Statement of Purpose
San Joaquin Delta College’s Intranet, which is represented by the Delta College
Website, supports the teaching, research, campus services, divisions, and outreach
missions of the college. The Delta College Website is seen as an open, accessible and
interactive medium for the delivery of instruction, information, and applications for
the use of the college community.
The Delta College Website presents an image of the college to the world and stands as
an official publication of the San Joaquin Delta Community College District. Web
pages that are supported by the District’s resources must therefore undergo the
same scrutiny, meet the same standards, and present timely and accurate information,
as is the case of any other form of official District publication. Delta College
employees that post Web pages hosted by District resources have the responsibility to
utilize college design guidelines and to use these resources in an efficient,
ethical, and legal manner.
These guidelines were developed by the Intranet Design Team as directed by the
President and with approval of the President’s Council and Campus Information
Services Committee. The District reserves the right, at its own discretion, to
change, limit, or expand these guidelines in the future.
District Guidelines for Intranet Use and Web Design
The District’s computing network and resources provide the tools and a conduit
for distribution of support services and information related to the mission and goals
of the District. The District does not participate in formation of the content of any
communications other than those made by authorized people and employees of the
institution. Accordingly, such content must be consistent with the District’s
instruction, research, service, outreach and administrative objectives.
The District’s computing resource users must be aware of and abide by the
design standards and guidelines that appear below. The District will not actively
police individual Web pages but will deal with problem situations as they become
apparent. Depending upon the severity of the situation, the District will adhere to
appropriate procedures to address noncompliance, which may include any of the
following: 1) communication with user, with a time frame established in which
noncompliance may be corrected; 2) removal of pages, content or links to specific
material if noncompliance continues after communication with user; 3) closing
accounts or access.
The college does not support or host student Websites or pages.
Accessibility Guidelines and Standards
The advantages to employing accessible Web design go beyond the need to make
information available to people with disabilities and comply with Sections 504 and
508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Accessible Web pages insure that information can reach
the broadest audience possible by providing accommodation for physical limitations,
language, age, limited technology, and other factors that may affect access to Web
based information. Utilization of accessible design standards facilitates effective
Web design and compatibility across more browsers.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Federal government have established
standards for accessible design. The Federal standards in Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act require all Federal agencies to make electronic and information
technologies accessible. While not specifically identified in Section 508, it is
expected that educational institutions will need to comply with the standards in
order to insure that all students have access to online courses and services.
The Delta College Website will meet the standards established by the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) Web Access Initiative (WAI) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act.
Responsibility Agreement for Delta Website Users
The District’s computer, data storage, and network services shall be used in a
manner consistent with District Board of Trustee’s Policies and Procedures. All
activities inconsistent with these objectives are considered to be inappropriate and
may jeopardize continued use of computing resources and networks.
To be authorized to use the District’s computing and network resources to mount
and maintain a Website or page, users must understand and agree to the
following:
District resources shall not be used for any illegal activity or any activity
prohibited by District policies, procedures, or regulations.
District resources shall not be used to advertise or sell any products or services
that are not part of official District approved activities and business.
All users--including students, faculty, and staff will abide by all copyright or
other intellectual property laws and regulations. Any user who violates this
commitment agrees to be responsible for all liability and other claims resulting from
such violation and shall indemnify and hold harmless the District from any costs,
expenses or liability that might be asserted or imposed upon it or any of its
officers, agents, or affiliates as a result of this violation.
Users shall avoid any action that interferes with the efficient operation of the
network system or impedes the flow of information necessary for academic or
administrative operations of the District.
Web Ownership
District faculty and staff may create and/or maintain personal pages on District
equipment at the discretion of the District.
A manager will designate an individual in his or her area to be responsible for the
creation and maintenance of division, department, or office Web pages. This
individual will be a “Web Author.” In the case of an individual
(personal) Web page, the individual will bear all responsibility for the page.
A Web Author will be responsible for maintaining division, department, office, or
personal web pages that are submitted to the Delta Website. The Web Author will be
responsible for meeting the Delta College design standards.
The Web Author will be required to have training on Delta Website design standards
and options. Web Authors will be responsible for all of the content and updates on
the assigned Website.
