 |  |
| |
|
Members Present: Johnson, Biles, Sinn, Corkill, Erdwien, Richardson,
Simmonds (by video from Salina).
Guests: Fred Newton, Director, Counseling Center;
Scott Jones, Assistant Dean, Office of Student Life;
Jane Rowlett, Directory, Unclassified Affairs and University Compliance;
Andrea Blair, Learning Disabilities Specialist, Disability Support Services.
Meeting was called to order at approximately 3:00 p.m. Minutes from the previous meeting were approved as distributed.
Welcome was extended to our new members, Cara Richardson, who is with us today, and Mary Anne Andrews, both of the College of Human Ecology.
Jane Rowlett was a guest and she talked about the state regulations for web in relation to accessibility, both for students and employees. Rowlett said that the Department of Justice has reviewed some cases and does require web sites to be ADA accessible. The State Requirements are to make all web sites accessible by March 2002, to be implemented in stages. Information about these guidelines is available on the web at www.ksu.edu/tools/access. Rowlett's office is working on a letter that will go to the University community and it is expected that the letter will be sent out next week. The state is also providing training sessions on the guidelines.
Following Rowlett's comments there was discussion on whether these guidelines include student organizations and it was the general feel that if the group goes through the activities association organization and receives university funding then they must comply. There was discussion of faculty pages and in most cases faculty pages will need to comply if there is information on their web site that students need access to such as syllabi. However, personal pages unrelated to University business are not subject to these regulations.
There was discussion on how K-State will monitor and spot check web pages to make sure we are in compliance. Electronic methods of reviewing websites are being evaluated.
Discussion of a link from the home page to emergency services or health and safety was discussed. Discussion focused on content of an emergency services/health and safety website and who the audience is and where the link should be on the K-State home page. Also discussed was the wording for the link, popup box information and placement of the link on K-State's homepage. The relatively limited space available for description in a popup box make the wording of the description important and challenging.
The issue will be discussed further at a future meeting. Individuals from the health and safety units were instructed to categorize the information and define the audience. Janelle and Neil were instructed to make a mockup of a Health and Safety link from the K-State home page.
Andrea Blair, from Disability Student Services, was a guest and she also addressed web accessibility primarily from the angle of student accessibility to course materials.
Concern was expressed that some faculty may turn away from electronic course materials because of these requirements. We need to educate faculty, and other web page authors, that accessibility requirements do not require double the effort. Many text-based pages are accessible with few or no changes. What is required is an awareness of the requirements to prevent people from accidentally creating unaccessible pages. Ironically, the high-end multimedia and interactive technologies, which have been a priority for many leading-edge instructors, are the most difficult to reconcile with accessibility requirements.
It was suggested that it would be useful to have the committee see a demonstration of some of the assistive technologies available for computers in general and web pages in particular. Because of renovation of the facilities, a demonstration won't be available until some time in August.
Neil and Janelle provided three options for providing links to the unit
home pages. The group decided to go with combining
Option 2 which has
"Kansas State University" and the department name centered at the bottom and
Option 3 which has
a popup box come up when you mouse over "Home". The popup box would have
"Kansas State University Home" and "
Meeting was adjourned at about 5:00.
Approval of previous minutes.
Welcome to new members: Cara Richardson and Mary Anne Andrews. There may have been other changes in the membership that I'm not aware of. Could everyone take a quick look at http://www.ksu.edu/committees/webdesign/membership.html and tell me if anyone should be added or deleted?
Options for adding an "Emergency Services" link. Janelle and I will prepare mockups of where such a link could be added, and several members of the Crisis Management Committee will attend to provide input on what the linked page should contain. The mockup is available online.
Continuation of last meeting's discussion of web page accessibility. Jane Rowlett from the Unclassified Affairs and University Compliance office is planning on attending and adding to the discussion.
Options for providing links to unit home pages.
