Addressing Concerns with MOSS and Compliance
I was pleased to read about AccRepair, a product by New Hampshire-based HiSoftware. SharePoint 2007 is a powerful tool, but I am forever interested in adhering to standards and in compliance issues, 508-related and other.
Because there is so much compiling and dynamic page generation happening from within MOSS, the code can be less than crisp. For most people, this will not be an issue. It will not affect performance and it may affect Search Engine System indexing, but the extent to which it would be affected is not clear. The issue resonates most strongly with those who are working on government contracts, grants, or creating sites that positively must be accessable by the impaired.
The tool itself has been designed to work with SharePoint Designer, and contains OOTB 508, W3C, and other compliance tests for your MOSS sites.
This is great news, because it allows developers to include compliance testing in their normal QA processes. I have not seen the tool in action yet, and I do not know if it contains any knowledge base in regard to fixing whatever issues it may uncover, but the fact that it even pinpoints issues is very promising to me. If you have the chance to use the software, I would welcome your feedback and review.
This is a step in the right direction, and I am happy to see someone fill the need for a MOSS-oriented compliance tool that can be integrated within the development environment.
Best,
MIT Technical, Boston
