We are also running SCCM 2012 and I have encountered some of the same difficulties with the WPF interface. Let us know on or off the list how we can help you with either Microsoft or with the federal government angle. I don't personally know any system admins that are feds, but that certainly doesn't mean there aren't any or that Section 508 could not be used. I do know a lot of feds who might be able to point us in the right direction and some that are involved in procurement. Also because SCCM isn't widely used in the consumer space, it may not be on the radar of advocacy groups that regularly consult with Microsoft pertaining to accessibility by the blind. In my own case, at least for our initial deployment, we were able to get around many of the issues through PowerShell scripts that automated frequently used functions. We had a great consultant on SCCM who was able to assist us in creating these Powershell scripts. He was readily able to think and work outside the box to make things accessible that weren't accessible by design. Best, Mika -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan Shugart Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 4:39 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] the future of System Center Configuration Manager Hi: There’s a small component that’s web-based, but that’s mainly enduser facing and not administrator facing. The admin console used to be an MMC-based tool that was really accessible, but when 2012 rolled out, Microsoft decided that wasn’t good enough so made this whole new UI as a WPF-based application. That’s when they completely broke accessibility. I don’t know about sales to the federal government for sure, but I’d be really shocked if they weren’t. I just don’t know any specifics. I’ve just always suspected that federal agencies are simply ignoring section 508 when they purchase this because they didn’t have any blind admins and probably still don’t. Of course, knowing the state of IT in our government, it wouldn’t surprise me if the 2007 version, which was the old MMC-based one, is still in use, so I just don’t have the specifics to know. I saw the VPAT for SCCM at one point and it acknowledged that SCCM failed the test in several areas, although they counted it as “passing with exceptions.” Most of the accessibility bugs are things a competent screen reader user would discover within the first 5 minutes (if not 30 seconds) of playing with the product, so its pretty obvious Microsoft either did no testing with a screen reader or just doesn’t care, or both. Whenever Microsoft tries to talk about their “commitment to accessibility” I can trot this out in front of them, and be like “that’s sure working well isn’t it." Ryan
On Oct 28, 2015, at 1:30 AM, Sean Murphy <mhysnm1964@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,
My thoughts.
1. Microsoft must be selling this to the USA government. Thus wouldn’t the rehab 508 act force them to comply with accessibility or is the product regarded as back office? 2. Is the product web base, then wouldn’t the 21st century act have some coverage here?
Cheers Saen
On 28 Oct 2015, at 11:19 am, Ryan Shugart <rshugart@ryanshugart.com> wrote:
This blog post has been making the rounds on the SCCM lists and thought I’d share for the other blind people who use SCCM: http://blogs.technet.com/b/configmgrteam/archive/2015/10/27/system-center-co... This actually makes me kind of nervous, Microsoft’s accessibility history with this product hasn’t exactly been stellar. We use SCCM 2012R2 today, and thanks to some Window-Eyes scripts I can get around and all parts read, but its very very clunky and I wouldn’t call myself fast by any means. We recently upgraded to 2012R2 SP1 CU1, and that actually broke all the scripts and we had to rush to get them fixed. So I’m holding off on this upgrade for as long as I can. However, to be able to manage any OS beyond Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB (including the non LTSB builds of Windows 10) we’ll have to upgrade eventually. On top of that, assuming I can get new scripts written, if Microsoft can upgrade this guy whenever they want, those scripts may not be for much. I’m meeting with our TAM and some PMs on the SCCM team Friday to talk about my concerns, I have little hope of anything happening, Microsoft already said accessibility will not be a part of the next release, but hey. Just wanted to let any other blind admins know about this if they hadn’t seen the posts already. Ryan _______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins
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