MSC Web Guidelines and Procedures
(Updated October 14, 2003)
Authority
The MSC Web Guidelines and Procedures document is maintained by the MSC Web Team as described by the MSC Web Policy. These requirements are enforceable as provided by the MSC Web Policy (www.msc.tamu.edu/services/cops/policies/webpolicy.shtml). Some of these guidelines are necessary to achieve compliance with Federal, State of Texas or Texas A&M University rules.
Publishing Requirements
The initial page in each server directory must be named "index.html". This will cause the page to be presented to a browser that requests the directory without specifying a file name.
Accessibility and Usability Requirements
The Memorial Student Center is committed to making its Web sites compliant with accessibility and usability criteria specified in the TAMU Standard Administrative Procedure XX.XX.XX.M1.XX (final version proposed 10/6/03).
The web site must be available to visitors who don't have fast Internet connections, the latest browsers, or large-screen monitors. Public web pages should be best viewed on the visitor's web browser without requiring upgrades to hardware, software or Internet connectivity in most cases.
- A home page and any splash page must each be less than 150 kilobytes in total size. This total includes all text and graphic files used to build and display the page. This size allows a visitor using a 56K modem to download and view the entire page in less than 30 seconds. Links to any supplemental web pages in excess of 300K total size should be accompanied by a warning that the page may take a long time to download or an indication of the total file size to be delivered by the link, e.g. "(PDF file size is 720K)".
- All public web pages must successfully display using the following web browser versions: Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 and later, Netscape version 4.5 and later. This provides compatibility with at least 99% of visitors to MSC web sites. Features such as stylesheets may be used if browsers that do not support these features can still meaningfully display the web page content.
- The design and coding should use correct Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) to maximize compatibility for various browsers. The HTML can be tested using the W3C MarkUp Validation Service (http://validator.w3.org/).
- Public web pages must be viewable on an 800-pixel wide screen without horizontal scrolling except for photo displays that provide images larger than 800-pixel width as long as a smaller version of the image is also available.
Non-text technologies used to communicate information must be accompanied by features that enable equivalent communication via textual display.
- All images must use an ALT tag with sufficient information describing the image, or a null value for images that do not communicate information (i.e. - a dot, bullet or blank filler), so that a person unable to view the image can adequately understand the content. If an image is presented without a surrounding web page (linked directly to the image rather embedded in a web page), the link to that image must contain appropriate descriptive information.
- Any web page using Flash or inaccessible technologies must present equivalent information in a textual format on the same page or on an alternate page directly linked from the primary page. Any page providing duplicate content in a more accessible format must be updated at the same time as the primary page.
- Web pages that directly link to PDF documents should either provide alternate links to enable viewing of each PDF file as a textual HTML page, or provide a link to the MSC accessibility policy which provides a link to an online conversion tool.
- The effectiveness of these guidelines can be tested online using the MSC's converter to view web pages in text-only format (http://www.msc.tamu.edu/cgi-bin/lynx.cgi).
All web pages must provide accessible means to navigate between pages.
- All MSC web pages should avoid the use of frames because they provide poor navigation for users and because sites with frames limit public access to information. Committee or council area web sites may not capture, within their own frames, pages outside of their web site.
- All links to other pages must be clearly identifiable both visually and to text-only browsers. When this is not feasible (such as for image maps), all possible links should be provided in text format elsewhere on the web page.
Area Webmaster Access Procedures
Privileged access to maintain an MSC web site requires completion of a request form with signature approval of the advisor or supervisor of the organizational area represented by the web site. The request form authorizes the creation of an access account to be used only by the individual named on the request. Multiple individuals may be granted access as webmasters for a web site if separate request forms are completed for each person resulting in the creation of multiple personal accounts.
This document is to be available online at www.msc.tamu.edu/services/cops/policies/webguidelines.shtml.
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