Report 2014-131 Recommendation 8 Responses

Report 2014-131: California State Government Websites: Departments Must Improve Website Accessibility So That Persons With Disabilities Have Comparable Access to State Services Online (Release Date: June 2015)

Recommendation #8 To: Covered California

No later than December 1, 2015, Covered California should develop a plan to determine whether the accessibility violations we identified exist on other portions of its online presence that we did not include in the scope of our review. Once this plan is executed, it should correct violations wherever it finds them and do so no later than June 1, 2016.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2016

Covered California has evaluated CoveredCA.com for additional accessibility violations and implemented corrections where violations were found. We have also identified and corrected violations that were not included in the original scope of the review. These violations were identified using the Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool (WAVE) as well as manual testing methods using Job Access With Speech (JAWS). We continue to perform automated testing and manual testing as the site gets updated. During our peak season (Open Enrollment), updates may be manually tested after deployment, but no later than two weeks.

In addition, the CalHEERS project currently performs multiple activities semi-annually and per release to ensure that the CalHEERS application stays compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Semi-annually the application goes through an ADA Regression Test suite. Any defects raised are planned, built, and tested in the appropriate releases and closed out with the normal System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) process. Per release, if pages are added and/or modified, these pages undergo functional and ADA testing.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

Covered California has fully implemented the approach to validate accessibility compliance for public facing services. Covered California, in partnership with Pinnacle, will test and validate the Small Business portal prior to implementation which is planned for fiscal 2016/2017. The Pinnacle hosted Small Business site portal will not be available until that time. Covered California performed Section 508 compliance testing to the Shop and Compare tool and have confirmed that Shop and Compare is in compliance with 508 standards.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Partially Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

Covered California is negotiating an amendment to the Pinnacle contract to address the level of effort and costs associated with the work required to ensure that the Small Business site adheres to the Section 508 compliance requirements. Covered California is also working with the Shop and Compare vendor to identify and address Section 508 compliance gaps.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Partially Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

CalHEERS: 65 pages that were not part of the original BSA review have been subjected to a regression analysis and statistics on those fixes are included in the response to #4. Other portions of the online presence include the Shop and Compare tool and Pinnacle's operation for Small Business. Covered California is on track to develop a plan to determine whether the violations BSA identified exist on these portions of our online presence.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2014-131

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.