Case Study
U.S. Army-Information Systems Engineering Command
The Business Problem
The United States Army Information Systems Engineering Command has the primary mission
of system engineering and integration of information systems for the U.S. Army.
As the Army Materiel Command (AMC) Executive Agent for Information Management (EA-IM),
they provide architecture-engineering services that support the development and
deployment of integrated and seamless systems within the enterprise.
The Force Projection Engineering Directorate (FPED), Special Project Office (SPO)
of the U.S. Army Information Systems Engineering Command was directed by the (Chief
Information Officer) CIO of AMC to monitor all Web sites under AMC to make sure
that they conform to accessibility standards under Section 508.
One of the first priorities of the Special Project Office was to develop a strategy
for managing and monitoring the Section 508 status of the AMC Web sites, located
around the world, and administered by hundreds of Web managers. The Special Project
Office identified assessment, training and support as the primary resources needed.
The Special Projects Office created a Resource Web site from which assessment, support
and training would be disseminated on the topic. One of the first items needed was
a tool or set of tools for verifying the current compliance levels with Section
508 and a tool to allow web developers to check their own work. They chose HiSoftware Compliance Sheriff and AccVerify/AccRepair products to meet this need.
There were two main requirements that lead to the acquisition of Section 508 assessment
tools. First of all, from an administrative standpoint, AMC wanted to be aware of
where their web pages stood in terms of accessibility. This would allow AMC to concentrate
training on appropriate topics and areas as well as show growth and progress in
the realm of meeting the Section 508 accessibility guidelines. Additionally, the
AMC CIO wanted monthly reports on each of AMC’s websites.
The AMC Section 508 program includes monitoring Internet and intranet sites, located
on Web servers around the world. Compliance Sheriff was purchased to provide scheduled
and on demand remote reporting for a projected 900 Web sites. Next, since many divisions
develop their own web sites, AMC also needed a solution which would allow web developers
to easily test their pages and identify problem spots to fix prior to posting or
when “retro-fitting” their web site. AccVerify/AccRepair were selected
for that purpose.
The Solution
Army Materiel Command purchased an unlimited license for Compliance Sheriff and has
begun a rollout of AccVerify/AccRepair at several of its installations. AccVerify
provides for the verification of accessibility policy and standards required for
Web Sites under the Rehabilitation Act Section 508 and W3C® WCAG 1.0 Priority 1-3
guidelines. AccRepair uses the reporting and verification components of AccVerify
to launch a repair “wizard” interface, which prompts the user to correct
accessibility errors. AccRepair also uses a library that “learns” as
repairs are made. These applications are available as a stand-alone desktop solution
and as an integrated add-on for Microsoft FrontPage.
Compliance Sheriff is an automated accessibility testing solution for Web sites or for use
in conjunction with intranet servers or file servers. Using a crawler, Compliance Sheriff
tests sites for compliance with Section 508 and W3C accessibility standards. Compliance Sheriff
spiders, or crawls over, entire Web sites and reports on their accessibility status.
Compliance Sheriff particularly benefits organizations that need to monitor multiple servers
that host information via the World Wide Web. Compliance Sheriff is a server solution that
is designed to run with no user interaction once configured. Compliance Sheriff can be scheduled
to crawl Web sites daily, weekly, or monthly. It also allows users to log-on for
on demand reports on the accessibility status of their Web pages.
The AMC Web sites are created with a wide range of solutions including Microsoft
FrontPage, Macromedia DreamWeaver and ColdFusion Server, and Lotus Notes. These
sites are hosted on a wide range of Web servers including IIS, Apache, Domino, etc.
AMC Web Masters can log into the Compliance Sheriff through a secure website, and
run an “on-demand” check of the accessibility status of their Web site.
Additionally, the Special Projects Office will use Compliance Sheriff to check all
Web pages on all AMC sites and feedback will be provided to the appropriate Web
developer and reports will be sent to the CIO’s office on a monthly basis.
It will also be used as a training and support tool.
Prior to AMC’s purchase of Compliance Sheriff, the Web wide management of accessibility
issues was something that required countless man hours and was extremely challenging
to manage for a very large organization. Now, AMC has a strategy for managing hundreds
of Web sites through a centralized system, without a requirement for file or server
access. Compliance Sheriff can effectively access AMC’s web files for remote
and on–demand reporting world wide.
The Bottom Line
HiSoftware’s solutions provided the comprehensive testing and reporting features
that AMC required, through a simple to use interface. Additionally, HiSoftware’s
applications provided great flexibility in user-driven and automated reporting,
and also provided flexibility for Enterprise Wide deployment and mass distribution.
Over the next several months, The Special Project Office projects that they will
be reporting on over 900 Web sites. They are also using these solutions to test
their own automated Web based applications.