Subject: Re: Library Website
Newsgroups: gmane.education.web4lib
Date: 2006-04-15 14:37:26 GMT (3 years, 11 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes ago)
I'm sure Jon can answer this at least as well as I can, but let me jump in. Most publicly funded institutions of higher education in the U.S. technically have a legal obligation [I am not a lawyer!] to make their web sites comply with Section 508, though there's explicitly no enforcement provision in that obligation. Regardless, you'd probably agree that you have an ethical obligation to make your site accessible to any of your users who happen to have vision, motor, or cognitive disabilities, especially when doing so is not very difficult. Complying with Section 508 or especially WCAG priority 2 (IMO) goes a long way toward ensuring that level of accessibility. If you comply with both the letter and the spirit of the HTML and CSS specifications, you take advantage of built-in mechanisms that are likely to make your pages work across browsers and versions; across a wide range of screen resolutions and window sizes--or lack of windows altogether in screen readers; and across a wide range of browser configuration settings (e.g. disabling scripting, as Microsoft continually recommends for IE users). When explaining this to your director, do not get thrown off by claims that standards-compliant web sites are more expensive to create, harder to maintain, or inherently unattractive. Compliance needs to be taken into account at an early stage in the design process, but from that point on does not add any great burden to creation and maintenance, and does not restrict any half-way imaginative designer. Thomas Dowling tdowling@... On 4/15/2006 9:16 AM, Jon Goodell wrote: > Hi Steven, > > Can you explain in more detail why these standards are important to libraries, especially in the community college context? How should I explain this to my library director and her superiors? > > Thank you, > Jon > > Jon Goodell > Technology Services & Reference Librarian > Pulaski Technical College - Ottenheimer Library > North Little Rock, AR > 501-812-2718 > jgoodell@... > > ________________________________ > > From: web4lib-bounces@... on behalf of Stiofan Perkins > Sent: Fri 4/14/2006 7:26 PM > To: Ian Chan; web4lib@... > Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Library Website > > > > Ian: > > An interesting list. Only two of them pass the W3 > HTML validator, four of them pass the automated > section 508 tests at Cynthia Says, and none of them > pass the automated WAI tests also at Cynthia Says. > While those results do not mean the pages are > unaccessible, they do indicate that more attention > needs to be paid to accessibility in library web page > design. > > Regards, > > Steven C. Perkins > Coordinator of Reference Services > MD Anderson Library > University of Houston > > > --- Ian Chan <afitc@...> wrote: > >> Hi Jon, >> >> This page lists several libraries that have >> undergone web redesigns in >> the last couple years: >> > http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/about/project/libraries.php. >> The >> documentation from University of Washington was >> especially helpful. MIT >> libraries has also done an excellent job tracing >> their web development >> process. >> >> Summary of our re-design process. >> http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/about/project/ >> >> Nicely re-designed community college website: >> http://dept.sccd.ctc.edu/sslib/ >> >> One of my favorite university library web sites: >> http://www.lib.umn.edu/ >> - re-designed in the last year or two? >> >> > --------------------------------------------------------- >> Ian Chan >> Assistant Professor >> Web Services Librarian >> UAA/APU Consortium Library >> http://www.lib.uaa.alaska.edu/ >> 907.786.1835 >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > Web4lib mailing list > Web4lib@... > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Web4lib mailing list > Web4lib@... > http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/ > _______________________________________________ Web4lib mailing list Web4lib@... http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/