PPM Section 310-70

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UC Davis Web Standards

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Policy and Procedure Manual

Chapter 310, Communications and Technology
Section 70, World Wide Web Standards
Approved: 8/30/06
Supersedes: New

Responsible Department: University Communications
Source Document: University of California Electronic Communications Policy

Exhibit A, Web Page Privacy Policy

I. Purpose

This section defines UC Davis policy for the use of electronic communication (EC) resources for World Wide Web communications and applications. This section supplements Sections 310-23 and 310-24, Electronic Communications Policy, and applies to all Web pages and Web-based services that use University-owned or -operated electronic communication resources. UCDHS Web sites are also subject to the policies defined in UCDHS Hospital Policies and Procedures Sections 1310, 1312, and 1318.

II. Definitions

Sections 310-23 and 310-24 define terms that are used in this policy. Additional terms are defined here.

A. Official Web pages--Web pages that are at the top level of the UC Davis Web site (www.ucdavis.edu) and are maintained and supported by the Vice Chancellor--University Relations, Office of University Communications. Official Web pages provide an overview of UC Davis campus programs, services, and activities and serve as a “table of contents” for the campus Web presence.

B. Department Web pages--Web pages maintained under the direction of a department head of an academic or administrative unit.

C. Affiliated Web pages--Web pages that are maintained under the direction of an officially recognized campus organization (see Section 270-05) and that present the views and positions of that organization.

D. Personal information--Information about a natural person that identifies or describes an individual, including, but not limited to, his or her name, social security number, physical description, home address, home telephone number, education, financial matters, and medical or employment history, readily identifiable to that specific individual. A domain name or IP address is not considered personal information; however it is considered "electronically collected personal information."

E. Electronically collected personal information--Defined by California Government Code Section 11015.5 as "any information that is maintained by an agency that identifies or describes an individual user, including, but not limited to, his or her name, social security number, physical description, home address, home telephone number, education, financial matters, medical or employment history, password, electronic mail address, and information that reveals any network location or identity, but excludes any information manually submitted to a state agency by a user, whether electronically or in written form, and information on or relating to individuals who are users, serving in a business capacity, including, but not limited to, business owners, officers, or principals of that business."

F. False identity--the name or electronic identification of another person.

G. Personal Web pages--Web pages maintained by individuals that present the personal views and materials of those individuals.

H. Pseudonym--an alternative name or electronic identification for oneself.

I. Universal Resource Locator (URL)--An Internet address (for example, http://www.ucdavis.edu/staff), usually consisting of the access protocol (http), the domain name (www.ucdavis.edu), and optionally the path to a file or resource residing on that server (staff).

III. Policy

A. All UC Davis official and departmental Web pages shall:

1. Be provided in support of and/or to promote the teaching, research and public service mission of the University and of the administrative functions that support this mission. See the Philosophy of Purpose.

2. Comply with Section 310-23, Exhibit A; and meet the standards in the campus's Principles of Community.

3. Have an Internet domain name registered by the campus Host Clerk (hostclerk@ucdavis.edu).

a. All UC Davis Internet domain names are subject to the approval of the Vice Chancellor--University Relations. The campus Host Clerk will process requests for names in the ucdavis.edu domain.

b. UC Davis Web sites shall have domain names in the ucdavis.edu or .com domains. Domain names in the .org domain can be used in limited situations when the content of the site is a collaborative effort and is not wholly owned by a faculty member or by The Regents.

c. The use of the .com domain for UCD Web pages shall be approved by the Vice Chancellor--University Relations and the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor.

d. All UCDHS Web pages using a domain other than .edu shall be submitted to UCDHS Department of Public Affairs for approval by the Vice Chancellor--Human Health Sciences prior to approval by the Vice Chancellor--University Relations and the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor (if applicable).

e. The "www" host name is used for the campus home page (www.ucdavis.edu) and associated top-level pages. All other campus Internet domain names in the ucdavis.edu domain shall not include the www host name, but shall use the format, "yoursite.ucdavis.edu."

f. Procedures for registering your approved Internet domain name are available at http://noc.ucdavis.edu/faq.shtml#FAQ4.

