The accessibility kit for SharePoint: a community-based approach to web accessibility

ABSTRACT

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight.

The Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) is an add-on pack for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 that provides accessibility and usability enhancements for SharePoint. This development effort was broken into two parts (a) standing up a more accessible web-site in an effort to accelerate the process of building accessible Web sites in SharePoint in accordance with the WCAG 1.0 AA guidelines and (b) enhancing the accessibility of the collaborative environment within SharePoint, including blogs and Wikis, to meet the guidelines in a similar fashion. The AKS is developed by HiSoftware in collaboration with and on behalf of Microsoft.

The product was designed to be partner-led to allow the partners specific examples through the use of best practices and documentation.

As part of the project, Microsoft and HiSoftware are co-hosting and nurturing an AKS Community. The AKS Community site allows Microsoft Partners, customers and stakeholders to engage in dialogue with each other and Microsoft about Accessibility best practices, lessons learned challenges and successes.

This community-based approach to accessibility has generated a great deal of enthusiasm, including approximately 1000 downloads in the first month and 150 organizations joining the community. This community approach to accessibility for a particular authoring environment has applicability to the broader field of web accessibility.

REFERENCES

• 1: Accessibility at Microsoft. Retrieved March 20, 2008, Web site: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
• 2: Chisholm, W., Vanderheiden, G., Jacobs, I. (1999, May 5). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from W3C Web site: http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
• 3: CSS Friendly Control Adapters. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from CodePlex Web site: http://www.codeplex.com/cssfriendly
• 4: Gray, R., Liu, L. Simberkoff, D. The Accessibility Kit for SharePoint. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from epractice.eu Web site: http://www.epractice.eu/cases/2526
• 5: HiSoftware Accessibility Compliance Solutions for Microsoft SharePoint® Server. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from HiSoftware Web site: http://www.hisoftware.com/MOSS/MOSSsolutions.htm
• 6: Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL). Retrieved March 20, 2008, from Open Source Initiative Web site: http://opensource.org/licenses/ms-pl.html
• 7: The Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) Community Portal. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from The AKS Community Portal Web site: http://aks.hisoftware.com
• 8: The Official Blog of the SharePoint Product Group. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies Team Blog Web site: http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/
• 9: Yonaitis, Robert B. (2002). Understanding Accessibility. Nashua, NH: HiSoftware Publishing

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.1 MODELS AND PRINCIPLES
      H.1.2 User/Machine Systems

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.1 Office Automation
      H.4.3 Communications Applications
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.5 Sound and Music Computing

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.1 Public Policy Issues
      K.4.3 Organizational Impacts
  K.5 LEGAL ASPECTS OF COMPUTING
      K.5.2 Governmental Issues

General Terms:
Design, Reliability, Standardization, Verification

Keywords:
SharePoint, accessibility, best practices, collaboration, community, extensible