Web Authors will be responsible for written permissions necessary for use of
copyrighted materials and photographs of minor children. Copyright permission applies
to the use of text, logos, photographs, drawings, video clips, sound clips or other
copyrighted visual images. Photographs of minor children will not be used without
written permission from a parent or guardian. Photographs of adult staff and students
may be used on the Web under the guidelines that they are there as part of the public
informational or educational activities and events at Delta College and are not
portrayed in a false or offensive manner. It is recommended that for individual
portraits, that permission of the subject be obtained in writing.
Web Design Standards for San Joaquin Delta Community College District
Basic Design Standards
Guidelines for San Joaquin Delta Community College District Official Web pages
that represent the college, a division, department, program, or individual of the
District are expected to follow the same professional and graphic standards that
apply to official publications in any other medium. Templates, web design resources
and guidelines are available on the District’s Website to assist users in
implementing pages and sites that meet District standards.
There is one official home page for the District that is maintained by the
Webmaster.
Divisions and departments will use the standard templates in order to maintain
consistency in design and navigation. Divisions and Departments will include a
minimum of the following information on their home page:
Title of the division or department (On a department home page, the title of the
parent division must be included under the department title)
Descriptive information about the division/department. (Purpose, mission, goals,
services, certificates offered, etc.)
Contact information
Office hours, location, phone, e-mail.
Staff and faculty individual pages that are linked to their division/department pages
and/or convey official college information will meet Delta College design and
accessibility standards. Standard templates are available for these pages. The
templates were designed to provide standard contact information consistent with a
college publication.
Faculty who have course materials on a personal web site will need to design these
pages so that they meet accessibility standards.
Staff who choose to use non-standard design elements for a personal page will have
their pages listed only on the Personal Pages site. Non-standard personal pages will
not be linked to a department or division as they do not represent an official
college publication. The college has the option of not hosting personal pages.
A variety of color options are provided as templates. The divisions and departments
are encouraged to work out a consistent color theme, utilizing these templates, for
their sites.
Proper grammar and spelling will be used throughout the site.
References and links to external sites that market commercial products and services
should be in the context of an instructional related example or resource and not for
profit.
Users are responsible for the security of their site accounts and services as
described in Board Policy 8900.
Text fonts for Web pages will be established in the templates. The users may adjust
font sizes as needed, but the styles must remain compatible with the template design.
To maintain ease of use and navigational consistency in the site, the basic structure
of the template should be maintained. The basic elements for consistency are the
header, background, and navigation box on left.
Text will not be animated.
Long lists, especially of links, will be alphabetized. Short lists, i.e. fewer than
10 items, can be ordered in terms of importance to the user and ease of access for
users.
Text should be presented in cohesive topics or information “chunks”.
Think “magazine article” or newspaper style not “book.” If
text is multi-paged, a PDF file may be more appropriate. There are accessibility
issues with PDF files that would need to be resolved prior to publication of the
file.
Graphic Images
Photographic type images will use jpeg. Line art may use gif. Images must be
optimized to insure fast downloads. Web safe colors will be used.
Animations
Generally animations incorporated in informational Websites provide little, if any,
value for the user. They are generally not compliant with accessibility standards.
Division and department home pages should avoid use of animations unless they clearly
provide value to the content, readability, and usability of the site. Animations
requiring the user to download plug-ins are not acceptable.
Accessibility
The Web site must pass the “Webxact-Bobby Test” at CAST: http://webxact.watchfire.com/. In addition the designer will want to be familiar with
accessibility issues related to Web design. Accessibility resources and links are
provided at the World Wide Web Consortium link to the Web Accessibility Initiative at
http://www.w3.org/WAI/.
Web Authors’ Acknowledgement:
Designation of “Delta Web Author” will be accomplished by an e-mail to
the Web Services Coordinator(webservices@deltacollege.edu) with a message identifying the Delta Web
Author, the department, area, or personal pages for which the person is responsible.
In the case of division or department sites, a supervising manager will make this
notification. Assuming the role of an official Delta Web Author means that the
individual has:
- Agreed to abide by Delta College’s Web guidelines and design standards as
posted.
- Acquired or will acquire appropriate training for Web design and maintenance.
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