Summary:
Whether you think of Windows SharePoint Services or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server when you think of SharePoint, there’s one important aspect you should seriously consider when planning for its implementation: accessibility.
Introduction
Web-based applications and services have permanently changed how information is disseminated and obtained. Disseminating and consuming information – broadly speaking, information sharing – is fairly simple. You make information available and I find it and use it. Sometimes it’s product information; sometimes it’s service information; sometimes it’s educational, other times it’s political; sometimes private, others public. As a disseminator you have many choices available in terms of the media you can use to share that information. One of those is the world-wide web.
Web or browser-based information sharing is comparatively new and it has distinct advantages over older forms of information sharing media like print and broadcast media. One of those advantages is the ability to allow the user or consumer of the information you share to customize dynamically not only what is presented, but also how it is presented. This is an important distinction especially for those with impairments.
Print media does not possess this flexibility at all – I hold in my hands an ink or Braille book, for example, but I can’t change the Braille to ink or vice-versa. (Refreshable Braille devices, linear or rotational, do exist but they are not intended to transform a printed text.) Traditional broadcast media are limited with respect to dynamic modifications: volume, timbre and for television, closed caption pretty much cover the options. Digital audio and video media like CDs and DVDs extend these capabilities somewhat but not dramatically.
Today only the web provides a medium in which the presentation can dynamically adapt itself and be adapted, on behalf of and by the user, in many different and dramatic ways. More significantly, the options available for providing these adaptations are becoming easier to implement and more sophisticated every few weeks. Planning for their inclusion is an important task in any web application implementation project including any SharePoint project.
Why is this important?
The importance of providing accessibility for your SharePoint application will depend on a number of factors including the purpose of the implementation; the target(s) – intranet, extranet, internet; the type of content; and so on. What’s essential however is making sure that accessibility is included in the planning process. There are many reasons why including this in the planning process is important.
Some of the reasons could be regulatory. There are many laws in effect throughout the world regarding web accessibility. Where those laws are on the books, what they require, what penalties are imposed for violations and so on can be found through some basic research. See the Other Resources section at the end of this article for starters. While for some this might be a primary motivation, for me personally it falls a little short.
If you believe that the web truly presents a revolutionary means of sharing information, that more rather than less information sharing is good, that new ways of connecting to others with similar or differing ideas can mean progress, then it’s important. It’s important because whether the intended use is for a 100-person organization or for all 6.7 billion planetary inhabitants, you should not assume each person will be able to experience your SharePoint implementation in the same way.
Furthermore, a web application that is truly accessible is not designed for any single group but is designed for all groups. As a result it will perform better, be usable on different devices including mobile devices and generally be easier for anyone to use, impaired or not.
Finally, it’s all about planning. The degree of accessibility should be the result of intent rather than happenstance.
What’s been happening in web accessibility?
There’s a tremendous amount happening right now but web accessibility started to be addressed in 1998. The best place to begin reading up on accessibility is the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) site. Currently the W3C has two web accessibility Activities underway, each with numerous Groups. The Activities and the Groups that comprise them have a number of resources available on their web pages for anyone interested in the topics of web accessibility, adaptive technologies and other related subjects.
In the United States and throughout the world there are a number of additional organizations that provide resources:
- national and local governmental agencies and departments,
- universities,
- committees and groups within professional organizations such as ACM, AIIM and so on.
Links to some of these are provided in the Other Resources section.
If you are new to the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the W3C, a valuable place to start might be with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Update. The information is available in many formats. It’s a useful guide to the important ways in which WCAG 2.0 differs from WCAG 1.0. The video is not the best in terms of quality but the content is quite good.
Accessibility and SharePoint
So where do start if you are working with SharePoint and you’re interested in accessibility? First you might want to take a look at the Microsoft Accessibility blog.
Additionally, there are a number of SharePoint-specific accessibility resources and tools that you should investigate as you begin your SharePoint planning. First I would recommend reading two brief blogs from Lawrence Liu. The first will provide you with an important perspective on how Microsoft sees accessibility requirements being addressed in the current version of SharePoint and the second will provide a view of where Microsoft is headed as SharePoint continues to evolve.
Once you’ve read those you’ll likely want to obtain the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) that Lawrence discusses. You can find a link to it at CodePlex. Additional information is available on the CodePlex site and at HiSoftware.
The AKS provides a number of immediately useful components. Since the templates, master pages, web parts and other items in the AKS are feature-based, you have a number of options in terms of how you decide to incorporate them into your SharePoint implementation.
You also might want to check out the SharePoint Accessibility MSDN forum.
Other Resources
How People with Disabilities Use the Web
Policies Related to Web Accessibility
Social Factors in Developing a Business Case
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
So begin planning for accessibility for your current and future SharePoint projects and look into the AKS and other resources I have listed. Check back for additional blogs related to SharePoint and accessibility and if you like, leave a comment.
