Accessibility audit for website and intranet

Tender description

Summary of the work Review external website and internal intranet for compliance against WCAG 2.1 (level AA). Provide a report of the work required to address any areas of non-compliance, including an assessment of where corrections would constitute a “disproportionate burden”. Reassess once corrective action taken. Expected Contract Length 1-2 months Latest start date Monday 4 March 2019 Why the Work is Being Done To understand how compliant our website and intranet are with WCAG 2.1 (AA) regulations so we can plan the work required to meet the compliance deadlines Problem to Be Solved Reviewing external website and internal intranet to identify areas of non-compliance with WCAG 2.1 (AA). Identifying work that will need to be carried out across the board to fixes issues. This will include an assessment of where corrections would constitute a “disproportionate burden”. Reviewing corrective action to ensure compliance following the audit. Who Are the Users Intranet: internal staff, needing to access information so they can carry out their day to day roles. Website: a) police forces and fire and rescue services, to find out information about performance so that they can make improvements. b) the public, to find out information about their local force and service performance Work Already Done On the website - new functions are built in accordance with WCAG guidelines. Internal work on ensuring PDF reports published on the website are compliant with WCAG guidelines. Existing Team Digital communications manager will manage access for the third party, and deal with day-to-day issues. Digital manager will provide escalation, and the SRO is the deputy chief operating officer. No further internal resources are anticipated to be needed. Current Phase Not applicable Skills & Experience • Thorough knowlege of WCAG guidelines and how to apply them • Evidence and experience over a period of 2 or more years of testing websites and intranets for accessibility compliance • Evidence and experience over a period of 2 or more years of carrying out testing with people with a range of accessibility requirements • Evidence and experience over a period of 2 or more years of assessing pages for usability through assistive technology • Evidence and experience over a period of 2 or more years of WCAG 2.0 Accreditation • Evidence and experience over a period of 2 or more years of providing designers and developers with accessibility advice Work Location No physical location as systems can be accessed remotely. If required, space could be made available in the London office, in Victoria (subject to security clearance). Working Arrangments To be agreed between HMICFRS and the successful supplier. Security Clearance CTC clearance required, as intranet includes content that is classified official sensitive. No. of Suppliers to Evaluate 5 Proposal Criteria • Approach and methodology • How the approach or solution meets user needs • Estimated timeframes for the work • Value for money • How the approach or solution meets your organisation’s policy or goal Cultural Fit Criteria Provide at least 1 example of working collaboratively with customers to improve a digital service, including how you plan to communicate findings Payment Approach Fixed price Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 60% Cultural fit 15% Price 25% Questions from Suppliers 1. Will you be willing to process the CTC clearance required? Unfortunately, due to the timescales involved, we will be unable to process CTC clearance. 2. How will the Intranet be made accessible for a full audit to be carried out?Is it publicly accessible via a login? We will provide intranet accounts for the auditors to access the intranet, which is available publicly via a login. 3. If you do not obtain sufficient applications from people with existing CTC, will you re-advertise the project to allow the clearance to be obtained? If we find that we don't get sufficient applications then we'll need to reassess our requirements for the project, including security clearance. 4. Can you do the small additional clearance processing for someone who already has recent SC clearance (obtained Sept 2018)? CTC is the minimum security level required for this project. Anything above that level is also OK, so current SC clearance is fine for this project. 5. How do you propose to provide remote access to the intranet given it’s ‘classification’? The intranet can be accessed on through the web, behind a login. We will provide the successful supplier with an account(s) to be able to access the content and infrastructure remotely. 6. Is there a budget range that has been set for the project? No set budget, but we are working on the basis of the GDS guidelines of between £3,000 and £7,000, per platform. 7. Please can you advise on the budget assigned for this project? No set budget, but we are working on the basis of the GDS guidelines of between £3,000 and £7,000, per platform. 8. We could propose a SC cleared accessibility specialist for this task but we still feel that for comprehensive audit they would need use our trusted partners for some parts of the audit like thorough assistive technology compliance features. These experts are unfortunately not CTC cleared. Would you be open for an arrangement to partially use such support (details to be agreed with yourselves)? When assessing the quotes we would consider different approaches to this project and may be able to split up sensitive and non-sensitive elements. 9. Please can you provide timelines for the next stages of the tender process e.g. proposal and award date? We will shortlist week commencing 11 February, informing shortlisted suppliers by the end of that week at the latest. The deadline for proposals will be close of play on 22 February.We will inform the successful supplier by close of play on 27 February. 10. On the UKSV information page it states, "You do not need to hold security clearances to bid for MOD work advertised in the Official Journal of the European Community and other sources. The MOD contracting procedures make sure that there is no competitive advantage in having prior security clearances. Requests for clearances must be raised during the contractual process. Advertising for staff that already hold a security clearance is contrary to government policy, unnecessary and potentially discriminatory, as laid out in the Cabinet Office code of practice document." Is there any SC umbrella facility for this opportunity? We have sought commercial advice on this point and will post this when we have received it. 11. Please can you confirm the number of pages to be tested on both the HMICFRS website and intranet? This will be agreed with the successful supplier at a later stage based on the advice given. 12. Please can you advise how many systems are in scope of the accessibility audit? Yes, there are two. Our external website and our intranet. They are separate instances but both built in WordPress. 13. Is testing with people who have disabilities in scope of this project? Or do you require just an audit to assess compliance against WCAG 2.1? Yes, we would like testing with people who have disabilities to be included. 14. On the UKSV information page it states, "You do not need to hold security clearances to bid for MOD work advertised in the Official Journal of the European Community and other sources. The MOD contracting procedures make sure that there is no competitive advantage in having prior security clearances. Requests for clearances must be raised during the contractual process. Advertising for staff that already hold a security clearance is contrary to government policy, unnecessary and potentially discriminatory, as laid out in the Cabinet Office code of practice document." Is there any SC umbrella facility for this opportunity? Thank you for raising this. We've been advised that we can't exclude suppliers bidding for an opportunity if they do not currently hold the required security clearance. Please can all bids instead advise that suppliers are willing to undergo security clearance to CTC level. 15. Would NPPV3 (Non Police Personnel Vetting) clearance be acceptable in place of CTC please? Following commercial advice our requirement for CTC clearance has been changed to say a supplier must confirm that they are willing to undergo security clearance to this level.