W3C Accessibility Maturity Model

ICT Accessibility within organizations of any size can be complex with multiple dimensions. Although some organizations have individuals or departments to support accessibility, many organizations lack understanding or fail to recognize the importance of ICT accessibility as a requirement, and therefore don’t realize they need accessibility governance systems. This can result in limits to the ability to produce accessible products and associated services such as training and documentation which are essential for inclusive digital environments. The solution to this challenge is to encourage organizations to establish and implement accessibility governance systems within their organizations. These systems must integrate ICT accessibility criteria into policies, key business processes, organizational culture, and management structures in a consistent, repeatable, and measurable fashion. Only then can organizations address the complexities related to enabling ICT accessibility.

This proposed W3C Accessibility Maturity Model describes an overall framework for establishing a robust ICT accessibility program and identifying areas for improvement. ​A Maturity Model is:

A tool;

1. That helps people assess the current effectiveness of a person, group, or an organization;
2. And supports figuring out what capabilities they have and need to acquire next;
3. In order to improve their performance.

Organizations know when they are doing well (or poorly) at product accessibility via audit reports and bug counts. However, they don’t know how well they are doing as an organization to continue to produce accessible products without looking at other supporting corporate processes. ​Maturity Modeling is a big part of a “shift-left” methodology of preventing problems from recurring, not fixing them after they have happened.

Most maturity models contain some number of levels with increasing maturity. Each level contains a definition, controls, and a list of processes and evidence that must be produced for an organization to legitimately claim that they are at a particular level of maturity.

Maturity modeling is very different than conformance testing

• Conformance testing provides information about the accessibility level(s) of a particular product. The results of a conformance test provide a picture of a particular version of a product (or a subcomponent of a product).
• Maturity modeling provides information about the ability of an organization to produce accessible products over the long term. The results of a maturity modeling assessment provide a holistic picture of an organization’s accessibility initiatives, where accessibility is doing well, and where improvements, that remove and prevent barriers, can be made.

This document is intended to guide and evaluate the levels of organizational accessibility maturity that encompasses a public or private sector organization at any scale.

Examples of organizations might be (but not limited to):

• A government agency (Federal, state/province, county/city, municipality, etc.)
• Any type of business entity (including a sole proprietorship, corporation, or LLC)
• Learning institutions (university, college, district school system)
• A nongovernmental organization (NGO) or non-profit

The primary audience for this maturity model would be:

• Executive levels of organization leadership responsible for leading the organization.
• Other levels of management responsible for maturity of the defined dimensions.
• Policy and business process subject matter experts responsible for putting plans, actions, and metrics in place.

Reference appendix with summary of the existing six maturity models outside of WCAG.

This is a first draft and there are a number of issues are still to be determined that we would like comment from the public on:

1. Should the Maturity Model identify stakeholders for each dimension?
2. We have proposed three variations of spreadsheet formats, which can be found at the following spreadsheet tabs:
   1. Procurement uses variation 1
   2. Knowledge & Skills uses variation 2
   3. Policy uses variation 3

Each dimension will contain stages” based on the proof points that are demonstrated. Stages loosely correspond to the following criteria. Each dimension will contain defined criteria that pertain specifically to the dimension being defined. Stages are cumulative, so stage advancement cannot be achieved without first meeting the specific criteria of a lower level. The terms for the stages were adopted for consistency with the Policy Driven Adoption Maturity Model, currently being used by multiple government agencies.

Dimensions provide a unique descriptive name with a high-level, plain-language summary of the content for organizations, managers, policy makers, individuals who are new to accessibility, and other individuals who need to understand the concepts but not dive into the technical details.

Dimensions provide an easy-to-understand way of organizing and presenting the outcomes so non-experts can learn about and understand the concepts. Dimensions address organizational needs on specific topics, such as education, documentation, communication, and more. Dimension Proof Points may be customized based on organizational needs organization-independent.

Dimensions:

• Communications: Information as it relates to an organization’s accessibility, as well as accessibility of all internal/external communications.
• Knowledge and Skills: Ongoing education, and outsourcing practices to fill gaps for accessibility operations.
• Support: Accessibility assistance provided to internal employees and external customers with disabilities.
• ICT (Information Communication Technology) Development Life Cycle: Accessibility for the software / hardware development path from idea conception, to design, development, testing, ACR/VPAT production, user research, maintenance and obsolescence.
• Personnel: Job descriptions, recruiting, disability-related employee resource groups necessary to provide lived-experience to accessibility efforts.
• Procurement: A strategic process that concentrates on finding and acquiring accessible products required for an organization. Activities may include: sourcing activities, negotiation, and selecting goods and services.
• Culture: The attitudes, sensitivity, and behaviors around accessibility, including internal interaction, perception, and decision-making.

Each dimension has one or more desired outcomes for each stage. Progress towards achieving maturity is attained by creating the proof points described for each dimension. Each maturity model dimension contains a graduated set of stages of maturity attainment that as met define where the organization is along the dimension continuum.

