• Date: Friday, May 31
• Time: 9:15 – 11:30
• Location: Southam Hall, Room: 624

The university is producing a series of webinars based on David ’s full day course (which you can also attend June 21 in the River Building. Contact READ for special pricing).

For more information and to register, please visit events.carleton.ca/the-new-standard-on-accessibility.

While WebCT has served Carleton well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated.  After an extensive review and evaluation, cuLearn was selected as Carleton’s new Learning Management System and was introduced to the campus in Spring 2012.

In preparation, all core course content has been migrated from WebCT to cuLearn, however instructors have to request access.  Find out more about content migration and access to older course content.

Need help transitioning to cuLearn?  The EDC is there to help with a variety of training sessions and workshops.

Learn more about the transition to cuLearn.

Students: are you writing a deferred exam in June?   You will still have access to your course material on WebCT until May 17.  Learn more about accessing your WebCT course material.

While WebCT has served Carleton well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated.  After an extensive review and evaluation, cuLearn was selected as Carleton’s new Learning Management System and was introduced to the campus in Spring 2012.

In preparation, all core course content has been migrated from WebCT to cuLearn, however you need to request access.  Find out more about content migration and access to older course content.

The EDC is offering a number of training sessions and study halls this month to help you prepare for the final stages of the transition to cuLearn.  Find out more at carleton.ca/edc/events/.

How was CCS involved?

Three members of the Web Services team, Mary Kathryn Roberts, Troy Chaplin, and Mike Corkum participated in WordCamp.

Build your Business, Cause or Brand Using WordPress

Our Communications Advisor, Mary Kathryn sat on the Build Your Business, Cause, or Brand using WordPress panel (pictured below).

The panel’s topics of discussion were:

• Why they chose WordPress as their content management system (open source, constant evolution, easy to use for clients)
• How they develop content that promotes their key messages (workshops, consistent navigation, calls to action, news posts)
• How they use WordPress to attract an audience (Google Analytics, awards received, moving towards responsiveness, meeting AODA requirements)
• What role social media plays and how they integrate it into their WordPress site (huge at Carleton, several Facebook and Twitter pages per department)
• What lessons they have learned (be careful with plugin interaction, have developers handle requests, give back to WordPress community)

Custom Post Types

One of our Web Developers, Troy Chaplin, served as one of the speakers at WordCamp, with An Introduction to Custom Post Types (right). These custom post types serve as additional sections to Pages, Posts, etc in the WordPress navigation that have different functions than the default sections.

His topics of discussion were:

• The functionality of custom post types (can mimic posts, reflect a page’s attributes, items your custom post type can support)
• Examples of custom post types (ie from the Sprott School of Business, the Carleton University Newsroom, Athletics)
• Ideas for custom post types (movies & television shows for entertainment sites, hockey & basketball for sports sites, etc)
• The basics of the function (WordPress code for custom post types)
• Theme files (archive pages vs single pages)

Happiness Bar

Finally, our Senior Web Developer Mike Corkum served as a volunteer for the Happiness Bar, where WordPress experts offer advice and answer questions about WordPress. Here he is with Troy and Web Services Manager Dan Brown below!

The Ottawa WordPress Community

The organizers of WordCamp did a fantastic job putting together Ottawa’s first WordCamp conference, and the members of our team had a great time being involved and helping out members of the WordPress community! If you’d like to find out more about the event, visit the WordCamp Ottawa website, and if you’d like to get involved in the community, join the Ottawa WordPress meetup group!

• Things you wouldn’t want to see changed.
• Things you don’t like about the current Events Calendar.
• Features you’d like to see in the new Events Calendar.

Send us your suggestions via this feedback form on the Web Services website.

While WebCT has served Carleton well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated. After an extensive review and evaluation, cuLearn was selected as Carleton’s new Learning Management System and was introduced to the campus in Spring 2012.

Important Information About Content
All core course content has been migrated from WebCT to cuLearn, however, you need to request access to older content.

You will need to back up personal content that you have stored in WebCT, including student assignments, individual grade records, email history and stored files. Find out more about the steps you need to take.

