HHS Web Council Meeting Notes - September 18, 2008
INTRODUCTION
- Introduction of Council
- Next Council Meeting: October 16th at SAMHSA with Jerry McGovern
- New WCD Staff:
- Mikio Manuel – 508 plus
- Andrew Wilson – Pandemic Flu, Metrics…
- Katie Messner – the new intern
- Need one more member, deadline: September 29, 2008
- Hurricane
- Established the concept of lanes
- We are the health and safety lane
- Built a strong rapport and had mass cooperation between the departments of the federal government
- Widgets
- Established to help
- Also used by:
- MySpace, Federal Lane Pages, many state and local emergency sites, 70 local fox station websites
- 21,500 visits to the “get this Widget Page”
- 67,057 visits to the “What Government is Doing”
- 70,582 views (vs. 23,299 views in August) of www.hhs.gov/hurricane
- NOAA created the Hurricane Tracking Chart
- For Gustav, Hannah and Ike
- Maintenance free/ automatic updates
- Adopted by other federal sites
- Established the concept of lanes
IBM WATCHFIRE POLICY TESTER (508) REPLACEMENT, WEB CRAWLER
- Formed a “Tools Workgroup”
- Researched the various products
- Acquired a license for Digital Diagnostics
- Does everything that WatchFire was supposed to do and more
- Accenture Digital Diagnostics (formerly Maxamine) to replace WatchFire
- Reps from Accenture Digital Diagnostics
- 3 Strategies of high performance
- Direction
- Implementation
- Optimization
- Key Ingredients
- Digital optimization enables data driven content to improve
- Uses customer insights and personalization for customization
- What we do – create sophisticated web crawlers that can scan a web map because data is stored.
- Digital Diagnostics helps to identify and mitigate performance blocking implementation problems
- Custom projects and reports
- Can use to know which pages don’t get traffic and therefore can use to prioritize work list
- Software Client: How to Configure Scan
- Where and what to scan
- Software goes out, scans, collects all of the data and runs reports on it.
- Once scan is complete can receive report right away
- On the left there are links with reports nested in each
- Custom reports – those with specifics
- Link integrity – within each link there are reports
- Can view links, link text and line code
- 508 settings are built into the software
- Can be made unique to fit specific needs
- Has automated and manual checks
- Will identify pages with issues and will identify this issues themselves
- If don’t want an issue to be on the list, it can be removed
- Allows for an audit trail
- Who did what and when will be recorded
- Traffic overlay concept
- What gets hit and what does not
- Questions:
- Does it use usage data service logs or resolution data?
- It can use either.
- What timetable are reports based on (1 day, 1 month…)?
- Reports are based on snapshots in time- the data up to that time. The software will not overwrite previous reports and therefore you will need to create a system for archiving and deleting old data.
- Can I run multiple scans simultaneously?
- If there is enough RAM then it should be able to.
- What can I expect from user training?
- The class is hands-on and usually uses a pre-existing scan for explanations. It is encouraged that each division selects “super users” and has them trained as soon as possible.
- How long would it take to scan a domain?
- Honestly, it depends on the site. However, it generally scans about 10,000 pages per hour. If the server can handle more users per site then there should be no problem with scanning more.
- Can I manage my own scans?
- Yes.
- Can I customize the navigation bar labels on the left-hand side?
- Yes, you can change the “skin”/ template.
- Have there been other problems with the performance of this product in larger organizations?
- If operated correctly it can scan hundreds of thousands of sites without issue and do it quickly. However, in large organizations try to strategize what and who needs priority in order to avoid issues.
- How can I easily import and/ or export to my server?
- It will automatically export to the CSV and there formatting and then changes can be done.
- How well does it scan Word documents, Excel documents and PowerPoint presentations for 508 compliance?
- It does not actually look into these scanned documents for compliance.
- Does the software do 508 flash?
- Yes.
- Can I use this software with other tools?
- This is the tool that the entire department will be using. You may decide to use other tools with this as secondary tool, but this is the primary tool.
- Does it use usage data service logs or resolution data?
SOCIAL NETWORKING AND PROMO FOR NEXT COUNCIL MEETING
- For small OPDIVS:
- Recently the ITFC began filtering sites and therefore started blocking social networking sites.
- Social networking sites are something that we are trying to get into
- Prime demographic: reaching teens and young adults about health issues
- Would like to pull together and form a group
- Let Lauren know if you are interested in joining in the effort
- Rich will chair this group
- Question?
- Do you know the status on some being denied access to social media?
- No, there is no information on it yet.
- Do you know the status on some being denied access to social media?
508 PORTAL COMMUNITY
- Have access to most, but not all, authorized sources.
- If you are not in one of those, select “user”
- HHS Section 508 Community
- A portal community is a set of projects
- Can be notified if a document has changed
- Can notify everyone even if someone that needs to be notified is not a subscriber
- An instruction set and link to the community will follow
ACCOMODATIONS STANDARD WORK GROUP
- Goal 1: What do we mean by accommodations?
