(a) This MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU) is entered into by and between the governmental entities shown below as Agreement Parties, pursuant to the authority granted and in compliance with the provisions of Texas Government Code, Chapter 771, the Interagency Cooperation Act, and Chapter 2054, Subchapter M, Access to Electronic and Information Resources by Individuals with Disabilities.
(b) Agreement Parties.
  (1) Receiving Agency: Texas Water Development Board, 1700 N. Congress Ave., Austin, Texas 78701.
  (2) Performing Agency: Department of Information Resources (DIR), 300 W. 15th Street, Suite 1300, Austin, Texas 78701.
(c) Scope.
  (1) This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is entered into by and between the Texas governmental entities shown above as Agreement Parties. The Department of Information Resources (DIR) will provide to the receiving agency the services described in this MOU for electronic and information resources (EIR) accessibility web scanning services. DIR has contracted with a third-party provider to perform accessibility scans on a monthly basis. Initially, the scans will be performed by SiteImprove pursuant to contract DIR-ITS-SITEIMPROVE-001.
  (2) There is no charge to the receiving agency for the services provided by DIR. The term of this MOU begins on the date of the last party to sign and will end upon termination of the underlying agreement with the third-party service provider, or anytime at the discretion of DIR. If the receiving agency elects to terminate these services at any time prior to the expiration of the MOU, the receiving agency will provide DIR with a minimum of ten (10) days prior written notice. This MOU may be amended by mutual agreement of the parties. Any amendment must be in writing.
(d) Program Overview.
  (1) The WCAG 2.0 Web Accessibility Scanning Program is conducted as part of the State of Texas initiatives in support of Texas government statutes and administrative rules regarding EIR accessibility for people with disabilities. This document contains the services to be provided to Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) by DIR for accessibility scanning of a subset of the receiving agency's public web pages.
  (2) The purpose of the program is to assist the agency in making its public websites accessible for all Texas citizens, including people with disabilities, and sets forth the responsibilities for each party. There is NO cost to agencies for this service.
(e) Objectives and Benefits of the Program.
  (1) The primary objective of the program is to assist agencies in making their public websites accessible for all Texas citizens including people with disabilities, and in support of meeting WCAG 2.0 web accessibility technical standards which are expected to be integrated into Texas Administrative Codes (TAC) Chapter 206 and 213 once they have been adopted as part of the revisions to US Section 508 of the Rehabilitation act of 1973. The use of this service will allow agencies to:
    (A) Increase accessibility compliance levels of agency public websites;
    (B) Obtain precise, critical accessibility information about a subset of an agency's live public website that might not otherwise be available/affordable;
    (C) Use the reported information and supporting resources to remediate identified accessibility issues;
    (D) Mitigate risk to the state by demonstrating progress and initiative toward creating an inclusive IT environment;
    (E) Lay the groundwork for agencies to establish accessibility baselines, goals, and metrics to track progress.
  (2) The service also scans for and reports on:
    (A) Broken links, Misspellings, and Consistency issues;
    (B) Website availability and performance;
    (C) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) issues.
(f) Description of Services.
  (1) Beginning at the home page of an agency's website, approximately 150 pages will be scanned monthly for accessibility issues using the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) technical standards. PDF documents on a website discovered during the scan will also be checked for accessibility. It should be noted that automated testing (web scanning) tools/services do not currently have the ability to test for all WCAG 2.0 accessibility criteria and that manual testing using assistive technologies should also be performed on a subset of the scanned pages to validate full compliance to this standard.
  (2) Agencies will be scheduled into the scan environment after a signed MOU has been received by DIR. Once the receiving agency is included in the scanned environment, scans will be performed monthly, until terminated by either party.
  (3) DIR will work with the receiving agency's EIR Accessibility Coordinator to set up and validate scanned pages to ensure data is accurate.
  (4) Agency EIR Accessibility Coordinators will receive a login ID to access their agency's detailed reports residing on DIR's secure area of the vendor's (SiteImprove) server. Agencies will also be able to add additional users of the tool.
  (5) The receiving agency's accessibility coordinator will be notified when each monthly scan is complete and reports are available for viewing.
  (6) Agency reports will provide summary and detailed information on accessibility and other information for the agency's scanned pages and PDFs, including:
    (A) Number of pages with errors;
    (B) Error types, locations, and code snippets where the errors occurred;
    (C) Support information with resources and techniques for remediating the identified errors;
    (D) Broken links, misspellings, and consistency issues;
    (E) Website availability and performance;
    (F) Search Engine Optimization (SEO) issues.
  (7) Self-paced training resources on use of the service user interface will be made available from the vendor.
(g) Scan Results, Data Ownership, and Sharing.
  (1) Scan results are owned by the receiving agency.
  (2) The receiving agency will have access to only the data applicable to itself.
  (3) DIR will have viewing access to all data included in the scan for use in statewide analysis and metrics so that it can:
    (A) assist agencies with questions related to scan results;
    (B) aggregate results to identify common issues and track progress at the enterprise level.
  (4) DIR will not share individual agency results with third parties, unless written approval by authority within the agency is provided.
  (5) In the event of public information or legislative requests, requestors will be referred to participating agencies or responded to jointly in collaboration with DIR.
(h) Tasks and Activities. Below is a table of the tasks and activities associated with agency start up and ongoing program activities.
  (1) Task/Activity: Execution of MOU; Performers: DIR/Agency.
  (2) Task/Activity: Provide initial scanning date to agency; Performers: DIR/Agency.
  (3) Task/Activity: Contact agency EIR Accessibility Coordinator to inform them of agency scan initiation; Performers: DIR.
  (4) Task/Activity: Provide login credentials to agency to facilitate agency review of results; Performers: DIR/Service Vendor.
  (5) Task/Activity: Perform initial scan; Performers: Service Vendor.
  (6) Task/Activity: Analyze results and tune settings; Performers: DIR/Agency/Service Vendor.
  (7) Task/Activity: Validate results; Performers: Agency.
  (8) Task/Activity: Integrate site into monthly scans; Performers: Service Vendor.
  (9) Task/Activity: Websites will be sampled monthly. Agencies receive new scan reports after each completed scan and works with appropriate staff to remediate; Performers: Agency/Service Vendor.
  (10) Task/Activity: Answer results questions and provide user support; Performers: DIR/Service Vendor.
(i) Contacts.
  (1) DIR Contacts:
    (A) PRIMARY CONTACT: Jeff Kline, Statewide EIR Accessibility Coordinator, (512) 463-3248, Jeff.Kline@dir.texas.gov.
    (B) SECONDARY CONTACT: Deborah Hujar, Director of Planning, Policy, and Governance, (512) 463-6117, Deborah.Hujar@dir.texas.gov.
  (2) Agency Contacts:
    (A) EIR ACCESSIBILITY COORDINATOR: Matt Erickson, (512) 410-6602, matt.erickson@twdb.texas.gov.
    (B) IRM: Wendy Barron, (512) 463-7862, wendy.barron@twdb.texas.gov.
Cont'd...