The
Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) provides templates, master pages, controls, and web parts along with technical documentation that enable designers and developers to advance the accessibility of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 based web sites and applications for people with disabilities, especially those who are vision impaired.
Microsoft has hired HiSoftware to develop the AKS. The decision was made primarily based on HiSoftware’s in-depth expertise and broad industry experience in providing tools and services for improving software accessibility to the point of compliance with key industry and goverment standards and beyond. The contractual Statement of Work calls for HiSoftware to deliver a kit that can significantly reduce the time, knowledge, and effort required to implement a SharePoint-based web site that conforms to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints, which are collectively known as
WCAG 1.0 AA. The AKS can also be used to address the exceptions that have been identified in the U.S. government’s
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act’s Voluntary Product Accessibility Template or
VPAT documents for MOSS 2007. While most of our customers find the
improvements in accessibility (more info at
Office Online) over previous versions of SharePoint to be adequate for their needs, a growing number has asked us to provide even more. The AKS is our near term response. Longer term, we plan to make significantly further improvements in accessibility in the next version of SharePoint, but we don't have any details to disclose at this time.
The AKS 1.0 is now available as a free download at http://aks.hisoftware.com.
