Minnesota accessibility requirements for government vendors

01 — Standard

What the instrument actually requires

• The statute directs the chief information officer to develop accessibility standards for technology, software and hardware procurement, and requires those standards to incorporate “section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act” and “the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, 2.0,” with provision to review and update them.

  Source: Minn. Stat. § 16E.03, subd. 9 ↗

02 — Coverage

Who it covers, and who it does not

• The CIO “shall require state agencies to adhere to the standards developed under this subdivision unless an exception is approved,” and exceptions may be granted by the CIO on agency request. Infrastructure hardware is carved out of the procurement standards.

  Source: Minn. Stat. § 16E.03, subds. 9–10 ↗

03 — Dates

The dates a bid calendar has to respect

• The statute sets no compliance date of its own. Standards may be modified where the CIO finds they impose an undue burden on the state, and that finding must be written.

  Source: Minn. Stat. § 16E.03, subd. 9 ↗

04 — The ask

What it asks a vendor to hand over

• The statute places no direct obligation on vendors. It obliges agencies to buy to the CIO’s standards, which is how the requirement reaches you — through the solicitation and the contract rather than through the statute.

  Source: Minn. Stat. § 16E.03, subd. 9 ↗

05 — Fit

Where a dated structural scan fits here

The version gap is the practical point. The statutory floor names WCAG 2.0 while the federal Title II standard and most buyer contract language are at 2.1 AA, so a Minnesota deliverable is usually being measured against the higher of the two. Build and document to WCAG 2.1 AA and the statutory floor takes care of itself; the risk is the vendor who reads “2.0” in the statute and scopes down to it.

BidShield ADA produces a dated WCAG 2.1 AA structural-scan record and an audit-defense log. Automated testing detects only a portion of accessibility barriers and cannot replace manual review, so nothing it produces is a WCAG conformance claim, an ADA or Section 508 compliance certification, an Accessibility Conformance Report, or a legal opinion.

06 — Depth

Go deeper

• How to Read an RFP's Accessibility Requirements and Win the Bid
• VPATs and ACRs: What Procurement Officers Read, and What Bashin Means for Yours
• The Contractor's Accessibility Toolkit: What to Run Before Every Deliverable
• The state laws that didn't move — the cross-state overview