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WEB STYLESHEET

The purposes of the web site and listservs include:

  • to provide current information about UUCE's mission, organization, philosophy, resources, events, activities, and opportunities to members, potential members, visitors and friends
  • to facilitate internal communication of goings-on and contacts to members and friends
  • to provide external communication to others who are subscribed (those planning on moving to the area, those using our list as a model for their own church's list, visitors) so potential members can observe what we stand for and what our collective personality is
  • to provide certain historical documents often needed for review (growth planning background documents, archives/history, committee reports, Board and some committee Minutes back several years, bylaws, previous budgets...)
  • social opportunities and community-building

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Principle 1 Perceivable
Guideline 1.1 Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
Guideline 1.2 Provide alternatives for time-based media.
Guideline 1.3 Create content that can be presented in different ways (for example simpler layout) without losing information or structure.
Guideline 1.4 Make it easier for users to see and hear content including separating foreground from background.

Principle 2 Operable
Guideline 2.1 Make all functionality available from a keyboard.
guideline 2.2 Provide users enough time to read and use content.
Guideline 2.3 Do not design content in a way that is known to cause seizures.
Guideline 2.4 Provide ways to help users navigate, find content, and determine where they are.

Principle 3 Understandable
Guideline 3.1 Make text content readable and understandable.
Guideline 3.2 Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways.
Guideline 3.3 Help users avoid and correct mistakes.

Principle 4 Robust
Guideline 4.1 Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies.

Section 508 Web Accessibility Standards

This is a set of Federal regulations established by the Federal Access Board and published on December 2000.

(a) A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via “alt”, “longdesc”, or in element content).

(b) Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.

(c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.

(d) Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.

(e) Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.

(f) Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.

(g) Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.

(h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.

(i) Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.

(j) Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

(k) A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.

(l) When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.

(m) When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l).

(n) When electronic forms are designed to be completed on-line, the form shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements, and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.

(o) A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.

(p) When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.

Not Acceptable on the UUCE website (currently)

- Commercial advertisements or endorsements
- Endorsements of a political candidate or party
- Private street addresses, or email/phone contact info without express permission
- Outside advertising that does not relate to the activities, focus, purposes of the church
- Copyrighted content without permission from the owner
- Content that is abusive, insulting, threatening, obscene, hateful, racially, or ethnically objectionable or that contains inappropriate personal or embarrassing information
- We do not identify children on the website
- We have no online directory of members or of members' businesses

- use meaningful URLs
- keep the tables of contents up to date
- avoid excessive dating of pages in the sense of "last updated on <date>" which can cause some pages to look carelessly out of date when they are not
- encourage committees and groups to send in current information on a regular basis to update their content
- shut down pages (or de-link them) when desperately out of date (as defined by the webmaster)

 

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Things to work on... thanks to the webstewrs UUA listserv

Pet peeves

Pictures uploaded to the site as 3,000x2,000 but displayed as 300x200. You notice the lag time even with a fast connection. With dial-up, it is torture. You wait while your machine downloads 3 MB, then wait again while your browser struggles to reduce those 3 MB by 99%. It is MUCH better to shrink and/or crop your picture to the presentation size with a photo editor, which is better at shrinking than a web browser is anyway, then upload the picture in the size you say it is in your height and width tags.

Remember that the GNU Image Manipulation Program is free, cross-platform, and extremely powerful: http://gimp.org/.

A corollary - if you present the picture as 400x200 or 300x300, the people look like they do in a fun-house mirror. Make sure the height and width tags match the picture's dimensions. (Most of the ones I've seen that are distorted are not that bad; usually it is a 2:3 ratio presented as 3:4.)

Links to massive files - either pages of pictures or a PDF - with no warning. How hard is it to add "(PDF - 500 KB)" right after a link?

Dates with no year and no day of the week. If it says the Christmas party is going to be Saturday, December 21, I have to look at a calendar to see the news item is out of date, but at least I can see it is out of date. If it says "12/21", I can't be sure. If it says "Monday, December 22, 2008", then I know the site is up to date, and that I can't go, because I always spend Monday evenings with my aged father-in-law.

Fixed text sizes. I know what size text I like better than anyone else, even if he IS a professional web designer with 8 years of experience and no common sense. (Wells, Fargo Bank had a team of idiots design a web site for customers with 401k accounts several years ago. It used a fixed text size. A clerk fresh out of high school can tell you that, in general, as people get older their eyesight gets worse, their 401k balances go up, and they get more and more interested in their account. The bank's web designers didn't know that, or didn't care. So, Wells, Fargo was insulting their biggest 401k customers the worst. The older and richer we got, the worse our eyes got, the more the fixed text size offended us.)

"Under construction". Just block the link until the page (site) is ready for prime time.

Pie in the sky: "Our church is a vibrant, diverse community where you will find a warm, caring place to grow spiritually". Maybe, maybe not; the visitor should judge, after a few times. Most car dealers offer the largest selection at the lowest prices and the best service after the sale, too, and no one believes them.

Text links I have to mouse over to see if they are links or not, unless they are in a navigation bar. I don't want to "treasure hunt" your site. I want to see what it has to offer while my hand stays firmly on my coffee mug, until I decide to click on a link. This is particularly aggravating to anyone who is missing parts and has to move his mouse with a stick held between his teeth.

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The <http://www.firstunitariansociety.org/> First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis has created <http://www.firstunitariansociety.org/templateproject> Web Templates for congregations. The Unitarian Universalist Web Templates are the perfect means to create a quality web site in a small amount of time.