A11y Benchmarking Tool

Organization Accessibility Benchmarking Tool Initiative 

IAAP is exploring the development and implication of an accessibility benchmarking tool for organizations through a SME taskforce.  The IAAP SME Network will be reviewing if a tool can be packaged and deployed to organizations to empower them to create accessible infrastructures that will be compliant with accessibility rules and guidelines as well as ready to hire persons with disabilities.

Scope of Initiative

Currently, organizations have laws, guidelines and maturity models to guide them in the direction of an organization that is digitally and functionally accessible.  These are all complex, hard to understand and rely heavily on accessibility vendors to help make decisions.  There are also a variety of indexes that give organizations ideas about how to look at their internal accessibility and put programs into place.  The goal of the committee is to expand on the work of indexes that are currently being used in the accessibility field and ensure disability rights consumer organizations are integrated throughout the lifecycle process.  

Dan Goldstein, Esq. has created a tool that was done in collaboration with disability organizations and is meant to be a tool that measures corporate inclusivity of persons with disabilities both as customers and employees.  The benchmarking system is a checklist in three levels: silver, gold and platinum, that gives organizations the ability to know exactly what they need to do to make their organization accessible for persons with disabilities.  This allows them to procure differently from vendors in that they know what they need to do, and they can understand what they are asking vendors to do.  This level the procurement playing field and helps to make sense of quoted cost.

The hoped-for outcome of this system would be organizations that are ready to hire persons with disabilities and do business with persons with disabilities.  Currently there is no other system out there that fills this gap.

Current Objectives:

• Discussion of the tool in its current state and any updates, changes or additions 
• Discussion of the viability of use for organizations 
• How to package the tool for use 
• Discussion on it being a standalone tool or how it may relate to other tools already in use 
• Discussion and recommendation on the tool maintenance and future updating 
• Discussion of the role of vendors and how to vet them- a certified vendor community 
• Discussion of a certificate of completion for organizations that have completed the process 
• Discussion of a reporting process to show completion 

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