4. Adhere to campus Web publishing standards described in IV.A, below.

5. Be accessible to users with disabilities, either directly or through alternate accommodations by following standards described in IV.B, below.

6. Ensure the privacy of personal information and electronically-collected personal information provided by users. All owners of UCD Web pages that collect user information must comply with and post Exhibit A on their Web sites.

B. UC Davis Web pages designed to collect personal information from alumni or donors, or to solicit donations for the University shall be reviewed and approved by University Relations, Advancement Services.

C. UC Davis Web pages developed for personal purposes or for affiliated organizations shall be permitted only under the circumstances defined in IV.C, below.

D. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)

Certain Web sites must comply with COPPA if the online service is directed to children under 13 and collects personal information from children, or if it is a general audience Web site and the operator has actual knowledge that the site is collecting personal information from children. Web sites operated by any nonprofit entity that would otherwise be exempt from coverage under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) are exempt from this act, but are still encouraged by the FTC to comply. Information on COPPA is available at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/coppa.htm. Contact the Campus Counsel's office (530-754-6295) for more information.

IV. UC Davis Web Standards

A. Official and department Web pages

1. UC Davis identification

Official and department Web sites shall display the official UC Davis logo at the top of the local home page as a prominent identifier of the campus, and all other official and department Web pages shall display either the official UC Davis logo or the name University of California, Davis, or UC Davis, in text. Adherence to other campus content, graphic, editorial and Web-development standards is mandatory on official Web pages and strongly recommended for department Web pages. See http://pubguide.ucdavis.edu for content, graphic and editorial standards. Authors of department Web sites are encouraged to make use of trademarks, templates and other Web development aids provided at http://pubguide.ucdavis.edu.

2. Identity of Web page contact

Official and department Web pages shall include a reliable method (e.g., an internal mail/contact list, contact pseudonym, such as yourdepartment@ucdavis.edu, or listserv's email address) for contacting a person responsible for the site. If a site has more than one page, this information shall appear on at least one page, preferably the home page. Web page authors shall not use false identities but may use a pseudonym so long as the pseudonym does not constitute a false identity. See Section 310-23, Exhibit A, for information on false identity.

3. Assure timeliness and accuracy

Department heads are responsible for periodic reviews of the information on their pages and for revising content based upon relevancy, accuracy and accessibility. Each page should list the most recent date the information was modified.

4. Adherence to browser and technology standards

Web pages shall adhere to campus standards for maximum access by multiple Web browsers. Web page authors should be aware that users access information from a variety of hardware and software tools. Additional information on campus computer ownership standards and supported browsers is available at http://itexpress.ucdavis.edu/support.

5. Return links

The local home page of every official and department Web site shall include a link to return to the UCD home page. For extremely long home pages, this link should be at the top and bottom of the page. Files nested within any given official or department Web site should have a similar mechanism for returning to the local home page at the top and bottom if the document is lengthy.

6. Links from official to department Web pages

Departments may request links to their pages from official pages by contacting the Web Strategy Committee at www@ucdavis.edu. The committee may remove links to sites that do not conform to campus standards.

7. Appropriate content

Due to the public nature of the Web, confidential information shall not be published on Web pages. See Exhibit A and Section 310-23, Exhibit A.

8. Advertising/Acknowledgement

See Section 270-25 for information on allowable advertising/acknowledgements on UCD Web sites.

9. Copyright

a. All UC Davis Web sites must comply with federal copyright laws (see Section 250-01). Failure to comply may result in the Web site being blocked until the infringement is corrected.

b. All official and department Web pages shall include a copyright notice as follows (minimum acceptable wording):

c. See Section 250-01 for other acceptable wording variations for copyright notices, including optional copyright year or years.

