IT Accessibility Policy Framework - How to Identify Policies

How to Identify Policies That Should Incorporate ICT Accessibility

The IT Accessibility Policy Framework provides guidance to agencies on how to evaluate internal policies to improve the integration of Section 508 requirements.¹ An agency may have hundreds of internal policies, including federal policies relevant to the agency, as well as policies that support the implementation of government-wide directives. This section describes how to identify policies at your agency that should incorporate references to ICT accessibility.

The IT Accessibility Policy Framework recommends focusing review on the following policy types, based on relevance to ICT accessibility. The following section, Guidance by Policy Type, provides guidance on how to facilitate a policy review across each of the below policy types:

• Acquisition and Procurement
• Administrative Services
• Budget and Finance
• Communications
• Emergency Response
• Human Resources Management
• Information Technology Services
• Legal
• Real Property Management

Similarly, the following ICT accessibility-related policies have been identified as foundational to Section 508 and should be in place within every agency.

• ICT accessibility policy that ties accessibility to agency mission.
• Policy that establishes the Section 508 PM role and Section 508 Program.
• Policy that establishes methods or approaches for incorporating accessibility in ICT development processes, including Section 508 conformance validation.
• Policy that establishes Section 508/ICT accessibility in acquisitions and procurement.
• Policy that establishes Section 508 in content creation and publishing.
• Policy that establishes onboarding and annual ICT accessibility training.

Importantly, these foundational policies do not need to be standalone policies. Rather, they could be, and may already be, incorporated into other relevant policies at your agency.
The following policy types are not generally recommended for review as the corresponding subject matter may not have relevance to ICT accessibility.²

• Congressional Relations
• Federal Laws and Guidance

¹ICT Standards and Guidelines, 36 C.F.R. § 1194 (2017).
²The IT Accessibility Policy Framework is intended to be used for remediation of
policies that apply to the internal functions of your agency. While it could also be
used to remediate policies that apply governmentwide, that is not its
intended purpose.