Take a look at the top 5 things you need to know about WebCT’s retirement and our FAQ for more information.

cuLearn Training
Need help transitioning to cuLearn? The EDC is there to help with a variety of cuLearn training sessions and workshops.

Learn more about the transition to Carleton’s new Learning Management System.

For more information, please contact the EDC.

While WebCT has served Carleton well in the past, the product is at the end of its life cycle and will no longer be updated.  After an extensive review and evaluation, cuLearn was selected as Carleton’s new Learning Management System and was introduced to the campus in Spring 2012.

In preparation, all core course content has been migrated from WebCT to cuLearn, however instructors have to request access.  Find out more about content migration and access to older course content.

Need help transitioning to cuLearn?  The EDC is there to help with a variety of training sessions and workshops.

Learn more about the transition to cuLearn.

“Designated public sector organizations and large organizations shall make their internet websites and web content conform with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, initially at Level A and increasing to Level AA.”

All new website templates and new content must be complaint for the following dates:

• January 1, 2014 for Level A
• January 1, 2021 for Level AA

You are not required to change old material, however, if someone requests an accessible format of a section on your site, you must be able to provide it to them.

What is an accessible website?

In short, an accessible website is inclusive to all users, regardless of  web browsing experience or any physical disabilities they may have.

The WCAG explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. There are four guiding principles:

1. Perceivable - Information and user interface must be presented to users in ways they can perceive.
2. Operable - Users must be able to use the interface. It cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform.
3. Understandable - Users must be able to understand the information as well as how to use the interface.
4. Robust – Users must be able to access the content as technologies advance. In other words, as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible.

(Sourced from Introduction to Understanding WCAG 2.0)

From a template perspective

The CCMS website template is now fully compliant with both Level A and Level AA.  The key components of having an accessible website include:

• Presentation: does not rely on a single sensory characteristic (ie: no flash).
• Text: content is organized using <p> tags and a <title> tag that describes the topic/purpose.
• Colours: colours are easily distinguished as is contrast ratio.
• Zooming: quality is not lost when resized to 200%.
• Keystroke functionality: the users needs to be able to easily navigate the site using keyboard strokes
• Navigation menus and Functional components: repeating functions (ie: navigation, search) that are on multiple pages appear in the same order.

Web Services check using this code sniffer from squizlabs.

From a content perspective

Website content managers must ensure that any new website content is Level A compliant by January 2014 and all their website content must be Level AA compliant by January 2021.

The key components of having accessible website content include:

• Non text: All non-text content has a text alternative.
• Lists:  Lists, groups of links, or other listable items are listed using <ol>, <ul>, or <dl>.
• Paste from plain text:  Web content can be perceived easily when reading top to bottom in the source code.
• Images:  Text is used to convey information rather than images of text if it’s possible at all.
• Links: All links describe its purpose accurately by itself or within the context of the links.
• Headings: Headings are used properly in a hierchical fashion, and describe the topic accurate.
• Plain language: Paragraphs and sentences are short and written in plain, concise language.

This information is covered in our Writing for the Web workshops.

Not on the CCMS?  Need help making your website accessible?

At Carleton over 300 departmental and administrative websites  are on the CCMS template.  Acceessibility standards apply to websites both on and off the Carleton template.   All websites that fall under the carleton.ca domain need to meet these accessibility standards.  Web Services is here to help.

If you manage a website not on the CCMS, please fill out this form to get started.

Learn more about Accessibility at Carleton

Carleton University is committed to achieving barrier free accessibility for persons with disabilities studying, visiting and working at Carleton.

The goal of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) is to develop a fully accessible Ontario by the year 2025. In order to reach this goal, five standards are being developed in the areas of Customer Service, Employment, Information and Communication, Built Environment and Transportation.

Learn more at the Carleton Accessibility website.

This workshop covers basic writing for the web techniques.  At the end of this workshop, as a web maintainer at Carleton, you will be able to create web content that is:

• usable (passes the “5 second scan test”)
• searchable (improves your seach engine results)
• accessible (meets Level A AODA web requirements)

Sign up now through Learning and Development in Carleton Central.

To get there: login to Carleton Central and click on ‘Learning and Development’ within the Employees section.  Click Workshop Registration and view all programs.

Still not sure if you want to attend?  Read what others have had to say about the workshop.