Request for Qualifications: Style Guide Accessibility Consultant

Project Summary

Introduction: Arts Ed Collaborative (AEC) seeks a consultant or firm to review, update, and expand our current style guide to align with digital accessibility standards in order to ensure that our communications are inclusive, equitable, and compliant with nonprofit best practices and Section 508/WCAG 2.2 AA guidelines.

The desired timeline for the project is from August-September 2025.

The budget range for the project is $3,000-$5,000.

Company background: AEC is an independent project of Carnegie Museum of Art. AEC works with individuals at all levels of arts programming (anyone from schools and districts to arts organizations and independent artists) with the goal of increasing the presence and impact of the arts in Southwestern Pennsylvania’s school systems. For more information, visit artsedcollab.org.

RFQ purpose: The purpose of this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) is to find various candidates, conduct a fair evaluation based on the prescribed criteria, and select the candidate(s) who is/are the best fit for the project. Arts Ed Collaborative reserves the right to award contract(s) as it sees fit and to the bidder or bidders of its choosing when and how it deems appropriate.

Nature and Scope of Work

The scope of this project includes the following:

1. Conduct an audit of AEC’s current brand and style guide materials
2. Update visual and editorial guidelines to reflect accessibility best practices
3. Ensure compliance with WCAG 2.2 AA standards for web, digital documents, and multimedia content
   • Re: digital documents; expectations include but are not limited to meeting accessibility standards in PDF documents, tags, reading order, and bookmarks.
   • Re: multimedia content; expectations include but are not limited to addressing captioning, transcripts, and audio/visual features in order to ensure full compliance with WCAG 2.2 AA standards.
4. Inclusive language review with a focus on race, gender, disability, and plain language
5. Provide clear, practical documentation that can guide internal and external teams in applying the updated style
6. Offer guidance on typography, color contrast, layout structure, alt. text standards, accessible document formatting, and semantic best practices
7. Deliver visual examples and usage instructions to reinforce guidelines

Outline of Deliverables

The completed project should include:

1. A revised, accessibility-informed style guide in both PDF and editable formats
2. An accessibility checklist made available for future content creators and designers
3. Optionally, but ideally, a quick reference version of the checklist made available for staff use

Candidate Qualifications:

1. Demonstrated expertise in accessible design, digital inclusion, and nonprofit communications
2. Familiarity with WCAG, Section 508, and ADA standards for digital content
3. Experience working with mission-driven organizations, ideally in the arts or education sectors
4. Ability to collaborate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders

To Apply:

Kindly compile the following information and send to Natalie Callahan (callahann@artsedcollab.org) no later than July 31, 2025:

1. A minimum of two work samples of past accessibility design work
2. CVs for all team members
3. Link to company website (if applicable)
4. Two client references