The Web Developers Users' Group met on June 21, 2002, at 3:30 PM in Parliamentary Room, PSU 313.

Web help desk

Sara brought up the idea for an Missouri State web developer help desk for group discussion. The group discussed the following:

• The amount of need for the web help desk
• The different types of support that it should offer
• How it should be managed
• Times that it should provide support

The group decided that a web developer help desk would be very beneficial to the Missouri State web developers. It also decided that the group should offer a variety of support options such as in-person, phone, email, and forum-based help to provide flexible support. Sara mentioned that one potential implementation for the new web help desk would be that they work under her so that she could provide any support that is out of the help desk workers expertise. It was mentioned that the web help desk would likely require two or more individuals with varied specialties to provide a well-rounded support base. These individuals would most likely be student workers.

Web accessibility update

Sara announced that the state government of Missouri plans to release Missouri's web access standards on July 1, 2002. She noted that she had reviewed the rough draft of the proposed standards, and that it was nearly identical to the federal Section 508 standards that Missouri State has already been following to make their pages accessible.

One key difference between the two legislative guidelines is that the Missouri standards incorporate timetables to make all multimedia files accessible. These timetables require a certain percentage of all of the affected organizations' multimedia files be accessible by certain deadlines rather than all at once.

Any web pages that are already compliant with the federally mandated Section 508 standards will already be compliant with the Missouri standards. Any standard changes or updates will be posted on the web access site at http://www.missouristate.edu/web/forms

Web Advisory Committee brainstorming session

Sara brought up the recent brainstorming sessions conducted by the Web Advisory Committee. These brainstorming sessions included both students and employees. The Web Advisory Committee is currently interpreting the results.

They also discussed the proposed Missouri State Web Style Guide. Sara is planning to email a copy of this guide to all WDUG members for review.

Bulk pricing

The group brought up the success of the recent group purchase of Adobe Photoshop 7. The group also discussed organizing software purchases in the future to get a large discount on Adobe or Macromedia products.

Photoshop and digital photography

The group discussed a few of the new features of Photoshop 7 and various usage tips. The discussion also focused on using Photoshop to enhance images taken by digital cameras and different advantages and types of newer digital cameras.

PDF accessibility

The group brought up accessibility questions regarding Adobe PDF files. Sara discussed the requirements to make Adobe PDF documents compliant with the web accessibility guidelines. Making a accessible PDF file requires making the document a "tagged PDF" file and assigning alt tags to all images within the document.

She noted that only Adobe Acrobat 5.0 and higher could create accessible documents, and that using the newest versions of MS Word or PageMaker would significantly simplify the process to making the document accessible. The newest versions of MS Word and PageMaker automatically provide a tagging structure in PDF documents if used correctly.

Also brought up was a program called Adobe Capture which has the ability to take a scanned image of a document and turn it into a text-based PDF file. This program is useful if the original file for the document is no longer available and can create a text-based PDF file directly from a hardcopy while retaining the original look.

Sara mentioned that currently the process to make an Adobe PDF document accessible can be an involved and complicated task. Currently the Web Access Compliance Team is recommending that the document not be a solid image block. She mentioned that the next version of Adobe Acrobat will likely streamline the process of making documents accessible and that it would likely make it significantly easier for the Missouri State web developers to make their PDF documents accessible.

Next meeting

The next WDUG meeting will be held in the Parliamentary Room, PSU 313, on July 19, 2002, at 3:30 PM.