- Means or methods outside of 508 standards designed to assist disabled users
- Needs to be representative, responsive, adaptive, supportive and accountable
- Staff need to be knowledgeable about what have been labeled compliance tabbed
- It cannot be an excuse to not comply to 508
- Goal 2: Why are accommodations needed?
- The rapid pace of technology
- Content interpretation
- Interaction vs. information
- There are limits of the standards
- Goal 3: When would an accommodation be justified?
- NOT when content is created for a broad audience – it comes down to professional judgment
- NOT when content is business related
- Job applications or grant submissions
- Content becomes more technical and specialized
- Content that is a-type
- When application of 508 is not possible
- Next Steps
- What process do we need to ensure appropriate use of an accommodation?
- Is the accommodation process working?
- Documents and standards will go out to the committee
- Questions:
- What is the process for requests?
- 1 person should be put in charge for each division
- Memos should be submitted for approval
- Categorical approval will require a higher level of consideration than individual requests
- Are documents accessible by arrival or request?
- If it fits one of the categories it would be available on request all others need 508 compliant when posted.
- Can we get a waiver for 508 compliance?
- There is no waiver for 508 compliance. In few instances an exception, adhering to one of the categories above, may be made.
508 C&R UPDATE
Progress
- August inventory is available and ready
- Looking at compliance, broken links and page reduction
- Page counts reduced by 23%
- Broken links have increased (but was expected with reduced page counts)
- 508 html issues decreased 17% overall
- C&R Feedback and Template
- Completed a thorough review
- Feedback will be available next week
- Template will be available next week
- Feedback Overview
- Many were excellent
- HHS University, in particular, had an excellent plan
- Emulating good ideas
- Forms reviewed and identified for Phase 1 remediation – OMHA
- 508 Compliance is complete – ORI
- Pages generating 15% of the traffic were chosen to be fully compliant – ASPE
- System of maintenance in place – OHAP
- Removed over 500 pages of unlinked or outdated content – AoA
- Templates remediated; 508 Clearance Officers out in place – CMS
- Will establish Web Council within – ASAM
- Office of Communication will draft internal business process to meet 508 – SAMHSA
- Web Council, 508 Web Workgroup, 508 Implementation Team – CDC
- Remediation progress reported monthly and summarized quarterly. Monthly report shared with the 508 Web Task Force and Internet Improvement Team – FDA
- Courses found to be non-compliant will be taken off the LMS until remediated – HHHSU
- Courses submitted by OPDIVS must come certified 508 compliant – HHHSU
- Police re course 508 compliance will be promulgated within 6 months – HHHSU
- Common area that needs attention: The lack of compliance assurance
- Making sure that work is being done
- Making sure that work is being done correctly
- Template for revised Plans
- Make sure all elements are addressed
- Some plans need minor tweaks to comply with C&R
- Use as a guide for those; don’t reformat; add missing information
- Plans needing significant work
- Adopt template to structure revised plan
- Revised C&R Plans due November 14
- Signed by a senior official
- Many were excellent
- Questions:
- How soon will I find out what tweaks I need to make?
- They will be available early next week.
- Who are the senior officials?
- They will be identified in the memo next week.
- How soon will I find out what tweaks I need to make?
- We are being monitored
- Not just by the ADA
- Online applications (job, grant…) are a huge issue
- There are no accommodations; they must be made 508 compliant
- One of the issues is the reader that is being used
- Can’t keep adding new stuff that is not 508 compliant
- This will effect the senior performance
- Need to keep working to fix the old posts
- 508 Phase II Basic Training Course takes 1 hour
- October 1 HR will make sure that everyone has SES plans
- ADA Amendments Act of 2008 is about to be signed by President Bush
- Questions:
- Can you word that the entire department (HHS) will be at risk?
- Yes.
- Can you word that the entire department (HHS) will be at risk?
508 SUPPORT UPDATE
- HHS 508 Training
- Accessible Word Documents
- 9/25 10:00 am
- Accessible PDF Documents
- 9/25 1:30 pm
- 10/02 10:00 am
- 10/08 1:30 pm
- Testing Document Accessibility
- 10/02 1:30 pm
- Updates at www.hhs.gov/web
- Accessible Word Documents
- Proposed New Standards
- PPT and accessibility (508) – NOT Final
- Issue: Some older screen versions will not read PPT in its native form
- Free PPT is available
- Accommodations may be necessary because this version does not have everything accessible
- Preferred posting method is accessible HTML; plan ‘b’ is PPT in native format
- Excel and accessibility (508) – NOT Final, Will resend
- Plug-In Viewer – Final, Sold
- Tables
- “Through the use of either Scoping or Header ID Attributes” need to be added to complex tables
- HTML Forms – Final
- Accommodations
- They will be provided protectively
- PPT and accessibility (508) – NOT Final
- 508 – New Rules and Regulations
- Coming in 2010
- Not as far off as it sounds
- Design to the new rules
- They incorporate 508 usability testing
- New input from Access Board training
- Lisa Kruppa, Mikio Manuel, Vanessa Williams
- Coming in 2010
- What is the process for requests?
CLOSING REMARKS
- Next Council Meeting: October 16th at SAMHSA with Jerry McGovern
- Searchable Acronym Database to come
- 3 Strategies of high performance