5.31.2012

5.31.2012 Meeting

Facilitator: Nina Modi

Presenting: Alison May

Note Takers: Jill Brazel/Nina Modi

Attendees

Attendee	Department
Jessica Watson	DOS
Claire Kelly	MSA
Tony Kirchmeier	Off Campus
Mark D'Arienzo	Housing
Chris Walker	SAIT
Jill Brazel	SAIT
Nina Modi	SAIT
Lopa Patel	Graduate Housing
Eric Budinski	Religious Life
Bernard Foster	Safe Ride
Josh McKenzie	Orientation and Parent Programming
Virginia Koch	Residential Life
Dan Amato	Residential Life
Alison May	Students With Disabilities
Jeremy Hopkins	University Career Services

Introduction of Attendees

Attendees were asked to:

• Introduce themselves, including department and role
• Provide expectations of the group meeting

Agenda	Presenters
Introduction	Nina Modi
Updates	Nina Modi
Accessibility Update	Alison May
Accessibility Presentation	Alison May
Breakout Sessions	Group

Introduction to Meeting

Welcome to the group and we appreciate the participation. Our goal for these monthly group meetings is to provide training, resources, information and guidance so that each department will have all the support to maintain and enhance their websites. We encourage everyone to attend as many meetings as possible. 

WCUG Updates

• The minutes from each our WCUG meetings are posted as a resource to you to review our discussions.
• A new version of Cascade is due to be released over the summer and we will keep everyone updated when that gets implemented with the new features.
• A new site has been launched called Respect NU, regarding the Universitys policies, procedures, resources and definitions on bias incidents and a method to report any incidents on campus for students, staff and faculty.
• We also now have video capabilities if you have any video needs in your department you can contact Jill Brazel via email.
• Provide feedback to Nina Modi, email address n-modi@northwestern.edu

Accessibility Updates

• Tommy Carroll met with Web Comm to discuss NU's overall home page accessibility and changes that need to be made to make it accessible.
• Any accessiblity questions can be sent to Alison May's email.

Accessibility Presentation

Basic Best Practices for Web Accessibility 

Guidelines for Alt Text

1. Does the picture belong on the page?

• Alt text can be used to make a picture fit, but not ideal approach

2. Keep the alt text concise but descriptive

3. If the picture is linked, are the picture and link logically related?

• Indicate “click to enlarge” in the alt text if appropriate
• Demonstration of creating/breaking a link in Cascade

4. Use your accessibility-check script in Cascade to review your alt tags.

Guidelines for Naming Links

1. Similar to alt text, try to make the link name informative so that someone searching the page just by link names could readily identify the desired link.

• Avoid naming links “click here,” “click this,” “click the image,” etc.

2. Forewarn the user that s/he’ll be visiting an external website, opening a document, and, if you must set up a link this way, open a new browser window.

• Include “(.doc)(.pdf)” or “(external site)” in the link unless it’s obviously an external site (e.g., Google).

3. Avoid using the same link name for different pages.

• Last month’s UCS example of its 2 different CareerCat links (one for students, one for faculty/staff) that were both named “CareerCat.”

4. Be consistent: give a link to a specific page the same name throughout your site.

• It may not always be possible given the context in which the link appears, but try to get it close enough so that someone using only the links knows if s/he has already visited a particular link/page.

Brainstorming Breakout Session

Nina formed 2 groups, to discuss the following:

• Navigation Drop down method - Trial on the Sustainability website
• The social media sidebar -  Trail on the UCS website
• The search tool - Trial on the UCS website
• Overall DOSA websites - likes dislikes
• WCUG meetings and ideas - discuss goals, role and future function of WCUG

Instructions for Brain Storming Activity (word doc)