April 17, 2013– Needles Hall 1101 – 3:00 p.m.
Present:
Daniel Allen, Heather Anderson, Kirsty Budd, Janice Cooke, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Donald Duff-McCracken, Chris Francis, Alison Gelata, Chris Gray, Marlon Griffith, Jim Johnston, Pat Lafranier, Collin McIntyre, Liam Morland, Kris Olafson, Rose Padacz, Elizabeth Rogers (Guest), Megan Saunders, Susan Shifflett, Terry Stewart (Chair), Jeff Voskamp, Jonathan Woodcock.
Regrets:
Jay Athia, Karen Jack, Vadim Kononov
Absent:
Amy Aldous, Dave Annable, Marta Bailey, Cynthia Breen, Guillermo Fuentes, Nigel Henriques, Tammy Marcinko, Amy Meredith, Paul Miskovsky, Andrea Sweet.
1. Chair’s Remarks
Welcome to guest Elizabeth Rogers from CPA.
2. Approval of Minutes.
The minutes of March 20, 2013 were approved as posted.
3. Business Arising
- We had hoped to have Pascal Calarco from the Library report on the Digital Media Asset Management project. He was unable to attend; hopefully we will have a report on digital media in the future.
- Next meeting Jeff Voskamp will present an update on the URL Shortener (uwat.ca).
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PSE Web Conference. There are a number of people speaking at the conference. Jonathan is putting together a rehearsal for speakers beginning of June.
4. Waterloo CMS Update (Pat Lafranier/Kris Olafson)
- 187 planning meetings.
- 984 people have attended SEW courses.
- 220 people have attended the WCMS drop-in labs.
- Natasha Jennings has moved to a different position within IST. A new contract person has been hired to replace Natasha. Andrea Jennings started on April 1st.
- Every bug has been assessed in the Request system.
- Revamping of people content type still needs to be figured out; should be completed in the next couple of weeks.
- Mobile web is now Web and Application Design and Student Portal is now Web Development
- We will be looking at the Student Portal in these working groups, but it will not be the only subject of discussion. Colin Bell is working on mandates for the group which we can forward to WAC members after they are approved.
- Student Portal – The Student Success Office will be taking over supervision of this initiative. They will be the product owner and the WCMS group will develop it for them. They will help us get student feedback.
- Second Search Appliance - Second search appliance arrived but had issues. We are waiting on a replacement which will arrive shortly. At that point we will swap out the appliances, upgrade the old one, and start to work on new features. Not sure at this point of the timeline but will update if there are any delays.
Questions and Comments:
Q. Any sense of the status of migration into the hopper?
A. There are 30 sites launching in the next few months.
Q. Is there an issue for people having to wait?
A. No, but a new group of co-ops will be starting May 6th that will need training in the WCMS. This may slow down migration until the co-ops are up to speed.
C. If you have a co-op that needs training in the WCMS, please contact Pat Lafranier.
Q. What is happening regarding accessibility on campus?
A. The Director of AccessAbility Services has indicated that the Accessibility Directorate will help to extend education, time and support to ensure compliance as long as we have a strategic plan in place to be accessible. The AODA coordinators have a provincial meeting coming up and there will be an update on questions posed from various universities regarding Web Accessibility from the Directorate at the next meeting.
Q. Is the university looking at governance?
A. Yes, that is one of the first recommendations in the report of the Working Group on Accessiblity.
Q. Presentation of the Portal at next meeting? Is there an interest?
A. Unanimous- no.
Q. Will we notice any changes made in the updated search appliance?
A. We don’t know until we get a functioning upgraded search appliance. The appearance may be more mobile friendly but we will have to wait and see. New features will be released over time.
5. Digital Initiatives Report (Jonathan Woodcock)
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First, a welcome to Elizabeth Rogers! She will be taking on such responsibilities as; capabilities, content management, and pathway holder.
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Jonathan is putting out a call for members of two working groups. There was a good response for the Digital Asset Management group but there was no response for the Blogging Group. This group still needs a chair as well. Jonathan will be organizing a meeting for May.
6. Round Table Discussion on Accessibility (All)
Environment:
Things are going well in environment with the planning and maintenance. ODAA is planning to schedule one more group to move into the WCMS. a number of research sites are requesting their own look and feel.
Questions and Comments:
Q. How many web maintainers are in training?
A. Will be investigated.
Q. Should web content maintainers (WCM) take accessibility courses?
A. Yes, that would be a good idea.
C. Heather's area sends out a Quality Assurance report after a site is migrated. The site manager would get the report and could create their own stats based on the report or run WAVE. Are these stats available?
C. Just because the QA was done doesn't mean your site is 100% accessible. Nor is it guaranteed accessible because someone could easily make a change later.
C. It is important to make sure your WCM keeps up their training.
Q. Is there a record of who has taken the SEW courses?
A. Yes, it is in the ELM HR system. Pat will investigate what information can be made available as there could be a privacy issue.
