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Open Source Matters is seeking a contractor to deliver Milestone 8b of Joomla's STF-funded accessibility programme, building a violations dashboard that tracks Joomla core's accessibility progress against the Milestone 1a baseline and publishing a reference CI workflow plus setup guide for the wider extension ecosystem. This milestone multiplies the value of the CI infrastructure across the thousands of Joomla extensions, each of which can now protect its own accessibility gains from regression without building a testing infrastructure from scratch.

Introduction and Background

Open Source Matters, Inc. (OSM), the non-profit organisation supporting the Joomla project, is selected for funding from the Sovereign Tech Fund (STF) to deliver a structured, 20-month accessibility improvement programme across the Joomla CMS. The programme covers 19 independently contracted milestones, ranging from expert audits and remediation work to documentation, testing infrastructure, and community enablement.

Parallel to this milestone, we have published the RFP "Automated Accessibility Testing in CI, Core Tests and CI Gate" Applicants are welcome to submit a single proposal covering both milestones. This is encouraged, provided that the proposal clearly distinguishes the work packages, timelines, and deliverables for each milestone. All deliverables must be completed within the specified deadlines, regardless of whether the contractor is awarded one or both milestones.

This RFP covers Milestone 8b: Automated Accessibility Testing in CI, Tuning, Dashboard and Extension Guide.

This milestone multiplies the value of the CI infrastructure across the thousands of extensions in the Joomla ecosystem. Each extension developer can now protect their own accessibility gains from regression without building a testing infrastructure from scratch. The violations dashboard makes regression and progress visible to the project team, the OSM board, and the STF.

Milestone 8b depends directly on the tests and CI gate delivered in Milestone 8a, on the baseline and test protocols from Milestone 1a, and on the remediation backlog from Milestone 1b.

Scope of Work

The contractor is required to deliver all three deliverables described below. Scope and acceptance criteria are fixed. The budget is to be quoted as a fixed price, based on the applicant's approach and team composition.

Deliverable 1: Violations Dashboard

Implement a violations dashboard: a continuously updated view of the current accessibility violation count across Joomla core, tracked over time against the baseline from Milestone 1a.

The dashboard must:

• Be continuously updated from the automated tests and CI gate delivered in Milestone 8a
• Track violation counts over time against the Milestone 1a baseline
• Make regression and progress visible to the project team, the OSM board, and the STF
• Be hosted and operated in a way that survives the end of the funded programme, with a documented operational plan
• Be accessible itself, in line with WCAG 2.2 AA and the test protocols from Milestone 1a

Deliverable 2: Reference CI Workflow and Extension Setup Guide

Publish a reference CI workflow and a setup guide so that extension developers can add the same automated accessibility testing to their own projects.

The reference workflow and guide must:

• Be drop-in usable for typical Joomla extension repositories
• Be aligned with the CI gate and test patterns established in Milestone 8a
• Include at least one worked example showing the workflow applied to a representative extension
• Be written for extension developers, not only for core maintainers, with a clear walk-through of setup, common failures, and how to update tests when behaviour intentionally changes

Deliverable 3: Documentation and Milestone Report

Maintain the programme documentation framework and produce the milestone completion report in the format agreed with OSM at kick-off. The documentation must also include a maintainer-facing operations guide for the dashboard, covering data sources, hosting, and how to evolve the dashboard as the test base grows.

Contract Details

Milestone reference: Milestone 8b (Cluster H: Testing Infrastructure)

Contract type: Service agreement with OSM.

Dependency: Builds directly on the tests and CI gate from Milestone 8a, on the baseline and test protocols from Milestone 1a, and on the remediation backlog from Milestone 1b.

Duration: 2 months (1 January 2027 to 28 February 2027).

Delivery date: 28 February 2027.

Payment terms: Full payment upon acceptance of all deliverables.

Budget: To be quoted by the applicant as a fixed price, based on the scope described.

Eligibility and Required Skills

Applicants must have experience in the following areas

• Building and operating dashboards that surface test results or quality metrics over time
• Integrating with CI pipelines, in particular GitHub Actions, including reading and aggregating CI output reliably
• Building automated accessibility tests with axe-core or comparable tooling, sufficient to extend and adapt the Milestone 8a test base
• Practical knowledge of WCAG 2.2 A and AA, including the typical violation categories that will appear on the dashboard
• Joomla core or extension development familiarity, sufficient to produce a reference CI workflow that works for typical extension repositories
• Clear technical writing for both extension-developer-facing and maintainer-facing documentation

Skills the applicant should have

• Familiarity with Joomla's existing GitHub Actions setup and with the Milestone 8a test and gate (the contractor will be expected to read and extend that work)
• Understanding of the design tokens and components from Milestones 2a and 2b, so the dashboard itself can meet the accessibility standard it tracks

Skills that would be nice to have

• Continuity with, or direct collaboration with, the Milestone 8a contractor
• Prior experience publishing reusable CI templates for an open-source ecosystem

How to Apply

Proposals must include the following

• A brief description of your organisation or team and relevant dashboard, CI, and accessibility testing experience
• Examples of comparable dashboards or reusable CI workflows, with links where possible
• At least one reference from a comparable project engagement
• Your proposed approach and methodology for the violations dashboard, including hosting and long-term operation
• Your proposed approach and methodology for the reference CI workflow and the extension developer setup guide
• A clear description of how you will adopt the Milestone 8a test base and gate, and how you will handle any gaps you find
• Identification of any potential schedule risks or bottlenecks, including any dependency on the timing of Milestones 8a and 1a
• A timeline showing how the two-month delivery period will be structured
• Your fixed-price proposal for the full scope

Proposals should be submitted by email to the address published alongside this RFP. The submission deadline is two weeks from the date of publication.

Selection Process

Proposals will be reviewed by a small selection committee comprising community members.

Evaluation criteria are:

• Technical quality: depth and rigour of the proposed dashboard and reference workflow methodology
• Accessibility expertise: demonstrated experience with WCAG 2.2 A/AA and with accessibility CI infrastructure
• Operational durability: a credible plan for hosting and maintaining the dashboard beyond the funded programme
• Ecosystem fit: quality of the proposed reference workflow and setup guide for typical extension repositories
• Timeline: a realistic plan for delivery within the two-month period
• Price: value for money within the fixed contract envelope

The selected team will be asked to sign a standard OSM service agreement. Work can begin once the agreement is signed and the Milestone 8a outputs are available.

Community Support

Every milestone in this programme includes access to an experienced Joomla community maintainer if you need it. If you have questions about the codebase, about an accessibility standard as applied to Joomla's specific implementation, or about how something works within the Joomla ecosystem, you can ask. This support is funded through the project's Community Accessibility Reserve, a dedicated budget set aside to help contractors succeed. The maintainer's role is to guide and not to supervise. You are not on your own.

Questions

Questions about this RFP may be submitted by email to the address published alongside this RFP prior to the submission deadline. Answers to questions received will be shared publicly so that all applicants have equal access to information.

Submission Timeline

Terms

This RFP is published as part of the STF-funded Joomla Accessibility Programme. Submitting a proposal does not guarantee selection. OSM reserves the right to cancel or amend this RFP at any time.

• The RFP can be withdrawn at any point without reason.
• No compensation will be given to any entity submitting a proposal or working on a proposal.
• The vendor selected for this proposal will be solely at the discretion of Open Source Matters, Inc.
• Open Source Matters, Inc. reserves the right not to award any applicant if no proposal meets the expectations or requirements set by this RFP.

For all communication with OSM use [email protected] as email address.