2018 Accessibility Year in Review
It’s been a busy year for accessibility and we would like to celebrate the successes of the past year by giving you a glimpse into the upcoming year.
Recognizing Siteimprove Instructor-Led Training Session Attendees
The Web Services team created our own instructor-led 3-part training series for the 2nd half of 2018 to meet the needs of the UCSF community. More than 50 of you were able to attend. We would like to recognize those web content editors and web designers who participated to get on the path to accessibility compliance for the following sites:
- https://654minnesota.ucsf.edu/
- https://anesthesia.ucsf.edu/
- https://bios.ucsf.edu/
- https://bts.ucsf.edu/
- https://campuslifeservices.ucsf.edu/cls/
- https://ctsi.ucsf.edu/
- https://edtech.ucsf.edu/
- https://emergencycare.ucsf.edu/
- https://globalhealthsciences.ucsf.edu/
- https://healthpsychology.ucsf.edu/
- https://innovation.ucsf.edu/
- https://www.library.ucsf.edu/
- https://meded.ucsf.edu/
- https://memory.ucsf.edu/
- https://neurology.ucsf.edu/
- https://ombuds.ucsf.edu/
- https://oralhealthsupport.ucsf.edu/
- https://orthosurgeryhelp.ucsf.edu/
- https://osr.ucsf.edu/
- https://pediatrics.ucsf.edu/
- https://pharmacy.ucsf.edu/
- https://police.ucsf.edu/
- https://precisionmedicine.ucsf.edu/
- https://prevention.ucsf.edu/
- https://rdo.ucsf.edu/
- https://vascular.surgery.ucsf.edu/
- https://volunteering.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/
If you couldn’t attend or prefer to learn at your own pace, Siteimprove provides an extensive online course academy to help ensure that your site is inclusive. You have free access to the course library after your initial sign-in.
Changes for Siteimprove Instructor-Led Training for January and beyond
Based on your feedback, the 3-part monthly training series offered in the second half of 2018 is being overhauled to 2 monthly non-consecutive sessions starting in January 2019:
Kick-off Meeting
This kick-off meeting is an informational session about Siteimprove, the new accessibility monitoring tool adopted UC-systemwide in 2018. Learn more about what Siteimprove can do for you and your websites, how to get an account, and user expectations.
The first kick-off meeting for the year is Thursday, January 10, 2019, 9:00 - 10:00 am. Future meetings will appear on our Events page.
Audience: UCSF website content editors and web designers, website owners and those who manage these roles.
Accessibility Office Hours
Accessibility Office Hours is a safe space to ask your accessibility questions each month. We want to create and support a culture that sustains the continuous monitoring practice of UCSF websites for accessibility, using Siteimprove. We discuss best practices for using Siteimprove and how to resolve the issues it flags with some hands-on work. Get to know others who are committed to creating inclusively-designed and compliant websites where everyone, especially those who use assistive technologies, can access online information.
The first accessibility office hours meeting for the year is Thursday, January 17, 2019, 11:00 am-noon. Future meetings will appear on our Events page.
Audience: UCSF Siteimprove users who create and maintain UCSF websites, whether it's a UCSF Drupal Site Builder site or a custom site.
Celebrating Accessible Emails by UCSF Facilities Services
Thanks again to UCSF Facilities Services for making their emails more accessible. Originally the emails provided information in one large image that appeared in the message body. This method may exclude people with visual disabilities from accessing the content.
For example, think of an email notification about upcoming fire alarm testing that you can ignore. Now think about the screen reader user who can’t get that information from an image-only email. When the fire alarm goes off, they most likely will instinctively evacuate the building not knowing it is only a test unless otherwise informed.
Visually, the emails look almost the same in the before and after screenshots below. There is the obvious addition of the PDF attachment in the second screenshot, but it's the cursor behavior that makes the distinction. In the first screen with the message body as an image, the cursor appears as a hand when it hovers. In the second screenshot with the message body as text, the cursor appears as an I-beam.


Now the UCSF Facilities Services emails are accessible by 1) containing text instead of an image of text in the message body, and 2) attaching a PDF version of the same content, catering to both those that use assistive technology and those that want to print out a beautifully formatted version. Great job!