C. Rose Padacz may need this information for ELMS at some point; privacy issues are of concern.
C. We need to inform our groups about the training, even though it is not a compliance issue yet.
C. Pat will see what we are privy to from OHD. WCMS training and support keeps a list of all who attend the courses.
Q. Is every content person required to take accessibility courses?
A. It is recommended but not a policy.
C. A training and support foundation should be put in place to ensure we get there.
Library:
The Library is still in Contribute. We have begun working on AODA compliance. We only have a certain number of people who work on the sites. Have gotten permission from IST for special session in the WCMS. Has written an automated script to inventory site for pages modified since start of 2012, letting staff know what pages they are responsible for. When WAVE was used to scan one page from a vendor hosted site, found many problems. More problems were revealed by using Fangs (Firefox add-on that simulates a screen reader). A pre-December deadline has been set to make sure all pages are accessible.
Questions and Comments:
Q. Where is the Tri-University Group of libraries (TUG) at?
A. There is very little information that all three share, not sure where it is at this point.
Q. Are these sites deemed Public Facing?
A. Yes.
Q. Is there an opportunity to scan them?
A. Yes.
C. For the LibGuides hosted site, we were assured that it is accessible (by US 508 standard) but have found problems. The Library is not sure how the legislation applies to their web applications (TRELLIS and Primo); they do not own.
C. Skinning the application if it can be skinned - there is always the application behind a Proxy server to filter the pages.
C. You might want to talk to Jim Johnston regarding API Proxing.
Information Systems and Technology:
The IST website has gone on hold due to the re-org. At this time we do not have the resources; we need people who have worked on content before.
Computer Science:
Many WCM’s have not taken WCMS training. There are a number of pages outside the CMS area that have not been completed yet due to a lack of resources at this time.
Math:
Not all staff have taken WCMS training. Regarding automated checking, not happy with it, using our own resources. Sites are not up yet. Faculty and Research sites have moved to Drupal. MFCF site got rid of their original site and rebuilt it. There has been a lot of positive feedback on the change. Once your IT site is moved over, it is a lot smaller. Director has said no to FAQ on site. Trying to accommodate users to the different way sites are read. Some migration happening. Goal was to write once. Blocked FAQ and Wiki from search sites. Looking for product other than WAVE for accessibility - will let us know of findings.
Engineering:
Department sites are almost done; there is only one site left. There are a large number of maintainers, have hired coop students for the summer to help police. Finished a mass index of all the engineering site. Training- Still have an issue with the accessibility training being too far removed from the use of the site. Staff won’t review the documents from the courses. Engineering Computing decided to start over.
Questions and Comments:
C. Liam Morland will take feedback on accessibility course.
C. Accessibility act guidelines; if a site is protected by a password it is okay as of January. But the intent of the University should be to make as much as possible publicly available and accessible, not to hide it behind passwords.
Applied Health Sciences:
All department sites and Faculty site are done; the challenge is keeping up with new information. An audit has been done on what sites are left. Finding it difficult to get WCM’s to take courses. Trying with every migration to convert PDF and other document formats to more accessible versions.
Office of Research:
Rewriting content for research site. Approximately one year ago general access was cut off. 3 WCM's have taken SEW courses. More human resources are needed to update sites.
Communication and Public Affairs:
All but one site completed (Daily Bulletin). Daily Bulletin has 20 years of information. New staff needs to take SEW courses. Most content passes through Digital Initiatives. Greatest challenge is the Daily Bulletin.
Centre for Extended Learning:
Training not completed by all staff. Have decided to rebuild site from scratch.
Science:
Completed migration into WCMS. Identified areas that need work to meet accessibility compliance. Re: PDF's - not sure yet if they are going to audit them. Made it a requirement that WCM's take SEW courses. Faculty members won’t take SEW course. Research group websites are maintained by students.
Student Success Office:
Websites have been audited, should be up to date. Maintainers are taking SEW courses, but are not using the skills learned enough to maintain knowledge.
Housing:
There are not many contributors. Have written a “Quick Start” guide for editors and contributors.
Questions and Comments:
Q. ENews mass mailings, how does it apply?
A. Section 14 applies only to websites.
C. HTML emails need to be accessible under Human Rights.
AccessAbility Services:
Have found the switch a challenge. Have taken SEW courses more than once. There is a need to encourage people to take the SEW courses. Site is ready for January 14, 2014
Questions and Comments:
C. A thank you to the WCMS team, for really emphasizing accessibility.
C. A “quick start” guide might be helpful for staff.
General Questions and Comments:
C. January 14 only applies to information that was made after 2012.
C. When sites are migrated it resets the date, information would now need to become accessible.
C. Scope is a huge question; there is a need for a definition.
Q. Is there a plan for all of the senate and other committee minutes?
A. Accessible templates are not available yet.
Q. Is there a system in place for PDF’s?
A. No there is no system in place for ensure PDF accessibility. However, there is an Accessible Word and PDF course through SEW and a number of people on campus are being trained on generating accessible PDFs including Creative Services staff. Audit, review and support for PDF accessibility falls under a number of the recommendations from the Accessibility Working Group report. It was also noted that there are external companies who will make PDFs that meet accessibility requirements for a fee, but Jonathan does not have direct contact options (or past history) for any such companies.
7. Next Meeting
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3:00-4:30p.m., May 15, 2013. MC 2018 a/b (Note room).