HHS Web Council Meeting Notes - June 19, 2008

Introduction of Council

Introductions and welcoming remarks

Adobe Issues and Guidance

If you bought 8, you can stay on 8; you do not need to upgrade to 9.
Adobe Acrobat Professional is the standard for creating and verifying 508-compliant documents. Through June 25, v8 available and you get a voucher for v9 through NIH. After June 25, prices will go up for v9.
Working on trying to get vouchers for v9 if v8 purchased since April 1.
AAP is essential, but not required on every desktop. Needed by those who regularly create PDF for Web or email. Consider consolidating PDF function.
We’re trying to find a pragmatic balance. Some CIOs are saying not buying it ever. Whoever creates PDFs needs access to AAP; they don’t have to have it on all machines, maybe on one, but they need the access to the application. Don’t need to rush to buy to put on every desktop. People who don’t routinely or regularly make PDFs don’t need to have on their desktops, but access to those who do or to
We are working on training, and have provided one module already, with plans to do so again in mid-July.
Q: When we must provide PPT, we are going to the extra effort of posting HTML. It’s ok to post PPT if HTML is present.

508 C&R Inventory Issues

Two months of reporting, we have good results. NIH deleted over 260,000 pages. When you delete lots of pages, it has an effect on the broken links. It’s to be expected. As we add domains to be scanned, we’ll likely find more domains. That means our baseline will change. We’re keeping the baseline by group. We already have a downward trend.
Watchfire is not able to load all the domains in one fell swoop. They’ve told us it will take until the end of August, so each month we will get scans of all the previous months’ sites, plus more domains that were in queue. To get a new base, we’re going to get the first scan of the old group. You’re not going to get penalized if you reduce Group A, but get more pages in Group C. We’ll let you know what the domains are in each group.
We’re working with Watchfire to identify some piece of code to prevent false positives.
Issue management
- Working on issue management in Watchfire; this does not pertain to security (AppScan).
- Many, many lists; working on having people get access to managing their issues (false positives). Let Kristen know who needs this access. Help us spot check the activity.
- Used properly, it’s very valuable. Used improperly, could be a liability. We’re not the only ones checking accessibility. There’s raised awareness in the disability community, so it’s best to assume that outside monitoring is and will be taking place.
- If there’s enough interest, we may put together a conference call; give us feedback on the reporting and how we can make them most useful to you.
- We don’t want to make the burden onerous, but we want to capture the issue management changes. The database backend can track who did what and when, but no way to get the comments/annotations. Spot check, in the mean time? Let’s continue this discussion via email.
File remediation database
- Watchfire doesn’t allow us to track remediation of non-HTML pages (PDF, PPT, etc.). We’ve created a basic database: URL, file type, status, OPDIV. Let Kristen know your comments; it’ll be on the intranet. We’ll include a link on HHS.gov/web/.

Tools Workgroup – Web Crawlers

Looking for members from NIH, IHS, ATSDR (email Jon Booth).
Completed a tools survey; focusing on crawler technology and requirements
We know what Watchfire can do and want to compare with other companies’ products; we need to make a department-wide decision on which one to use.
We have found that the two companies’ applications meet the basic requirements; have demo version for testing; looking at false positives, ease of use, speed, other functionality (e.g., scan PDFs)
Q: Are we looking at 508 tools or other functionalities? Both. Nothing meets all the requirements. There will be some compromises.
Q: Replacement for Watchfire or an adjunct? We’re not limiting ourselves, so it’s all options. We know developers need to evaluate sites. It’s a critical need that’s not being satisfied currently. The driver on this is the ability to handle the size and breadth of our sites (number of pages, number of domains). That’s a key driving factor as we look at the various applications.

508 Support

Code library
- Watchfire is picky about some code.
- www.hhs.gov/web/ - Code Library
- We encourage you to send us code and suggestions
Watchfire ad hoc
- Worked with them to create a scanning tool, which is now up and running
- We’re creating a user manual and will be rolling out access
- Training needed? Let Kristen Kayatta know.
- Limitation in performance and number of pages scanned (1K), and it’s only for externally facing pages
- Q: How long does it take to run? Say, 100 pages, it just depends. Expect some time to run; it’ll let you know its progress.
508 portal communities - A portal community has been created for the 508 group; we’ll soon send out an email and training for those who want it.

Implementation Headaches and Plan Status

Compliance plan is due to WCD on June 30; there may be OpDiv internal deadlines that differ, however.
Q: What are your expectations to see in the plans? What data points are you looking for? Approach this as a management tool. Focus on the first two years. Use our inventories for your base; we understand the whole site hasn’t been scanned yet. Talk about the process you’re putting into place, resources, resource needs, and obstacles. It’s a living document, a management tool.
We will review the plans and get back to you in mid-July. The plans may be posted on the portal for you to have as a resource.

Accommodations Workgroup

Let’s not use the word “exemptions” because that’s a legal term; let’s discuss “accommodations” instead. Undue burden is not on the table.
Accommodations include on-demand access to information, with alternatives from large type to human readers to Braille, which may be handled under contract. We need to develop standards for what merits an accommodation via a workgroup.
Q: Are text (txt) files in compliance? Yes, but it’s not optimal; txt files are unstructured, making it difficult to navigate the hierarchy using a screen reader.
Q: What about forms in text or PDF? We’re working on guidance for forms. Forms should rank highly in your compliance and remediation plans. Training should also be high in your plan.
Large OpDivs need to name a person who’s serious about being involved to the accommodations workgroup. Others are invited as well. It should be made up of people who have major issues in making documents accessible. Let Prudence (Dionne Wood?) know by Friday, June 27, who those individuals are.

Podcast Subcommittee Update

HHS Web Council has had a podcast subcommittee for the past year. HHS podcasts are reaching the public through a variety of channels in the OpDivs.
We are working on the standard for audio files and captioning.
We will start sending information more widely about the training hosted by the podcast subcommittee.

Archiving

Standard 1: Keep content relevant (review content so that it’s relevant to users and mission per the table) – Approved
Standard 2: Archive outdated content (content that cannot be current must be clearly marked as archive and provided with a notice for reference, not accessible, and no longer maintained) – Approved
Guidance will be provided for the archive header and footer. If content (page) is not clearly marked as archive, it could cause a liability.
Archiving is not required if there are no files that fit the category. OS example is provided as a model.
If users have bookmarked pages, they’ll get a redirect to the archived page.
NIH declares a document permanent or non-permanent, with the option to see previous versions.

Closing and Next Meeting

IHS featured for reduction in 508 errors and number of pages.
Next meeting will be on July 17, 2008, in the Humphrey Building, Room 800, from 9:00 AM until noon.