for AI Enabled Accessibility Tooling

Request for Information U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Office of the Senior Procurement Executive (OSPE), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM), Washington, DC is seeking information on behalf of the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) for tools to improve the Department’s compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d). Contracting Office Address   U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Office of the Senior Procurement Executive (OSPE) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management (OASAM) 200 Constitution Ave NW Washington, DC 20210. Introduction Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d) requires that all Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that is procured, developed, used or maintained by the federal government be accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. The Section 508 Program Office within OCIO is charged with enabling ICT accessibility and managing compliance with Section 508 for the Department. DOL currently lacks a robust, methodical capability for capturing Section 508 conformance status or accessibility risk across its digital properties. DOL is considering addressing this gap by providing DOL personnel — including developers, quality assurance testers, and the Section 508 Program Office — with the tools, guidance, and data necessary to identify, prioritize, and remediate accessibility defects independently and systematically. DOL has deep expertise using enterprise-class, rules-based automated accessibility scanning tools. DOL understands that these tools are useful, but we are seeking information specifically on tools that use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to supplement complement accessibility testing and remediation efforts.   The results of this RFI will be for informational purposes which may or may not result in a future procurement.  Requirement Description We are seeking tools that provide the following capability: Core Tooling Capabilities  The contractor shall provide a solution that includes, at a minimum, the following capabilities:  Automated Accessibility Scanning and Testing  — The solution shall perform automated scanning of in-scope digital assets to identify Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 A & AA accessibility defects.  Guided Manual Accessibility Testing  — The solution shall provide structured workflows to support semi-automated and manual accessibility testing by QA testers, developers, and Section 508 Program Office personnel.  Document Remediation and Tagging Assistance  — The solution shall support remediation of non-web content, including PDF tagging, reading order correction, and remediation of content authored in Microsoft Office and Microsoft 365 applications. DOL prefers an automated solution where feasible, or a solution that enables DOL personnel to perform remediation independently without reliance on recurring contractor services.  Code Review and Repair Suggestions  — The solution shall provide developers with actionable, code-level remediation guidance sufficient to understand and resolve identified accessibility defects.  Chatbot or Copilot Capability for Section 508 Guidance  — The solution shall include a conversational AI or copilot capability that provides DOL personnel with on-demand Section 508 and WCAG guidance.  Dashboards and Compliance Analytics  — The solution shall provide dashboards and analytics capabilities including: issue counts and severity by application and digital property; remediation progress over time; conformance scores per digital asset; and historical trend reporting. The solution shall support exportable reporting in standard formats (e.g., PDF, CSV) for audit and leadership briefing purposes.  Accessibility Training and Embedded Authoring Assistance  — The solution shall include role-based training resources and/or embedded authoring guidance. See Section 9.0 for detailed training requirements. Assets in Scope Public-facing websites and web applications  (primary CMS: Drupal)  Internal websites and web applications   Web applications built on the Appian platform   Web applications built on the Salesforce platform   PDF documents  — testing and remediation, including tagging and reading order  Web pages authored in Microsoft SharePoint Non-Web Content (i.e., Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint documents) Additional Requirements Mandatory AI Capability. The proposed solution must incorporate AI-enabled capabilities as a core functional component. Solutions that do not include AI-enabled testing, remediation guidance, or workflow assistance will not be considered. Legacy rule-based scanning tools without AI integration do not meet this requirement. AI-Enabled Action