Outcomes form the basis of a flexible and expansive architecture for maturity modeling that closely relates to the needs of organizations. Consistent with WCAG 3.0, outcomes determine whether the need defined by the maturity modeling stages has been met.

All relevant outcomes must be addressed but not all outcomes will apply to all organizations and situations. When an outcome does not apply, it is marked N/A (Not applicable).

Example: Policy does not need to reference native apps if the organization has no native apps.

Each dimensional outcome has a range of suggested proof points, which includes any evidence or necessary measures that can be used to ascertain the maturity of each dimension.

1. Proof points are evidence-based, organizational deliverables which indicate the maturity stage as described earlier in this document.
2. Proof points should be at the level at which the maturity model assessment is taking place. For example, if only procurement maturity is being measured, only procurement proof points should be evaluated.
3. For more complicated dimensions, proof points are organized by category.
4. Proof points can be partially completed at the Launch and Integrate stages, but must be fully completed for the optimize stage.

For example, if a dimension requires a plan to identify ICT Accessibility related skill levels and gaps, then the corresponding proof point would be the document containing completed evaluation of ICT Accessibility related skill levels and gaps.

Organizational ICT Accessibility Maturity is assessed using the ICT Accessibility Maturity Assessment Template. The template contains worksheet tabs specific to each dimension. The dimension tabs are organized with the dimension definitions and outcomes for each of the 4 maturity stages and provides a list of the dimension’s proof points.

The blank cells below each maturity stage are to be completed by the organization and should contain evidence that the organization has reached that stage. The evidence can include progress on proof point completion, or other relevant information that can be used to claim that the outcomes for that stage have been met.

Proof points can span across multiple stages, work being initiated in one stage and completed in a more advanced stage.

A link to the worksheet is HERE.

Communications, whether internal or external, formal or informal, minor or major, need to be accessible to the widest audience possible. Accessible communication is an umbrella term to describe communication that is clear, direct, easy to understand and that can be made available in multiple formats so that all users have equal access. It takes into consideration the various barriers to accessing information, and removes these or provides alternative formats for the communication to take place. Also, accessibility efforts should be communicated so that users are aware of the extent to which they can interact with content.

Dimension: Measure if communications, Internal and external, are accessible, accessibility-related communications to demonstrate the overall approach toward accessibility, and WCAG compliance.

Introduction: Internal and external personnel at all levels of an organization must have W3C accessibility knowledge and skills that are relevant to their organizational role as a manager, product or content producer. Accessibility knowledge and skills relevant to each individual’s position helps to implement checks and balances needed as for quality assurance.

Measures: education, individual experience, stakeholder responsibilities, departments, or units. Takes into account the use of external sources to bridge inclusiveness and accessibility gaps.

Dimension: Support for internal employees and external customers with disabilities. This includes reasonable accommodations (adjustments) for employees and customer support that is specific to users' accessibility needs.

Accessible Information and communication technologies (ICT) serves as a critical enabler that allow persons with disabilities to realise full and effective opportunities to participate, on the basis of equality, in all aspects of society and development that involve technology. Accessibility must be considered throughout the entire ICT development lifecycle: from idea conception, to design, development, testing, ACR/VPAT production, user research, maintenance and obsolescence.

Introduction: Persons with disabilities should be utilized throughout an organization’s hierarchy (all job types, all authority levels) where their unique insights and lived experiences should better inform decision making. This requires accessible and inclusive hiring practices covering application, interviews, evaluations, onboarding and retention.

Procurement is a strategic process that concentrates on finding and acquiring cost-effective products required for an organization. It deals with things like sourcing activities, negotiation, and selecting goods and services.

With the majority of IT assets within an organization being the result of procurement transactions and contracts, ensuring that IT accessibility criteria are well integrated into the processes to bring this area into full maturity, which is the “Optimize” stage.

Organizational culture consists of shared beliefs and values established by leaders that ultimately shape employee perceptions, behaviors and understanding.

To be truly effective and mature, organizations must weave an inclusive and accessible culture into the fabric of the organization. Everyone in the organization should have an understanding and sensitivity to the importance of IT accessibility, how / if it fits within the roles / responsibilities of their positions and work assignments, and an appreciation for the value of a diverse population both within and external to the organization. IT accessibility has and can have a tremendous impact on people with disabilities that facilitates access to jobs, services, and other aspects of life that others simply take for granted. It is important that the culture of an organization recognize this concept and the unique values that this diversity group brings to an organization. Therefore it is critical that an organization has a diversity culture that includes an understanding of IT Accessibility and how it fits within the various roles within the organization.

• Jake Abma
• Sheri Byrne-Haber (VMWare
• Ralp de Rooij (Community Group Member)
• David Fazio(Invited Expert)
• Jeff Kline (Community Group Member)
• Mary Jo Mueller (IBM)
• Lori Samuels (NBC Universal)