B. Accessibility standards

1. At minimum, all UC Davis official and departmental Web sites must comply with the Web accessibility standards defined in Section 508, sub-section 1194.22 of the Rehabilitation Act (see V, below). These standards are summarized below:

a. A text equivalent for every non-text element shall be provided (e.g., via "alt," "longdesc," or in element content).

b. Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation shall be synchronized with the presentation.

c. Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.

d. Documents shall be organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet.

e. Redundant text links shall be provided for each active region of a server-side image map.

f. Client-side image maps shall be provided instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape.

g. Row and column headers shall be identified for data tables.

h. Markup shall be used to associate data cells and header cells for data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers.

i. Frames shall be titled with text that facilitates frame identification and navigation.

j. Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

k. A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, shall be provided to make a Web site comply with the provisions of this part, when compliance cannot be accomplished in any other way. The content of the text-only page shall be updated whenever the primary page changes.

l. When pages utilize scripting languages to display content, or to create interface elements, the information provided by the script shall be identified with functional text that can be read by assistive technology.

m. When a Web page requires that an applet, plug-in or other application be present on the client system to interpret page content, the page must provide a link to a plug-in or applet that complies with §1194.21(a) through (l).

n. Electronic forms designed to be completed online shall allow people using assistive technology to access the information, field elements and functionality required for completion and submission of the form, including all directions and cues.

o. A method shall be provided that permits users to skip repetitive navigation links.

p. When a timed response is required, the user shall be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate more time is required.

2. Additional accessibility guidelines

a. Section 508 standards are based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) established by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C has established guidelines for additional levels of accessibility not addressed in Section 508 standards. While compliance with Section 508 standards is required, department Web pages should comply with as many W3C standards as possible.

b. Regardless of the standards employed in Web site accessibility, the department is responsible for providing information to a user who is unable to access information from a campus Web site due to disability.

3. For help with accessibility requirements, contact the Web Analyst in University Communications, webstandards@ucdavis.edu.

C. Affiliated and personal Web pages

1. Officially recognized campus organizations, as defined in Section 270-05, may use campus EC resources for affiliated Web pages. Department heads may permit the use of EC resources for affiliated Web pages for outside organizations to the extent defined in Section 310-23.

2. Department heads may permit students, staff, and faculty to use EC resources for the creation and maintenance of personal Web pages to the extent defined in Section 310-23.

3. Affiliated and personal Web pages shall feature the following statement on their home pages:

UC Davis makes no warranties, either expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability or suitability of the information contained on these Web pages or of the security or privacy of any information collected by these Web pages. All views expressed in this Web site are those of the author and not UC Davis.

4. Affiliate and personal Web pages shall display information disclosing the identity of the Web page author, including a contact name and e-mail address. If there is more than one page, this information shall appear on at least one page, preferably the home page. Web page authors shall not use false identities but may use a pseudonym so long as the pseudonym does not constitute a false identity. Users shall be directed to send any concerns or comments about these Web pages to the Web page author, and not to UC Davis.

5. Officially recognized campus organizations (see Section 270-05) may be authorized to use UC Davis trademarks on their Web pages. To request permission, contact the trademark licensing coordinator, Office of Student Affairs, (530) 752-2026 or logos@ucdavis.edu. Any affiliated Web page that displays UC Davis trademarks must include the disclaimer "UC Davis logo used by permission." Personal Web pages may not use UC Davis logos, seals or other campus trademarks.

V. Further Information

For additional information on campus Web standards or Section 508 Accessibility standards, contact the Web Analyst in University Communications, webstandards@ucdavis.edu.

VI. References and Related Policies

A. Office of the President:

1. University of California Electronic Communications Policy.

2. Delegation of Authority 864, Policy to Permit Use of the University's Name, 5/3/85.

B. Section 508 References:

1. Federal Access Board's Guide to Web-based Intranet and Internet Information.

2. Federal Section 508.

3. WebAIM Section 508 Web Accessibility Checklists.

4. University of Wisconsin Section 508 Web Development Guidelines.

C. Accessibility References and Resources:

1. UC Davis recommendations for Web site accessibility evaluation.

2. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.