I’ve recently updated the two tutorial sites on Bricolage and web-writing.

During this summer, you may want to go through them again to refresh your knowledge about:
1. How to use our Content Management System
2. How to get your point across on your pages

The problem is that these screen readers can’t interpret images – they can only read text.  This is where Alternative Text (alt text) comes in! When you use alt text to describe an image on your site, the screen reader will read this description.  It will then be able to give the user some idea about what the image is about.

Please add alt text when uploading your images into Bricolage.  Here’s an example:

An image I uploaded to Bricolage:

I have added this alt text: “woman walking toward tree on a fall day” to the image within Bricolage. I did that in the Alt Text box in the Content Section of the media element (right under Caption):

Here are some simple tips for writing alt text:

1.  Keep it short – no longer than a tweet.
2.  Describe what’s going on in the image.
3.  If images are merely decorative – don’t add alt text to them.  That is to say, if images don’t add any meaning to the content of the page – don’t add alt text.  For example, let’s say that you added a border image to separate paragraphs on your site (I really don’t want you to ever do this!):

But if you did, you don’t need to add alt text to it!

4.  Always add alt text to images that have words in them.  An image of a logo, for instance, will have words in it that a screen reader will not be able to interpret.  This logo adds meaning to the content of the page, and it should have alt text.  For example, the Adams State logo at the top left of our site has this alt text: Adams State University Alamosa Colorado.

There’s a lot of information out there on alt text best practices.  If you want to read more, here are some places to start:

http://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Alternative_text_for_images
http://web.mit.edu/atic/www/accessibility/guidelines.html
http://www.umich.edu/webaccess/best/quickguide.html#alt

Please contact Mike or me if you have have questions!

Jen

Droid devices will only recognize phone numbers if they are in this format: ###-###-####

This means no dots or parentheses should be used in the formatting of a phone number.

Please make sure the phone numbers on your site use dashes – they need to be in the same format as the phone numbers on our site’s footer: 800-824-6494 and 719-587-7011

Without this tooltip, it becomes even more important to give links names that describe exactly what users can expect to see when they click on them. Please never use something generic like “click here” or “here” for your link name (or your tooltip, for that matter).

click here for more info. TeeHee – just seeing if you guys are awake…

• the “Insert Web Link” (click on the link icon) in a content block:
• the URL of “External Link” (Link List Element)

For example, if I wanted to link to Mike Henderson’s email address, I would use this format:  mailto:mhenderson@adams.edu

Watch a Video to find out more…

Do Not:

create a new media element if you only want to replace a pdf that you have already uploaded into Bricolage.

Do This Instead:

1. Rename the new replacement pdf file exactly as you named the old pdf (it helps to always name your pdf files as generically as possible.  This means not using dates within the file name.  For example, name your grant application pdf: “grant-application.pdf”  Do not name the file: “grant-application-2012.pdf”  If you name the file using a specific date, you’ll have to change that file name every year.
2. Find the media element that has the old pdf, and then upload the new pdf into that same media element.
3. Publish the media element.

The Communications Office has released the first iteration of the Adams State mobile website. m.adams.edu is a great way to get information from our website fast on any mobile device. Point your phone’s web browser to m.adams.edu to get started.

Directory

The directory provides quick access to the Faculty and Staff search. Email, phone and room numbers are displayed when you search for each person. Clicking on the email link will open your email client. The phone link will open up your device’s dialer. A nice time saver.

News

The news section provides quick access to news feeds available on the site. Adams State News is displayed by default. Use the drop-down to display Athletics News and Campus Announcements found on the One Stop and Faculty Resources Pages. In the article view you can quickly share the article with your friends using Email, Facebook or Twitter

Events

Stay current with happenings and events on campus. All the Google Calendars used across campus are easily accessed here.

Map

Need to find a building or point someone to the correct location? The map section displays our Campus Google Map. Clicking the list view will bring up a listing of all buildings on campus. In the building view, clicking on the listing will bring up more information about that building and what you can expect to find there.

Video

Have a few minutes to spare? The video section has a listing of our most recent Adams State YouTube videos including Faculty Lectures and Lunchtime Talks.

Emergency

The emergency area has the current status of the e2campus alert system along with quick links to emergency phone numbers and the Adams State Police Department. When a current emergency is active, it will also show at the top of the site’s home screen.

Links

Here you can find a list of links that may be useful on your mobile device. Things like Weather, Ski Reports and social sites.

We recommend adding Adams State Mobile to your phone’s home screen or bookmarking the site for quick access.

As always, if you have any questions contact the Adams State Communications Office or leave a comment.

Let’s meet upstairs in the Art Dept – Room 222.  For your convenience, I’ve set up two times to go over the below material:  

• 11am Thursday, December 15th
  
• 9am Friday, December 16th
  

In both sessions, I’ll be going over two important changes – how to use the new content block element, and how to edit the new right navigation:

Content Block Element
1.  Our new “Content Block” replaces lists, paragraphs, sub-headers and headers.  It looks  like this in Bricolage:

New Right Navigation
2.  The new right navigation has an exciting new look.  You’ll learn how to edit it using elements like “Featured Links” and “Content Block:”

I’m looking forward to seeing everyone!  Contact me if you have any questions!