Web Designers / Developers
Guidelines for Web Designers and Developers
State Center Community College has separate websites for the district and colleges, but Web Developers work together to ensure that content is aligned and accessible across the website. Web Developers create templates for the Content Management System and work on accessibility issues as they relate to WCAG 2.1.
The importance of your role
Developers play a vital role in making a website accessible.
The Developers at SCCCD share the goal of coding websites or web applications that, at minimum, meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 AA standards. Each website or web application should follow the POUR guiding principles of accessible technology:
- Perceivable—Users must be able to find every item using one of their senses.
- Operable—Users must be able to interact with the site and all its features.
- Understandable—Content and functionality should be easy to follow.
- Robust—Sites should work with various technologies and consider future technologies.
Action Plan
District Web Content Engineers meet regularly to discuss and ensure that shared content across the websites is accessible. New templates are designed with accessibility in mind and as the requirements change the Web Content Engineers keep up-to-date and ensure that standards are met.
Testing is an important part of the design/development process. Currently, the tool Dubbot is used to scan and flag potential accessibility issues. Any SCCCD-wide issues are handled by the Web Team, comprised of the Web Content Engineers for each college, and college-wide issues are handled by the college-specific Web Content Engineer. The scans from Dubbot are checked monthly and issues and errors are prioritized according to the level of severity. Other scanning tools such as the WAVE accessibility plugin and the Axe browser tool are also utilized on a regular basis.
Should users encounter errors with the website, each website has an accessibility page that outlines our commitment to web accessibility and offers the ability to provide feedback and contact us in the event of an accessibility issue. A link to the accessibility complaint process is also available as a link from this page. The Web Content Engineers have a district-wide accessibility plan which involves planning for training and ensuring accessible websites across the district.
Resources, Training, and Professional Development
- Deque provides a free chrome extension tool for checking issues and making suggestions for improvements. They also provide Accessibility News and Resources as well as a series of articles and publications on compliance.
- Smashing Magazine has a series of useful articles on accessibility.
- W3C Provides Resources for Developers
- WebAIM is also an excellent resource for articles and training.