Hackathon generates Section 508 resources, playbook for agencies to use

The Office of Science and Technology Policy and the General Services Administration’s 18F innovation team joined other technology-focused groups in a March 31 hackathon focused on accessiblity, according to a White House blog post.

Along with the National Institute on Disablity, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research and DC Legal Hackers, OSTP and 18F focused on solving digital accessiblity problems facing government and the private sector.

One of the solutions developed by a group from 18F is a Section 508 Procurement Playbook, a set of guidelines that can help agencies evaluate potential contracts and contractors to ensure that they comply with the requirements of Section 508 of the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

“Unlike most hackathons, which are focused primarily on tech tools and solutions, this event also included a policy hackathon breakout which gave many of the government and civil society policy experts an opportunity to discuss existing policies and potential areas for improvement,” the blog post said. “The policy breakout group developed next steps including a proposed summit to dive deeper into these issues. Additional breakouts offered hands-on demos of tools and systems that government and non-government teams had created.”

To continue in the spirit of collaboration started at the hackathon, 18F shared a set of accessiblity resources and tools that were developed at the event, which can be accessed by the public.

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