AI Tooling - Requirements Document.docx

DOL AI/Section 508 Compliance Tooling - Requirements Document Department of Labor (DOL) Version 1.0

1.0 Purpose and Background

The Department of Labor (DOL) is seeking to procure an AI-enabled accessibility compliance tooling solution to support the Department's Section 508 program. This acquisition represents a foundational investment in DOL's Section 508 program maturity. The selected solution will serve as the basis for establishing a systematic baseline of DOL's current Section 508 conformance posture, enabling ongoing monitoring, remediation, and reporting across the Department's digital asset portfolio.

DOL currently lacks a robust, methodical capability for capturing Section 508 conformance status or accessibility risk across its digital properties. This procurement is intended to address that 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.

2.0 Scope

2.1 In-Scope Digital Assets

The solution must support accessibility testing and remediation across the following digital asset types:

· 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

· Content authored in Microsoft SharePoint — content-level testing and remediation

· Content authored in Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint) — content-level testing and remediation The solution shall support accessibility testing and remediation workflows across development, test, staging, and production environments.

2.2 Out-of-Scope Digital Assets

The following are explicitly out of scope for this requirement:

· Mobile applications (iOS and Android)

· SharePoint and Microsoft 365 as platforms (platform-level testing is not required)

· Recurring vendor-performed accessibility audits of DOL digital content

· Recurring vendor-performed remediation of DOL digital content

3.0 User Personas and License Requirements

3.1 Primary User Personas

The solution must support three distinct user personas, each with different functional needs:

3.1.1 Developers Developers require tool capabilities that integrate into existing development workflows, provide code-level accessibility feedback, and support shift-left testing practices within CI/CD pipelines.

3.1.2 Quality Assurance (QA) Testers QA testers require guided manual testing workflows, browser-based testing tools, and semi-automated testing capabilities sufficient to identify and document accessibility defects across DOL digital assets.

3.1.3 Section 508 Program Office The Section 508 Program Office requires dashboards, compliance analytics, issue tracking, and exportable reporting sufficient to monitor DOL's accessibility posture, track remediation progress, and satisfy reporting obligations including the GSA Annual Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment. Section 508 Program Office personnel also perform hands-on accessibility testing and require full access to the solution's manual and automated testing capabilities, including code-level tools where applicable.

3.2 License Requirements

The solution shall provide a minimum of 50 user licenses, distributed across the following roles:

Offerors shall clearly describe how their licensing model accommodates role-based access and whether license types differ by user persona.

DOL reserves the right to reassign licenses across personnel as organizational needs change, including due to staff turnover, role changes, or organizational restructuring. The contractor shall support license reassignment without additional cost or unreasonable restriction.

4.0 Compliance Standards

4.1 Applicable Standards

The solution shall support testing and remediation against the Revised Section 508 Standards (36 CFR Part 1194).

Where the Revised Section 508 Standards incorporate WCAG 2.0 Levels A and AA by reference, DOL substitutes WCAG 2.1 Levels A and AA. The solution must be capable of testing against all applicable WCAG 2.1 Level A and AA success criteria.

4.2 GSA Annual Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment

The solution shall be capable of testing all applicable automated and semi-automated Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 A & AA criteria required by the GSA Annual Governmentwide Section 508 Assessment. For each identified issue, the solution must provide actionable outputs — including issue identification, severity classification, and remediation guidance — sufficient to enable DOL staff to understand, prioritize, and remediate findings.

Testing criteria that are inherently manual or human-judgment-based (e.g., video and media accessibility, including captioning and audio descriptions) are out of scope for the tool and will be addressed by DOL through separate manual processes.

5.0 Minimum Required Capabilities

5.1 Core Tooling Capabilities

The contractor shall provide a solution that includes, at a minimum, the following capabilities:

· 5.1.1 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.

· 5.1.2 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.

· 5.1.3 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.

· 5.1.4 Code Review and Repair Suggestions — The solution shall provide developers with actionable, code-level remediation guidance sufficient to understand and resolve identified accessibility defects.

· 5.1.5 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.

· 5.1.6 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.

· 5.1.7 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.

5.2 Additional Technical Capabilities

The solution shall also provide:

· API Access — The solution shall provide API access sufficient to support custom integrations with DOL systems and workflows.

· Multi-User Collaboration — The solution shall support collaborative workflows enabling multiple users across personas to work within shared projects, issue queues, and reporting environments.

· Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC) — The solution shall enforce role-based access controls to ensure appropriate permissions are applied across user personas.

6.0 AI Requirements

6.1 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.

6.2 AI-Enabled Actions

The solution shall support AI-assisted and, where authorized by the Government, automated actions including remediation, modification of source files, and publishing workflows.

The solution shall provide controls for such actions, including:

· Role-based permissions

· Workflow approvals

· Versioning and rollback capability

· Auditable logging for all AI-assisted or automated changes

6.3 AI Model Flexibility

Where contractor-provided tools incorporate AI or machine learning capabilities, the contractor shall support the ability for DOL to substitute or integrate Government-approved AI models in place of or in conjunction with vendor-default models. Tools that rely on AI models that are prohibited by federal policy or executive directive shall not be deployable unless an approved model substitution capability exists.

