E XPLORING M ICROSOFT
S HARE P OINT
Streamlining AltText Processes while
Investigating Accessibility
PattiLou Lester ( plester@fsu.edu
) &
KimBoo York ( kcy07@my.fsu.edu
/ kimboosan@gmail.com
)
Florida State University

S HARE P OINT – W HAT IS IT ?

“Microsoft SharePoint is a web application platform. First launched in 2001, SharePoint is typically associated with web content
management and document management systems, but it is actually a much broader platform of web technologies, capable of being configured to suit a wide range of solution areas.”
~
Wikipedia (emphasis added)

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

What it offers
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Scalability
Centralization of data



Automation of certain tasks
Security
Collaboration

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

Considerations:

Accessibility and Learning Curve



For students
For administrators/staff
For development team

Security
 designed for people working in groups, not to service individual students


AD group set up
Specialized permission levels

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

Obstacles
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Learning curve (that concern was valid)

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System is not intuitive
Very powerful but very confusing
Very customizable if you know what you’re doing
Lack of accessibility reviews


Few comprehensive overviews of accessibility issues
Few discussions in regards to accessibility issues for site administrators/owners/creators (step by step how-to
Time/Staff investment


Initial set up – time – investment heavy
Scheduling training

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT
Flowchart
Final
Site
Paper
Forms
Road Map
Mind
Map

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

Current “ALT Text” mind map

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

Current site: Student View
(in FireFox)

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

Current site: Staff View
(in IE)

A LT T EXT ROAD TO S HARE P OINT

Components to site design/use:





Security
Services

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Sign up and requests
Resources
Text download/reading
Libraries

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Form libraries
Document libraries
Tasks
Workflows (macros)
FSU SDRC Manual for users/developers: http://www.disabilitycenter.fsu.edu/SharepointManual2010.html

S O Y OU W ANT TO C REATE A
S HARE P OINT S ITE ?

S HARE P OINT – W HAT DO YOU NEED ?



Free download

Form
Creation)

text, web resources, and IT SharePoint support

!

T HE CRITICAL ISSUES :

Functionality: how can we…?



Security: what it offers, and what it doesn’t
Accessibility: 508, W3C – WCAG compliant?
Usability: Universal Design – are we there yet?

F UNCTIONALITY

Functionality comes first; decide what you need and how you will use it.

Four major components:


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Documents
Forms
Tasks

Users

How do these elements fit together?

Which documents are needed by which users?
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What are forms being used for? By whom?
Are tasks tied to documents, forms, users, or all three?

S ECURITY & P ERMISSIONS

Levels of permissions

Very granular: possible to control what any user can access and use

Adapting SharePoint features for security

Moving forms from initial, public library to secure library via automatic workflow

Active directory student “group” to hide students from each other while giving access to site

EVALUATING ACCESSIBILITY:

Standards:

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SP 2010 was built targeting 508 and WCAG 2, and relies on WIA ARIA to implement accessibility
What does that mean?
Standards test script for evaluation

Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS)

HI Software Compliance Sheriff – intended to scan for accessibility and repair issues with SharePoint, includes an accessible
Rich Text Editor.

ACCESSIBILITY:
SharePoint Elements to Consider:

Accessibility Mode – what exactly does this do?


Accessing it – where you can find it
Each page instance has to be enabled. Ugh!

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Web Parts versus Wiki Pages
Calendar view in SharePoint versus syncing with Outlook
Issues with creating libraries using browser features versus SharePoint Designer.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Tweaking the Monster
• What does that mean? A powerful tool with a lot of options is never what you need “out of the box”; tweaking means fine-tuning elements to your needs. SharePoint does not always make this easy.
• Tools to use – Firefox: FANG and Firebug
• Functional limitations – SharePoint is not kind to site developers
• Cheat sheets – finding help online by looking at the solutions others have come up with.

ACCESSIBILITY:

Editing the CSS
• Accessing it – learn your m aster pages
• Examples of code hacks:
Commenting out code that shows “page has been altered” bar
Changing code to hide ribbon bar from student users.

ACCESSIBILITY
Alternative ways to Navigate:

Mapping SharePoint as a Network Drive

Easy to do on Windows 7

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An alternative way to negotiate/manage site and move and copy data around. Displays file structure of all the list and documents, all the libraries….
Can use this to manage data between parent and sub sites
Functional limitations-

Mobile Device Mode
• How to set it up
• Functional Limitations

ACCESSIBILITY:
An example of what can be done

Screen shot of OTAP site

Oregon Technology Access Program: http://www.otap-oregon.org/Pages/Default.aspx

ACCESSIBILITY
: An example of what can be done
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Screen shot of CNIB site

Canada National Institute for the Blind: http://www.cnib.ca/en/

USABIILTY ISSUES

For Student using the site
•
•
Learning curve adjusting to SP features/layout
Default layout not friendly
•
Features (some) not accessible, not usable

For Staff developing the site
•
Application not friendly
•
Steep learning curve

For Staff using the site
•
Documents other than MS have to be edited outside
SharePoint (proprietary issues-i.e. PDF)
•
Learning curve

W RAP UP
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
Functionality: SharePoint 2010 is a very powerful and flexible program, but those very aspects also make it complex and confusing. Trying to customize it without coders and web designers on staff is not advised. Designed to be used in a collaborative environment, it needs tweaking in order to maintain privacy standards. Once everything is set up, though, it should keep chugging along efficiently for as long as you need it.
Accessibility: Unfortunately, Microsoft is not there yet.
While not completely accessible out of the box, the
SharePoint site instances can be customized using web guidelines/standards, validation tools and re-coding. A lot is accessible; however, there are major flaws in other areas.
Fixing those flaws is doable, but requires the expertise of a programmer.

A CCESSIBILITY R ESOURCES
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Blogs and Websites
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 http://alastairc.ac/2009/11/sharepoint-2010-accessibility-event/ Alastair Campbell- SharePoint
Accessibility Event http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/Blogs/GetThePoint/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=517Building an accessible site
 http://www.aiim.org/community/blogs/expert/SharePoint-2010-Web-Standards-Accessibility-and-
Usability-Quick-Reference-Guide -SharePoint 2010 Web Standards, Accessibility, and
Usability Quick Reference Guide

 http://www.slideshare.net/mavention/sharepoint-2010-web-standards-accessibility -Web Standards and Accessibility -Mavention http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2008/sharepoint-and-web-accessibility/

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FANG- Firefox Add on https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/fangs-screen-reader-emulator/

Third Party Addon/Plugins
 http://www.hisoftware.com/solutions/SharePoint-Solutions/hisoftware-policy-sheriff-for-
SharePoint/accessibility-compliance/accessibility-foundation-module.aspx
HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff® SP Accessibility Foundation Module (AFM)