Thursday, May 27, 2010

Revisioning the uw.edu/accessibility Web Site


AccessibleWeb@U Meeting
May 26, 2010
  • What should be on the http://uw.edu/accessibility/ site?
    • First we took a tour through the current site
      • Need to update W3C and 508 information
      • Some controversy whether the DIS guidelines apply to us
      • Accessibility policies at other higher education needs review and update. List currently on site is a bit old
      • Web Accessibility page defines what accessible Web design is about.
      • Procurement information is a bit out-of-date. Purchasing has not taken much interest.
      • IT Tools and Resources page is fairly up-to-date (Terry has been working on it).
        • We have an ARIA page but it is out-of-date
      • Link to other disability resources on campus
      • Frequently asked questions, mostly about how someone gets accessibility support
      • Getting Help - repeats much of what is in the FAQ page
    • Discussion
      • Need to review the Procurement information because of the new eProcurement system, which does offer energy efficient hardware, but not accessibility
      • Be nice to have AccessibleWeb@U more visible
        • UW Inclusion Network email list was just created. Might want to connect/include them
      • Who is the audience for this site?
        • People who do not understand accessibility
        • Technical people who want to know more about it
        • People who are sent here because they want to buy accessible stuff
        • Intent was to be the go-to resource for information, particularly technology
          • A resource that could be useful as a place to send people
        • More people are building sites with WordPress, Plone, or Drupal
          • Standard designs are being created that can be shared access the systems
          • Many people simply put content into an existing environment
        • There are still many people at college and school level hand managing their Web sites
          • Pharmacy still does not have a Web person
          • The new model of centrally administered CMS with distributed people providing and maintaining content is only just arriving.
        • We should visit the major ones at least every couple of years
          • Drupal
          • Plone
          • SharePoint
          • WordPress
        • Need to connect with people who are making decisions on how to set up CMSs and blog sites
          • Want to have ideas on which templates, widgets are more accessible
          • Would break into two groups - people setting up CMSs and blogs and people managing content in CMSs and blogs
        • Could we connect better with other people working on accessibility at the UW
          • Get feedback from UW Inclusion Network people
          • Groups are meeting regularly, meeting on Thursdays at 7pm seem to be the most active, but has a big social aspect
          • Planning is underway for an accessibility camp, but when is not clear
        • Should uw.edu/accessibility be a portal for accessibility for the entire campus?
          • Different groups addressing accessibility all have their own Web sites, each from their own perspective
          • What could this site be in the way of a general accessibility portal for all of the UW?
        • Could we be one of the first sites into the new Plone site? We should talk to Gina.
      • Topic for discussion: Accessibility issues of information architecture of page templates (including their site level navigation), the content placed within the template, and the relationship between the two
      • Short term project: Can we fit the YUI keyboard navigable menu into the Marketing page template.