The contractor's AI capabilities shall be designed to support integration with external, Government-approved AI models — enabling DOL to leverage vendor accessibility intelligence (e.g., issue detection, remediation guidance) to augment approved models rather than being locked into vendor-default AI dependencies.

NOTE: The contractor's AI capabilities shall comply with all applicable DOL and federal AI policies. Specific AI governance requirements will be incorporated into the contract at award. Offerors should describe their current AI model architecture, any model dependencies, and their roadmap for supporting Government-approved model substitution or integration.

7.0 Integration Requirements

7.1 CI/CD Pipeline Integration

The solution shall integrate with the following CI/CD platforms used by DOL developers:

· Jenkins

· GitHub Actions / GitHub Pipelines Integration must be sufficient to enable automated accessibility testing within DOL's existing development pipeline workflows.

7.2 Browser Support

The solution's browser-based components (e.g., browser extensions, testing interfaces) shall support the following browsers:

· Google Chrome

· Microsoft Edge

8.0 Platform and Environment Coverage

8.1 Appian and Salesforce

Because DOL performs significant development using Appian and Salesforce products, the solution shall be capable of supporting and improving the accessibility of applications built on these platforms.

Support for Appian and Salesforce shall be sufficient to enable DOL personnel to identify, analyze, and address accessibility issues in applications built on those platforms, consistent with the solution's proposed testing, remediation, and reporting capabilities.

8.2 Non-Web Content — Subcontracting

Offerors may propose a primary solution supplemented by a subcontractor or partner to fulfill non-web content (PDF and Office document) requirements, provided that:

· The proposed solution collectively meets DOL's non-web content testing and remediation needs

· The offeror (prime contractor) assumes full responsibility for the performance and integration of any subcontractor or partner solution

· The combined solution enables DOL personnel to perform non-web content remediation independently, without reliance on recurring contractor services DOL will not hold separate contracts for non-web content remediation. All proposed capabilities, including those delivered through subcontractors, must be covered under a single contract with a single prime contractor.

9.0 Training Requirements

The contractor shall provide role-based training resources sufficient to enable DOL personnel to independently identify, understand, and remediate Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 A & AA accessibility defects. Training shall address both the creation of accessible content and the remediation of identified accessibility defects.

Training may be delivered via:

· Guidance and remediation assistance embedded directly in the tool (e.g., inline issue explanations, contextual remediation steps)

· Access to a vendor-hosted training platform with role-based course offerings Training priorities by persona:

Live, instructor-led training is not required.

10.0 Vendor Services

10.1 In-Scope Vendor Services

The contractor shall provide the following services in support of the solution:

· Tool Onboarding and Implementation Support — The contractor shall provide structured onboarding support to enable DOL to deploy and configure the solution effectively at the start of the contract.

· Technical Support — The contractor shall provide dedicated technical support during business hours (Monday–Friday, core business hours). A dedicated account and technical support representative shall be assigned to DOL for the duration of the contract.

10.2 Out-of-Scope Vendor Services

The following services are explicitly out of scope and shall not be proposed as part of this requirement:

· Accessibility consulting services

· Vendor-performed manual accessibility audits of DOL digital content

· Vendor-performed remediation of DOL digital content

10.3 Accessibility of Contractor-Provided Tools

The Government recognizes that software defects may occur and that complete conformance in all circumstances is not achievable. However, because this acquisition is for tools intended to enable accessibility, the accessibility of the tools themselves is a material and high-priority performance requirement.

The contractor shall act diligently and aggressively to identify, document, prioritize, and remediate accessibility defects in contractor-provided products.

When the Government reports an accessibility defect in contractor-provided products or services, the contractor shall acknowledge and/or validate the reported defect within ten (10) business days and shall provide an estimated timeline for remediation.

11.0 Security, Hosting, and Deployment

11.1 Deployment Model

The contractor may propose any deployment model (e.g., Software-as-a-Service, on-premises, hybrid) provided that the proposed solution meets all applicable federal information security requirements. The Government does not express a preference for any particular deployment model.

11.2 Federal Security Requirements

The proposed solution shall comply with all applicable federal information security requirements, including:

· FISMA (Federal Information Security Modernization Act)

· NIST SP 800-53 security controls as applicable to DOL's environment

· Any DOL-specific security requirements communicated during the acquisition process The contractor shall document the proposed deployment model and associated security controls in sufficient detail to enable DOL's security team to assess and authorize the solution in accordance with the Department's Authority to Operate (ATO) process.

11.3 FedRAMP Authorization

FedRAMP Authorization is preferred and will be evaluated as a competitive advantage. FedRAMP Authorization is not a mandatory requirement. Offerors that are not currently FedRAMP Authorized should describe their current authorization status and roadmap.