MOSS 2007 and Accessibility; ADA guidelines and standards

markarend — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 00:29:00 GMT

I've been asked a number of times "does MOSS 2007 comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?" Well, the legislation itself doesn't specifically address software programs; it mandates equal access to general provisions such as practices and services, and to specific infrastructure such as buildings, vehicles and telephones. But from this mandate come other legislation and industry standards (below) that eventually spell out very specific ways that software programs and websites can be considered accessible to individuals with disabilities.

Here's the best of my knowledge on the topic, and I must disclaim its potential inaccuracy or incompleteness. Please post a reply if you know more, especially regarding the background and how the laws are applied & followed. For instance, most US government agencies are bound to follow section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act. Private companies are not bound by law to adopt these guidelines, but often do, especially if they contract to government agencies, or are bound by other regulations such as is common in healthcare and finance industries.

Background	MOSS
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 gives civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities... guaranteeing equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, State and local government services, and telecommunications.	The Microsoft Office site provides an article on Accessibility features for MOSS 2007, but doesn't map these features to other regulations or standards.
To meet ADA goals, section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, amended in 1998, is often used to provide specific guidelines for software and website accessibility. A Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) was developed to assist Federal contracting officials and other buyers in making preliminary assessments regarding the availability of commercial “Electronic and Information Technology” products and services with features that support accessibility.	Microsoft supplies Section 508 VPAT documents for many products, including MOSS 2007. These documents list detailed ways in which the products meet provisions of section 508.
In 1999, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) produced Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) that offer a more thorough and technically oriented set of guidelines, including a simple list of checkpoints.	Additional information about how MOSS meets WCAG guidelines is given in the SharePoint product team’s blog entry Improvements in accessibility.

Finally, here are two specific features that address accessibility directly:

MOSS provides a More Accessible Mode that changes the rendering and behavior of page links to be more compatible with accessibility tools such as screen readers. It's easy to turn on, just press TAB twice after loading a page. See the Accessibility Features article for full instructions.

SharePoint Designer provides an Accessibility Checker tool that you can use to highlight areas on a page or throughout a site that do not meet various levels of accessibility checkpoints. Find it under the Tools menu.

Mark Arend : Accessibility

MOSS 2007 and Accessibility; ADA guidelines and standards