Today, Microsoft and HiSoftware are pleased to announce the release of the Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS) v2.0.  The AKS v2.0 provides an accessible development framework and significantly reduces the level of effort and knowledge needed by customers and partners to improve the accessibility of SharePoint based sites and applications.

The AKS v2.0 follows on from the success of the AKS v1.0 and v1.1 which have been downloaded by more than 4000 organizations in fifty countries.  The AKS v2.0 is intended to be a community based project which other individuals and organizations can contribute to and is released today under the Microsoft Public License.

Key Features in the AKS v2.0

The AKS v2.0 introduces the following:

• Smart Control adapters which greatly reduce the amount of custom configuration previously required for AKS control adapters.
• The Web Part Zone Control Adapter, a special Smart Adapter that modifies the output of SharePoint so that it does not use tables for layout of the Web parts.
• HiSoftware’s Compliant Code Engine (HCCE) to assist organizations in creating code that is compliant to standards-based HTML or XHTML.
• Additional requirements under Canadian Common Look and Feel 2.0 (CLF 2.0) guidelines.
• Examples of remediation to comply with WCAG 2.0 Level AA.
• French language version of AKS 1.0 components.

Microsoft is focused on accessibility and is committed to supporting standards.  By working with HiSoftware to develop the AKS v2.0 we are reinforcing our commitment to addressing accessibility within SharePoint and providing customers with a framework to meet their accessibility requirements between now and the release of the next version of SharePoint.  Download the AKS v2.0 today and let us know what you think.

Ryan Duguid
Senior Product Manager
Microsoft Corp