Training and reference materials specific to document authors
•    Validation workflows to reduce accessibility errors before documents are converted to pdf
2. Accessible templates and design resources (preferred)
•    Microsoft word templates
•    Microsoft PowerPoint templates
•    Accessible pdf starter templates
•    Accessible Canva templates for brochures, flyers, booklets and social media graphics
•    Meet WCAG 2.1 level aa requirements
•    Include built-in heading structures, color contrast, and reading order
•    Be accompanied by usage guidance for staff
•    Be customizable to align with city branding standards
•    Be editable by non-technical staff without breaking accessibility
- Third-party platform evaluation and support
•    Review accessibility conformance documentation
•    Provide accessibility risk assessments for mission-critical services
•    Identify barriers affecting high-demand workflows (bill pay, permits, job applications, public records requests, etc.)
•    Ability to identify accessibility issues related to embedded content and iframes, including third-party widgets and services, and clearly distinguish between city-controlled and vendor-controlled issues
•    Recommend mitigation options
•    Assist with development of contract language for accessibility
•    Ability to document third-party accessibility risks and mitigation decisions for audit and legal defensibility
- Digital accessibility governance and policy development
•    Digital accessibility policy
•    Website and content standards
•    Software accessibility evaluation procedures
•    Editorial guidelines for content creators
•    Accessibility conformance review framework (VPAT review guidance)
•    Remediation sops for departments
•    Guidance for integrating accessibility expectations into department-level technology selection
- Training and capacity building
•    Accessibility fundamentals (WCAG 2.1 level aa)
•    Training for all website editors and content contributors
•    Training for it and developers (if applicable)
•    Pdf and document accessibility
•    Ada and legal-focused training on risk reduction
•    LMS-style, self-paced training modules with lesson tracking, quizzes, and certificates of completion
•    Training for users on how to manage assigned issues and navigate department-level dashboards.